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Ken Jenne's Hard Fall From Power

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 17, 2007

Former Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne's descent from political power to federal prison is one of those sad tales that happens when people in public office come to believe the rules don't apply to them.

Jenne was sentenced Friday to a year and a day in prison for mail fraud and tax evasion. He also has lost his law license and stands to lose his six-figure state pension. Yet he should count himself lucky that credible people, such as Department of Children and Families Secretary Bob Butterworth, would attend to ask the judge for leniency.

No one summed up the tragedy of Jenne's demise better than his wife, Caroline, who after a lifetime of being the perfect political wife - even swearing in her husband when he became Broward's sheriff - now faces the prospect of being broke and homeless at the age of 61.

At one time, Ken Jenne was one of the most powerful men in the state. He came within a whisper of becoming Senate president, but his heavy-handed style came back to bite him and his allies bailed. When he needed a political second-life, former Gov. Lawton Chiles asked him to fill the vacancy created when Broward's sheriff died of cancer.

Subsequently re-elected, Jenne commanded more than 6,000 armed employees - a scary prospect now that we see his penchant for corruption. Outrageously, his attorneys argued that Jenne had earned more than $900,000 a year as a private attorney and - even though he lived simply - couldn't make it on the $162,000 salary, plus car and benefits, taxpayers paid him. Caroline Jenne talked about how her husband spent every Sunday afternoon polishing the pair of 10-year-old shoes he wears every day.

Hogwash.

Jenne did what he did because he could, and he foolishly thought he wouldn't get caught.

Well-grounded people with a working moral compass do not use political office for personal gain. They don't ask subordinates to do their dirty work. And they don't take money under the table when the public has rewarded them with a healthy salary and a generous pension.

Mostly, they don't do things that leave good friends shamed and their wife of 32 years begging.

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