A fugitive dentist and perennial political candidate will take on Sen. Norm Coleman in the Sept. 9 Republican primary.
Fugitive dentist will take on Coleman
Jack Shepard will conduct another run for office from Rome, Italy.
April 4, 2008 at 12:28AM
Jack Shepard, 61, has been on the run for nearly a quarter century, practicing dentistry most of that time from Rome, Italy, where he has conducted three runs for Congress and one for the U.S. Senate.
Shepard never showed up for a court hearing Dec. 7, 1982, on a first-degree arson charge for a fire at his Lake Street dental office in Minneapolis.
At the time, he was on probation after being convicted of a prescription drug charge and a fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct charge. He served eight months at Stillwater state prison.
Two years ago, while running for the GOP nomination in the Fourth Congressional District, he failed to persuade the state Board of Pardons to wipe his record clean. He then continued to run his candidacy from Italy.
He placed second in the primary, receiving just fewer than 5,000 votes.
More recently, he fared poorly in New Hampshire's Republican presidential primary, getting a total of 28 votes.
Bob von Sternberg
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