11-14-2007, 11:39 PM
Wife of ex-Broward sheriff begs for leniency in sentence
By Paula McMahon | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
November 14, 2007
At a time in life when most people are thinking about retiring, Caroline Jenne, the wife of former Sheriff Ken Jenne, is looking for a full-time job and worrying about losing her Dania Beach home.
When her husband is sentenced Friday, he is expected to go to federal prison for 18 months to two years: A humiliating fall from jailer to jailed. Caroline Jenne, who mostly avoided the public spotlight that came with being married to the most powerful man in Broward County, wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas begging for leniency.
"I am humbly asking you to have mercy in your sentencing of Ken," she wrote in a Nov. 5 letter that was placed in the court file Tuesday. "The investigation of three years has totally depleted our savings, and I am worried about the future. I just had my 61st birthday and although I have worked part-time for the last 10 years, I am actively looking for a full-time job.
"I have cut our expenses as far down as I can, and I will do whatever it takes not to lose our home. This is not what I envisioned our lives would be at this point, but I am ready to deal with the challenges before me."
Ken Jenne, who is 60, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud conspiracy and three counts of income tax evasion in September. In the plea agreement he reached with prosecutors, Jenne admitted he accepted more than $151,625 in improper payments, income and other benefits from Sheriff's Office contractors, including money funneled through his secretaries and payments on a Mercedes convertible from his former law firm, Conrad, Scherer & Jenne.
By Tuesday evening, Dimitrouleas had received two dozen letters seeking to influence his sentencing decision. Most of the letters urged leniency for Jenne and just two, so far, came from critics who recommended the maximum penalty.
The letters of support are from current and former neighbors, family friends and political allies who praise Jenne, a Democrat, for everything from his 30-plus years of public service to his mentorship and even his dog-walking skills.In her letter, Caroline Jenne painted a picture of a workaholic husband who gave up a lucrative private law practice and sincerely loved his job in public service. The tears he cried on television when tragedy struck the department "were from the very bottom of his heart," she wrote.
In her letter, Caroline Jenne, noted that she and her husband came from humble beginnings. She went to college on a scholarship to become a teacher. The couple, who will celebrate their 32nd wedding anniversary one week from today, have two grown children. Evan, 30, was elected to the state House of Representatives last year, and Sarah, 24, is an anthropologist in Philadelphia. Caroline Jenne wrote that Evan and Sarah are devastated "but stand by their father with total support and love."
The former sheriff specifically admitted in his plea agreement that he had abused the public trust, but Caroline Jenne insisted in her letter that he never did so.
"He has suffered greatly in many ways, but most of all he suffers because of what this has done to his family," Caroline Jenne wrote.
Ken Jenne's salary was $165,250 last year, and he got an agency car and an annual benefits package from the Sheriff's Office last year that was worth another $55,000, public records show. State officials have frozen his pension account until they decide if his criminal record means his pension should be forfeited.
If Jenne goes to prison, he likely would be sent to a so-called camp, a minimum-security prison that has dorm or barracks-style sleeping arrangements, said Mike Truman, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Prisons. Those prisons have a low ratio of staff to inmates and limited or no fencing around the perimeter, he said. Typically eligible inmates are serving less than 10-year terms, he said.
Camp prisoners are on an "inmate accountability" system and if they break the rules, Truman said, they are moved to a higher security prison.
Inmates can be assigned to pick up trash or cut grass. Other jobs include scrubbing bathrooms, buffing and waxing floors, preparing and serving food, painting and carpentry.
Among the other people who wrote the judge recommending compassion for Jenne were: Dr. Arthur Palamara, a Hollywood vascular surgeon who has run unsuccessfully for public office; Bob Bekoff, the owner of Broward's water buses; attorney L. Kenneth Barnett; former attorney Ellis Simring; and Elena Ortiz, the principal of Nativity School in Hollywood who taught Jenne's daughter in second grade.
"Judge, I sincerely hope that you can find it in your heart to take into account the tremendous good that he had done for the community in sentencing Mr. Jenne," Bekoff wrote.
Kimberly Ricci, who identified herself only as a Broward resident, was one of the two writers who recommended the maximum sentence: "Ken Jenne's admitted transgressions are nowhere near the definition of what it is to be a public servant. The only public service Jenne performed was leaving office and he only did so under [threat] of indictment."
