Jerry W. Cooper
Encyclopedia
Jerry W. Cooper is a Tennessee
Democratic
politician and a former member of the Tennessee Senate
for the 14th district, which encompasses Franklin
, Bledsoe, Coffee
, Grundy, Sequatchie, Van Buren, and Warren counties. On August 22, 2006, Cooper was indicted by a federal grand jury on three felony counts: bank fraud, mail fraud, and conspiracy to commit bank and mail fraud. He was acquitted of those charges, but in November 2007 he was fined $120,000 by the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance for state election finance
violations and on December 7, 2007, he resigned his State Senate seat.
degree in Engineering
from the University of Tennessee
at Knoxville
in 1970. From 1970 to 1976, he served in the Tennessee Army National Guard
. He is the founder of Cooper Manufacturing Company, a company in Smartt Station, Warren County that produces furniture
and hardwood
products.
He is Vice-President of the Tennessee Jaycees Foundation, having been the President of the Tennessee Jaycees from 1980 to 1981. In 1983, he was the Vice-President of the Tennessee Jaycees Foundation Camp for the Handicapped. Ten years later, the organization would later go on to found "Camp Discovery," which offers summer camp
for children with serious skin conditions. In 1983, he also became the youngest ever to be named to the Board of Directors of City Bank & Trust.
. Before his resignation he was chairman of the Commerce, Labor, and Agriculture Committee, a member of the Senate Environment, Conservation, and Tourism Committee, and a member of the Senate Transportation Committee, the Joint Business Tax Committee, the Joint Lottery Scholarship Committee, the Lottery Oversight Committee, and the Joint Pensions and Insurance Committee.
When surveyed by The Tennessean, Cooper said that he thinks the state constitution
should be changed so that it would specify that abortions are not guaranteed, but that abortion should be permitted by the constitution when incest, rape, or the mother's life are involved. He also does not support civil unions and domestic partnerships being legal in Tennessee. According to Project Vote Smart, he has voted to raise cigarette taxes and for allowing handguns to be carried in state parks.
and Bill Baxter, who had been the Tennessee commissioner for economic development, for help getting a $1.7 million bank loan and an equipment loan over $400,000 for the buyers of his lumber mill. In the case, James B. Passons was indicted for allegedly writing an appraisal
that overestimated the value of Cooper's lumber mill, though neither Wilder, Baxter, nor Cooper were charged at that time.
Cooper had sought a $292,255 state grant for a rail spur leading to the lumber mill, and the appraisal Passons had written included a rail spur that had not been there. Cooper had allegedly assured Passons that the appraisal would not be used until the rail spur is there, and that the rail spur "will be there." Earlier, Cooper had been cleared in an ethics probe by Sen. Joe M. Haynes
and Sen. Steve Southerland, saying a state senator getting state approved money to improve property violated no ethics
rules.
On August 22, 2006, Cooper was indicted by a federal grand jury
sitting in Chattanooga, Tennessee
, on three felony
counts: bank fraud
, mail fraud, and conspiracy to commit bank and mail fraud. No trial date has been set. Cooper could face up to 65 years in prison and up to $2 million in fines if convicted on all counts. It is alleged by federal prosecutors that Cooper tried to defraud BankTennessee, where John S. Wilder
was a member of the Board of Directors, and that he approached "a political friend of his who was an influential person and a director of BankTennessee." He was acquitted in June 2007.
, charging Cooper with driving under the influence
(DUI) and speeding. The charges resulted from an investigation into a February 7, 2007 automobile crash involving Senator Cooper on Interstate 24
during Cooper's journey home after a night when he attended three legislative receptions at which alcoholic beverages were served. It was later revealed that Cooper's blood alcohol concentration was over two times the legal limit at 0.18.
Cooper's initial court appearance for the DUI charge was set for May 11, 2007, but Cooper's attorney, citing a conflict in scheduling due to Cooper's medical condition, requested the case be postponed. The judge granted the request and moved the court date to August 3, 2007.
