Convicted Official Stripped Of State Pension

Corrupt politicians who collect their taxpayer-financed pensions should take note of a convicted elected official recently stripped of his hefty state pension for breaching the public’s trust.

Florida officials have decided that Broward County’s imprisoned sheriff, once a rising star in the state’s Democratic Party, should be deprived of his $134,500-annual state pension for violating a state law that says those holding public office can lose their pension if convicted of a felony.

A political fixture in South Florida for three decades, disgraced Sheriff Ken Jenne pleaded guilty last year to mail fraud conspiracy and tax evasion for accepting more than $151,625 in illegal payments and other benefits, including a luxury imported car, from contractors doing business with his office. Jenne was sentenced to a year in prison and is currently serving time in a southwest Virginia federal penitentiary.

Jenne was once a Broward County prosecutor and later a county commissioner before being elected sheriff, a job that paid him $165,250 a year and also included an additional $55,000 benefit package. On the same day he resigned, amid his corruption scandal, Jenne applied for his lucrative public pension.

The state, however, froze his account pending a decision and this week Florida’s Retirement Director visited the former sheriff in jail to tell him in person that he shouldn’t expect any checks from the state in his prison mailbox.