After 41 years of marriage, one thing State Sen. Ken Bennett did not think he would be doing is defending himself and his wife Jeanne from viciously slanderous allegations that they are puppets of Mexican cartels.
On Feb. 23, Bennett (R-Prescott) was part of a joint meeting of the House and Senate elections committees during which a guest invited by Rep. Liz Harris (R-Chandler) cast wildly unsupported accusations against a list of dozens of elected officials, government workers, and their spouses.
The speaker, insurance agent Jacqueline Fine Breger, alleged public records served as evidence that the numerous politicians, judges, police officers, and others on the list were likely involved in bribery, money laundering, and other crimes in support of the Cartels.
Several minutes into Breger’s presentation –and with little of her comments actually addressing elections– Bennett used his role as vice chair of the Senate Elections Committee to politely try to refocus the speaker back to the issue at hand.
His effort apparently did not set well with Breger and her partner, John Harris Thaler, who is an attorney suspended from the practice of law in Arizona and on probation with the State Bar of California.
Bennett was not named on Breger’s initial corruption list, but within hours of his gentle rebuke at the meeting he and wife became the latest target of the smear campaign when Thaler said public records related to the Bennetts “meet the characteristics of those documents used in the money laundering and bribery schemes.”
Arizona Daily Independent has confirmed the documents alluded to by Thaler as so-called evidence of possible wrongdoing by Bennett and his wife are routinely recorded deeds signed by the couple during their four decades of marriage.
“There are two deeds on the two homes we have owned during our 41 years of marriage,” Bennett explains. “There is also a deed of trust on a home equity credit line on our current home and a deed when we put our home into a family trust last year for retirement planning. These have nothing to do with cartels or any of the other allegations.”
Bennett, who believes Breger “should not have been invited to testify” to the legislative committees last month, is also calling out the practice used by some people to say anything they can to get attention without regard to the truth.
“False accusations are despicable and dangerous,” says Bennett.
Several lawmakers have decried Breger’s comments, including Harris, Senate President Warren Peterson, House Speaker Ben Toma, Sen. Wendy Rogers, and Rep. Alex Kolodin.
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