State senator looks to end nightmares

With his legal troubles behind him, perhaps state Sen. Jerry Cooper can begin to get a good night’s sleep.

Cooper talked to the Standard yesterday about the adversity he has faced, and overcome, in 2007. That has included a horrific interstate accident, a federal trial, and finally a no-contest plea to DUI charges Friday.

‘I keep having nightmares about what happened down there in Chattanooga,’ said Cooper of the federal charges against him. ‘It was overwhelming.’

The federal charges were the worst of Cooper’s legal woes. Those charges stemmed from a land deal where Cooper sold his business, Cooper Manufacturing. Prosecutors claimed Cooper used his influence to obtain state grants to get equipment for the new owner, and misrepresented the value of his property so the owner could get a larger bank loan.

A jury found him not guilty in 45 minutes after prosecutors showed a remarkable lack of evidence, according to several court observers. Cooper said yesterday he felt the trial was entirely politically motivated.

‘I must have made somebody mad,’ said Cooper. ‘The bottom line is if I’m not a state senator, I wouldn’t have been there.’

He added that the lightning-fast verdict shows there wasn’t much of a case against him.

‘One of the officials down there told me it usually takes jurors around 20 minutes to fill out the paperwork, and around another 10 minutes to elect a jury foreman,’ said Cooper. ‘That didn’t leave very long for them to deliberate.’

The question on most everyone’s mind is whether Cooper will seek a seventh term. When his current term expires next year, he will have spent 24 years in the state Senate.

‘I don’t know what’s next,’ said Cooper. ‘I’m still kind of numb. I don’t know how to act.’

While certainly not committing to a re-election campaign, Cooper did hint to some unfinished business he would like to see through to completion.

Cooper said Woodbury Highway is a project he wants to continue to oversee, and added that an expansion for Motlow College is set to get under way in the next 30 days. The project will roughly double the size of the McMinnville campus.

State Rep. Charles Curtiss has worked with Cooper for 13 years on Capitol Hill and believes he is still very much an asset for this district. Curtiss says he respects Cooper for taking responsibility in his DUI case.

‘By pleading no contest, to me that says in his heart he knew he was wrong and didn’t fight it,’ said Curtiss. ‘That says a lot about the man.

‘He’s still a very effective legislator and it would be hard to replace him. He can get things done when there’s a gridlock and that takes a special kind of person.’

As for his health, Cooper says he is mostly recovered from flipping his SUV an estimated five or six times on Interstate 24 in Murfreesboro. He was airlifted from the scene of the February accident.

‘If people don’t believe in prayers and wearing a seatbelt, they need to come see me,’ said Cooper.

He says when January rolls around and the General Assembly is back in session to expect him at his usual perch at the state capital.