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
Democratic
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
politician and a former member of the Tennessee Senate
Tennessee Senate
The Tennessee Senate is the upper house of the Tennessee state legislature, which is known formally as the Tennessee General Assembly.The Tennessee Senate, according to the state constitution of 1870, is composed of 33 members, one-third the size of the Tennessee House of Representatives. Senators...
for the 14th district, which encompasses Franklin
Franklin County, Tennessee
Franklin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2010, the population was 41,052. Its county seat is Winchester.Franklin County is part of the Tullahoma, Tennessee, Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
, Bledsoe, Coffee
Coffee County, Tennessee
Coffee County is a county located in south-central portion of the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is one of the counties of Middle Tennessee. As of 2010, the population was 52,796. Its county seat is Manchester....
, Grundy, Sequatchie, Van Buren, and Warren counties. On August 22, 2006, Cooper was indicted by a federal grand jury on three felony counts: bank fraud, mail fraud, and conspiracy to commit bank and mail fraud. He was acquitted of those charges, but in November 2007 he was fined $120,000 by the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance for state election finance
Campaign finance
Campaign finance refers to all funds that are raised and spent in order to promote candidates, parties or policies in some sort of electoral contest. In modern democracies such funds are not necessarily devoted to election campaigns. Issue campaigns in referendums, party activities and party...
violations and on December 7, 2007, he resigned his State Senate seat.
Education and career
Jerry Cooper attended public schools in McMinnville and graduated with a Bachelor of ScienceBachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
degree in Engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
from the University of Tennessee
University of Tennessee
The University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
at Knoxville
Knoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
in 1970. From 1970 to 1976, he served in the Tennessee Army National Guard
United States National Guard
The National Guard of the United States is a reserve military force composed of state National Guard militia members or units under federally recognized active or inactive armed force service for the United States. Militia members are citizen soldiers, meaning they work part time for the National...
. He is the founder of Cooper Manufacturing Company, a company in Smartt Station, Warren County that produces furniture
Furniture
Furniture is the mass noun for the movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating and sleeping in beds, to hold objects at a convenient height for work using horizontal surfaces above the ground, or to store things...
and hardwood
Hardwood
Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...
products.
He is Vice-President of the Tennessee Jaycees Foundation, having been the President of the Tennessee Jaycees from 1980 to 1981. In 1983, he was the Vice-President of the Tennessee Jaycees Foundation Camp for the Handicapped. Ten years later, the organization would later go on to found "Camp Discovery," which offers summer camp
Summer camp
Summer camp is a supervised program for children or teenagers conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camp are known as campers....
for children with serious skin conditions. In 1983, he also became the youngest ever to be named to the Board of Directors of City Bank & Trust.
Political career
Jerry W. Cooper first served as a state senator in the 94th General AssemblyTennessee General Assembly
The Tennessee General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Tennessee.-Constitutional structure:According to the Tennessee State Constitution of 1870, the General Assembly is a bicameral legislature and consists of a Senate of thirty-three members and a House of Representatives of...
. Before his resignation he was chairman of the Commerce, Labor, and Agriculture Committee, a member of the Senate Environment, Conservation, and Tourism Committee, and a member of the Senate Transportation Committee, the Joint Business Tax Committee, the Joint Lottery Scholarship Committee, the Lottery Oversight Committee, and the Joint Pensions and Insurance Committee.
When surveyed by The Tennessean, Cooper said that he thinks the state constitution
Tennessee State Constitution
The Constitution of the State of Tennessee defines the form, structure, activities, character, and fundamental rules of the U.S. State of Tennessee....
should be changed so that it would specify that abortions are not guaranteed, but that abortion should be permitted by the constitution when incest, rape, or the mother's life are involved. He also does not support civil unions and domestic partnerships being legal in Tennessee. According to Project Vote Smart, he has voted to raise cigarette taxes and for allowing handguns to be carried in state parks.
