Heads for Prison Instead of Podium
Now, I ain’t one to gossip, much, but if ever there was a tale worth telling twice, it’s the one about John Jessup — a feller from Shirley County, Indiana, who mistook politics for privilege and whiskey for wisdom. At the tender age of fifty, Mr. Jessup, a Republican of some former standing and even less sense, found hisself shackled in the warm embrace of the Clark County Detention Center last June on account of some “after-hours misbehavior.”
The charges weren’t a hiccup like public nuisance or dopey dancing. The man got booked on a felony count of sexual assault after what police say was an uninvited and most ungentlemanly act upon a lady he knew, following a lively evening at what’s politely called a gentleman’s club–though there’s little gentility found in such places beyond the door sign.
When questioned by the law, Jessup claimed he hadn’t done anything criminal, just endured what he described as a “f***ed up, drunk night.” That excuse might pass muster in a barroom brawl or poker table tiff, but it don’t sit well with judges.
Come fall, Mr. Jessup took a deal and pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault — still a felony, but one that carried a slimmer chance of leniency. The court could’ve handed him a couple of years or even a warning, but Judge Joe Hardy wasn’t in the mood for mercy. He sentenced Jessup to six to fifteen years in prison and told him he’d be carrying the title of sex offender for life — a label heavier than any badge he ever wore in office.
Here’s where the story turns from pitiful to peculiar. While Jessup was trading suits for stripes and awaiting his day in court, the good people of Shirley County went and elected the man to their county council — gave him over 15,000 votes, they did, like tossing keys to the henhouse back to the fox.
Indiana law says felons can’t hold office, but no law can stop folks from making poor choices at the ballot box. One might say it was a triumph of party over principle or proof that not everybody reads the newspaper these days.
So now Mr. Jessup’s got himself a fresh prison sentence, a lifetime registry as a sex offender, and a seat he can’t legally warm — unless they move the county council chambers to a correctional facility.
Ain’t democracy grand?
The Old Blog in the Desert 