Posted on Tue, Sep. 04, 2007
Broward sheriff Jenne resigns, to take plea in corruption probe
By CURT ANDERSON
Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne resigned Tuesday after agreeing to plead guilty to federal tax evasion and mail fraud charges following an investigation that uncovered thousands of dollars in hidden payments and income never reported to the IRS.
Some of the money Jenne failed to list on his income tax forms allowed him to drive around in a sleek Mercedes-Benz convertible courtesy of his former law firm, according to court documents.
The plea deal, reached last Friday, came as Jenne faced possible grand jury indictment on more serious money-laundering and other charges after the two-year investigation. But the agreement also likely will land the longtime force in state Democratic politics in prison for up to two years under federal sentencing guidelines.
Under his agreement with prosecutors, Jenne will plead guilty to three counts of tax evasion and one count of mail fraud conspiracy, U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said at a news conference in Miami.
"Ken Jenne has been a staple of South Florida government for decades. For many years, he served Broward County well," Acosta said. "But he stayed too long, and in the end, he lost sight of what it means to serve the public."
The total involved in the wrongdoing amounted to more than $80,000, including payments made from sheriff's office vendors to Jenne's secretaries, who arranged for the money to go to his personal accounts. Acosta noted that Jenne, a lawyer and veteran politician, could have commanded a salary in the millions in the private sector.
"I think what is particularly sad here is that the amounts of money were not great," Acosta said. "It's sad when you see a man who has served the public to fall this way."
Jenne was expected to surrender Wednesday at an initial appearance in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, where he would probably be released on bail. Another hearing would likely be scheduled for Jenne to enter his guilty plea, to be followed in several weeks or months by sentencing.
Jenne, a former state senator, prosecutor and county commissioner, made his resignation official Tuesday morning in an e-mail to his employees and in a separate letter to Gov. Charlie Crist.
"Today, I'm retiring from public service," Jenne wrote in the e-mail. "I need to turn my attention to myself and my family." He ended it this way: "Stand tall. Stand proud. Stay safe."
Jenne's attorney, David Bogenschutz, did not return two telephone calls seeking comment.
Jenne, 60, has served as sheriff of Florida's second-most populous county since his appointment in 1998 by Gov. Lawton Chiles to replace the late Ron Cochran. Jenne was re-elected in 2000 and 2004 to run an agency that has some 6,300 employees and an annual budget of nearly $700 million.
Crist, a Republican, moved quickly to name as acting sheriff Maj. Alfred Lamberti, a 29-year veteran of the sheriff's office who currently runs the agency's Patrol Services Bureau. Lamberti has previously served as interim police chief in both Hollywood and North Lauderdale and has spent 21 years in the Coast Guard Reserve.
In Tallahassee, Crist described Lamberti's appointment as temporary, telling reporters he will look for a permanent replacement to fill out the rest of Jenne's current term through 2008.
"This is a huge job," Crist said. "I mean, the sheriff of Broward County is a big deal, and I want to do what's right by the people of Broward County."
The resignation and guilty plea means that Jenne also would likely lose his license to practice law and would be barred from seeking public office in the future. It could also impact his state pension.
After news reports of Jenne's outside business activities, in April 2005 then-Gov. Jeb Bush ordered an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The Miami U.S. attorney's office also launched a probe, calling numerous witnesses before a federal grand jury that has been meeting for months.
Among them was developer Philip Procacci, who owns a building that leases space to the sheriff's office and to a federal-state drug task force. Procacci loaned $20,000 to one of Jenne's secretaries, who in turn loaned it to Jenne to help the sheriff pay his income taxes in 2004, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
Procacci's attorney, Edward O'Donnell Jr., said his client thought the money was for the secretary and that there was no link between the sheriff's office lease and the loan.
"He didn't do anything wrong at all," O'Donnell said. "The records are all there. None of this was done in a surreptitious manner."
Procacci also paid a contractor more than $8,000 to demolish a house Jenne owned in Lake Worth that had been cited for code violations in June 2001 - money Jenne never reported on his income tax returns. Nor did he report another $10,000 payment for consulting work he did in 2002 for one of Procacci's companies.
The documents show that Jenne provided off-duty sheriff's deputies as consultants to Lewis Nadel, who runs a company called Innovative Security Technology. One deputy helped the firm train police in Barbados and another did a security survey for a chain of duty-free-stores.
Nadel paid Jenne's secretaries a total of $5,500 for the consulting work, which the secretaries then deposited into Jenne's personal bank account, according to court documents.
In addition, Jenne failed to report on his federal tax returns about $40,000 he received from his former law firm in Fort Lauderdale to pay for and insure the Mercedes-Benz convertible from 2001 to 2004.
Procacci, Nadel and Jenne's two secretaries - Alicia Valois and Marian Yoka - are not charged with any wrongdoing.
Prosecutors confirmed that the plea agreement was ready in mid-August but was delayed following the fatal shooting of veteran sheriff's Sgt. Chris Reyka, a crime that remains unsolved and one that drew national attention to the agency and Jenne.
"I thought it highly inappropriate to incapacitate the head of BSO during that time," Acosta said.
As the investigation intensified, the sheriff's office turned to former Miami U.S. attorney Guy Lewis to represent the agency's interests. Lewis, now in private practice, confirmed the sheriff's office has paid his firm about $272,000 for its work in the Jenne probe and another issue involving questions about crime statistics reporting.
"We have done a lot of work long-term," Lewis said. "BSO has been fully cooperating. It has a tremendous disruptive effect on the agency."
Sheriff's records show another $107,000 in agency funds has been paid to other outside attorneys representing employees who were either questioned by investigators or testified before the grand jury.
Before becoming sheriff, Jenne was a state senator for nearly 20 years, serving as the Senate's Democratic leader from 1994 to 1998 and occasionally mentioned as a candidate for statewide or federal office. Jenne also served as a state prosecutor and county commissioner.
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© 2007 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
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