Indictment for fraud
In April 2006, Cooper was accused by a federal prosecutor of asking then-Lt. Gov. John S. WilderJohn S. Wilder
John Shelton Wilder was an American politician who was a Tennessee state senator from 1959 to 1961 and again from 1967 to 2009 and the 48th lieutenant governor of Tennessee from 1971 to 2007, possibly the longest time anyone has served as Lieutenant Governor or a similar position in the history of...
and Bill Baxter, who had been the Tennessee commissioner for economic development, for help getting a $1.7 million bank loan and an equipment loan over $400,000 for the buyers of his lumber mill. In the case, James B. Passons was indicted for allegedly writing an appraisal
Real estate appraisal
Real estate appraisal, property valuation or land valuation is the process of valuing real property. The value usually sought is the property's Market Value. Appraisals are needed because compared to, say, corporate stock, real estate transactions occur very infrequently...
that overestimated the value of Cooper's lumber mill, though neither Wilder, Baxter, nor Cooper were charged at that time.
Cooper had sought a $292,255 state grant for a rail spur leading to the lumber mill, and the appraisal Passons had written included a rail spur that had not been there. Cooper had allegedly assured Passons that the appraisal would not be used until the rail spur is there, and that the rail spur "will be there." Earlier, Cooper had been cleared in an ethics probe by Sen. Joe M. Haynes
Joe M. Haynes
Joe M. Haynes, born October 8, 1936 in Sumner County, is a Tennessee politician and a member of the Tennessee Senate for the 20th district, which comprises part of Davidson County. He has served as a state senator since the 94th General Assembly. He is chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus and a...
and Sen. Steve Southerland, saying a state senator getting state approved money to improve property violated no ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
rules.
On August 22, 2006, Cooper was indicted by a federal grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
sitting in Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Chattanooga is the fourth-largest city in the US state of Tennessee , with a population of 169,887. It is the seat of Hamilton County...
, on three felony
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
counts: bank fraud
Bank fraud
Bank fraud is the use of fraudulent means to obtain money, assets, or other property owned or held by a financial institution, or to obtain money from depositors by fraudulently representing to be a bank or financial institution. In many instances, bank fraud is a criminal offense...
, mail fraud, and conspiracy to commit bank and mail fraud. No trial date has been set. Cooper could face up to 65 years in prison and up to $2 million in fines if convicted on all counts. It is alleged by federal prosecutors that Cooper tried to defraud BankTennessee, where John S. Wilder
John S. Wilder
John Shelton Wilder was an American politician who was a Tennessee state senator from 1959 to 1961 and again from 1967 to 2009 and the 48th lieutenant governor of Tennessee from 1971 to 2007, possibly the longest time anyone has served as Lieutenant Governor or a similar position in the history of...
was a member of the Board of Directors, and that he approached "a political friend of his who was an influential person and a director of BankTennessee." He was acquitted in June 2007.
Driving under the influence
In February 2007, the Tennessee Department of Safety obtained a warrant in Rutherford CountyRutherford County, Tennessee
Rutherford County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2010 census, it is the state's fifth-largest county by population with 262,604 people, an increase of 44.3 percent over the 2000 population of 182,023. Its county seat is Murfreesboro, which is also the geographic...
, charging Cooper with driving under the influence
Driving under the influence
Driving under the influence is the act of driving a motor vehicle with blood levels of alcohol in excess of a legal limit...
(DUI) and speeding. The charges resulted from an investigation into a February 7, 2007 automobile crash involving Senator Cooper on Interstate 24
Interstate 24
Interstate 24 is an Interstate Highway in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It runs diagonally from Interstate 57 to Chattanooga, Tennessee, at Interstate 75....
during Cooper's journey home after a night when he attended three legislative receptions at which alcoholic beverages were served. It was later revealed that Cooper's blood alcohol concentration was over two times the legal limit at 0.18.
Cooper's initial court appearance for the DUI charge was set for May 11, 2007, but Cooper's attorney, citing a conflict in scheduling due to Cooper's medical condition, requested the case be postponed. The judge granted the request and moved the court date to August 3, 2007.