To his credit, Jerry Taylor was a great politician

Whether you loved him or hated him – and there were certainly a few people who did one or the other – you didn’t have to spend much time around former Whitley County Judge-Executive and Jailer Jerry Taylor to figure out why the guy kept getting elected so much in his life.

Mark White is Editor of The News Journal.

He was a funny, likable guy. Old timers like him and Emby McKeehan, were just a hoot just to sit around and talk too.

My favorite story that Jerry often told was about being the son of a bootlegger.

When Jerry was a young boy, the sheriff and a state or federal guy (I forget which), showed up at the Taylor house to bust Jerry’s dad. Jerry was in the other room with the sheriff while the federal or state guy was lecturing Jerry’s dad going on and on to the annoyance of the sheriff.

The sheriff finally has enough, looks at Jerry and asks if he knew where his daddy kept his whiskey.

“Yes, sir,” Jerry replied.

The sheriff told him Jerry to get the whiskey and follow him. Off to the woods Jerry went to hide the booze.

When the state or fed guy couldn’t find the liquor in the house, he had an absolute fit or so Jerry described when telling the story.

After Jerry lost the judge-executive’s race in November 1992, there was a special grand jury investigation into his administration for stuff like allegedly putting bridges on private property. The investigation lasted about two years before the grand jury concluded no criminal charges would be issued, but the grand jury did say that future procedures for expenditures of money on county roads must be done to the letter of the law.

When it came time for people to file to run for countywide offices in 1997, Jerry didn’t file to run for judge-executive again to the surprise of many. Some people wanted Jerry Taylor in jail, so he ran for jailer instead. (His words, not mine…LOL.)

You know what? He got elected jailer twice.

I definitely would not have been described as the biggest Jerry Taylor fan when he was the jailer in particular. There was just too many problems then, which ultimately led to the state ordering the Whitley County Detention Center closed as long as Jerry remained jailer.

Jerry ultimately got indicted by a special prosecutor for crimes allegedly committed while he was jailer. As part of a plea agreement, Taylor was forced to resign as jailer and pay restitution to the county. He entered an Alford Plea to part of the charges in exchange for prosecutors recommending a probated prison sentence.

An Alford Plea meant that Jerry still maintained his innocence but acknowledged that prosecutors likely had enough evidence to convict.

Despite the plea deal though, I suspect that Jerry still would have received a lot of votes had he run for office again, which he never did.

As a politician, I have to give credit where credit is due. Love him or hate him, Jerry was a great politician.

The “reality” television show “Survivor” puts 16 or so contestants on an island and through a series of competitions they vote out one another until finally at the end, a jury composed of ousted contestants picks a winner.

“Out wit, out last, out play,” is the show’s motto.

If one were to do a “Survivor” type competition with the best politicians in Whitley County history to see who could out wit and out last one another, I suspect Jerry Taylor would have at least made it to the top three and might even have won the whole thing.

My condolences go out to Jerry’s wife, Oneida, his lone living son, Gary, and the rest of the Taylor family for their loss.