By Paula McMahon | South Florida Sun-Sentinel
November 14, 2007
At a time in life when most people are thinking about retiring, Caroline Jenne, the wife of former Sheriff Ken Jenne, is looking for a full-time job and worrying about losing her Dania Beach home.
When her husband is sentenced Friday, he is expected to go to federal prison for 18 months to two years: A humiliating fall from jailer to jailed. Caroline Jenne, who mostly avoided the public spotlight that came with being married to the most powerful man in Broward County, wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas begging for leniency.
"I am humbly asking you to have mercy in your sentencing of Ken," she wrote in a Nov. 5 letter that was placed in the court file Tuesday. "The investigation of three years has totally depleted our savings, and I am worried about the future. I just had my 61st birthday and although I have worked part-time for the last 10 years, I am actively looking for a full-time job.
"I have cut our expenses as far down as I can, and I will do whatever it takes not to lose our home. This is not what I envisioned our lives would be at this point, but I am ready to deal with the challenges before me."
Ken Jenne, who is 60, pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud conspiracy and three counts of income tax evasion in September. In the plea agreement he reached with prosecutors, Jenne admitted he accepted more than $151,625 in improper payments, income and other benefits from Sheriff's Office contractors, including money funneled through his secretaries and payments on a Mercedes convertible from his former law firm, Conrad, Scherer & Jenne.
By Tuesday evening, Dimitrouleas had received two dozen letters seeking to influence his sentencing decision. Most of the letters urged leniency for Jenne and just two, so far, came from critics who recommended the maximum penalty.
The letters of support are from current and former neighbors, family friends and political allies who praise Jenne, a Democrat, for everything from his 30-plus years of public service to his mentorship and even his dog-walking skills.In her letter, Caroline Jenne painted a picture of a workaholic husband who gave up a lucrative private law practice and sincerely loved his job in public service. The tears he cried on television when tragedy struck the department "were from the very bottom of his heart," she wrote.
In her letter, Caroline Jenne, noted that she and her husband came from humble beginnings. She went to college on a scholarship to become a teacher. The couple, who will celebrate their 32nd wedding anniversary one week from today, have two grown children. Evan, 30, was elected to the state House of Representatives last year, and Sarah, 24, is an anthropologist in Philadelphia. Caroline Jenne wrote that Evan and Sarah are devastated "but stand by their father with total support and love."
The former sheriff specifically admitted in his plea agreement that he had abused the public trust, but Caroline Jenne insisted in her letter that he never did so.
"He has suffered greatly in many ways, but most of all he suffers because of what this has done to his family," Caroline Jenne wrote.
Ken Jenne's salary was $165,250 last year, and he got an agency car and an annual benefits package from the Sheriff's Office last year that was worth another $55,000, public records show. State officials have frozen his pension account until they decide if his criminal record means his pension should be forfeited.
If Jenne goes to prison, he likely would be sent to a so-called camp, a minimum-security prison that has dorm or barracks-style sleeping arrangements, said Mike Truman, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Prisons. Those prisons have a low ratio of staff to inmates and limited or no fencing around the perimeter, he said. Typically eligible inmates are serving less than 10-year terms, he said.
Camp prisoners are on an "inmate accountability" system and if they break the rules, Truman said, they are moved to a higher security prison.
Inmates can be assigned to pick up trash or cut grass. Other jobs include scrubbing bathrooms, buffing and waxing floors, preparing and serving food, painting and carpentry.
Among the other people who wrote the judge recommending compassion for Jenne were: Dr. Arthur Palamara, a Hollywood vascular surgeon who has run unsuccessfully for public office; Bob Bekoff, the owner of Broward's water buses; attorney L. Kenneth Barnett; former attorney Ellis Simring; and Elena Ortiz, the principal of Nativity School in Hollywood who taught Jenne's daughter in second grade.
"Judge, I sincerely hope that you can find it in your heart to take into account the tremendous good that he had done for the community in sentencing Mr. Jenne," Bekoff wrote.
Kimberly Ricci, who identified herself only as a Broward resident, was one of the two writers who recommended the maximum sentence: "Ken Jenne's admitted transgressions are nowhere near the definition of what it is to be a public servant. The only public service Jenne performed was leaving office and he only did so under [threat] of indictment."