A Hancock County Commissioner is still expected to be on the November ballot for Hancock County Council despite his recent arrest.
Officers with the Shirley Police Department arrested John Jessup on Friday and took him to the Shelby County Jail where he is being held for extradition to Las Vegas to face a felony charge of sexual assault.
https://www.greenfieldreporter.com/2024/06/18/investigation-of-jessup-began-in-january/
While Jessup could still decide to withdraw his own name from contention prior to the July 15 filing deadline, the party says that it cannot choose to pull him without a conviction.
“John will remain on the ballot for Councilman at Large,” Hancock County GOP Chairwoman Janice Silvey said. “The only way the party can remove a candidate from the ballot is if they have been convicted of a felony.”
Council president Jeannine Gray said that the council still had very little information and that next steps for the county government would be entirely up to the commissioners.
The commissioners’ office said it was researching options regarding Jessup and declined to give any further comment. With only two commissioners available, reaching a quorum becomes more difficult. The issue was not discussed at the commissioners meeting on Wednesday morning.
