Jerry Fowler - Fowler Goes To Prison

Fowler Goes To Prison

After Fowler left the commissioner's office, he was charged and convicted of accepting kickbacks on voting machines and income tax evasion. Much of the investigation was handled through the office of the Republican legislative auditor Dan Kyle. In November 2000, he pleaded guilty to defrauding the State of Louisiana of some $900,000 between 1991 and 1999. Many observers believed that he actually obtained $3 million illegally. Fowler's attorney said that his client spent the money gambling. Fowler was sentenced to five years in prison. He served four years in the federal facility in Beaumont, Texas, and was then released to Ecumenical House a halfway house in Baton Rouge, where he served an additional number of months.

Fowler's 1996, 1997 and 1998 U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns, Forms 1040, reflect adjusted gross income of $157,949.54; $185,938.00 and $165,272.00, respectively. His corrected figures, including money from kickbacks, is $482,053.54; $487,891.29; and $419,312.00 in 1996, 1997 and 1998, respectively.

Ehrenhalt reflected on the Fowlers' tenure over the administration of Louisiana elections for more than four decades:

"Reformers, embarrassed by the triviality of the title "custodian of voting machines" managed in the 1970s to change the name to Commissioner of Elections. But they did not change the duties much: Louisiana's citizens continued to go to the polls every four years to pick a constitutional officer whose job consisted largely of buying and repairing machinery and remembering to deliver it to the right polling place when it was needed.

"It was not only a cushy job, it was also the personal possession of a single family. When Long created the post, he promoted the candidacy of a loyal crony, Douglas Fowler, who held it from 1960 until his retirement in 1979. Then Fowler's son, Jerry, a former lineman for the Houston Oilers, took over and won reelection four times.

"The odds are the job would still be a Fowler fiefdom if the second occupant of the office had not been caught looting the till in 1999. A legislative auditor found that Jerry Fowler had been taking kickbacks on the purchase of voting machines and occasionally paying friends of his to haul them around even when there was no election scheduled. Fowler was indicted on eight counts of malfeasance in office, entered a guilty plea, and was sentenced to prison for five years."