Girod Jackson, III

Girod Herbert Jackson, III (born October 1972)^[1] is a general contractor from suburban New Orleans, Louisiana, who is an African-American Democratic former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives for District 87 in Jefferson Parish. He served from 2008 until his resignation in August 2013 amid a financial scandal which led to imprisonment for three months and the payment of restitution.

Background

Jackson graduated from John Ehret High School near Marrero in Jefferson Parish^[2] and attended City Colleges of Chicago and the Maryland University of Germany. He served in the United States Army and the Louisiana National Guard for eight years, with action in Operation Desert Storm.^[3][4] He owns a project management firm and a licensed commercial general contracting company.^[2]

A resident of Harvey, Jackson has formerly lived in New Orleans and Marrero and Gretna in Jefferson Parish, and Killeen, Texas, dates unavailable.^[5]

Political life

Jackson was elected to the House in 2007 without opposition after the short-term incumbent, Democrat Terrell Harris, and another opponent both withdrew from the nonpartisan blanket primary.^[2] In 2011, he was again elected without opposition.^[6]

Representative Jackson served on the House Democratic Caucus and the Legislative Black Caucus. His ratings from the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry ranged from 38 to 67 percent over the years he was a legislator. In 2012, the National Federation of Independent Business scored him 60 percent. In 2011 and 2013, the conservative Louisiana Family Forum judged him 44 and 63 percent, respectively. Louisiana Right to Life has rated him from 50 to 100 percent. Jackson ranked 58 percent from the Louisiana Association of Educators.^[7]

Jackson voted in 2013 against permanent concealed-carry permits but opposed making information on the permits a matter of the public record. In 2010, he had voted against allowing weapons in churches. Jackson voted in 2013 for judicial pay increases and for removing the mandatory retirement age of judges. He vote to reduce the penalties for marijuana possession; the measure passed the House, 54-38.^[8]

In 2012, Jackson co-sponsored parole eligibility for non-violent offenders. He voted to establish tax incentives to recruit a National Basketball Association team to Louisiana but opposed state income tax deductions to taxpayers donating to scholarship funds. He voted against the requirement that welfare recipients undergo periodic testing for use of narcotics. He opposed reducing the number of hours that polling stations remain open; Louisiana traditionally has had 14-hour election days. He voted to forbid telephone use while driving but earlier had agreed to the use of other hand-held devices while driving. He supported changes to the teacher tenure law. In 2011, he supported a permanent cigarette tax and backed a failed bill which supporters said would curb bullying in public schools. He supported redistricting of the United States House of Representatives but did not vote on a similar bill for the Louisiana State Senate.^[8]

In 2012, Jackson re-introduced a proposal to increase the number of minority judges in the 24th Judicial District, which covers Jefferson Parish. He sought to add a third minority judge through House Bill 523. Though the session ended before he could obtained passage of the legislation., he persevered and the measure, as HB 767, passed both houses and was signed into law by Governor Bobby Jindal.^[9]

Tax evasion

Jackson was forced from the chamber after United States Attorney Dana Bonte charged him with two counts of willful failure to file federal income taxes and another count of making a fraudulent statement in his annual tax return. Jackson was alleged to have misrepresented on a federal tax return how much his company, Diversified Ventures, earned in the year 2006. Prosecutors said that the company made about $600,000 from contracts while Jackson and his wife listed $108,000. That discrepancy caused the Jacksons to avoid payment of nearly $80,000 in taxes.^[10]

Jackson pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced by Judge Jane Margaret Triche-Milazzo of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, an appointee of U.S. President Barack H. Obama, to three months in prison, nine months of home detention, $97,374 in restitution, and thereafter a year of supervised release. The sentence was less severe than the guidelines for the crime, which stipulate twelve to eighteen months in prison. Judge Milazzo cited Jackson's military service in Operation Desert Storm, his family life, and the lack of a criminal history as mitigating factors in determining the punishment.^[4]

Jackson served his sentence from April to July, 2014, at the Federal Correctional Institution in Oakdale in Allen Parish south of Alexandria. Former U.S. Representative William J. Jefferson of Louisiana's 2nd congressional district is serving a 13-year sentence at the same institution for political corruption.^[11]

References