[September 02, 2011] Kelley Williams-Bolar denied pardon recommendation Tweet Sep 02, 2011 (The Akron Beacon Journal - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- The Ohio Parole Board has decided not to recommend a pardon for Kelley Williams-Bolar. The unanimous decision was announced Friday. The pardon request now goes before Gov. John Kasich, who can agree with the board or grant the pardon the Akron woman is seeking. "The judge responded with appropriate sentencing, given [Williams-Bolar's] wholesale refusal to accept any responsibility for her actions," the board wrote in its decision. A clemency hearing took place in Columbus in June. David Singleton, Williams-Bolar's attorney, said Friday that the mother is hopeful of still winning a pardon from the governor. "Although we are disappointed with the parole board's unfavorable recommendation, we are confident that justice will ultimately prevail," he said. "The governor, not the parole board, has the last word on Kelley's clemency petition." Williams-Bolar, now 41, was convicted in Summit County Common Pleas Court earlier this year on two felony counts of tampering with records for improperly enrolling her daughters in the Copley-Fairlawn school district. She served nine days in jail. She used her father's address as hers to enroll the girls. She contended she did so to protect her daughters from coming home to an empty home. The board said that Williams-Bolar could have moved to the district, if she were truly fearful for her daughters' safety, as she claimed. In their decision, the parole board said: "It is difficult for the board to follow the logic of how her children's enrollment in a different school entails keeping her children safe after school, and was the real reason behind her enrollment of her daughters [in Copley]," the board wrote. Board members also said her plea for a pardon to help her attain a teaching certificate, is nearly moot, saying Williams-Bolar is "nowhere near to obtaining a college degree in any discipline..." Williams-Bolar has said she has been attending UA part- and full-time since 1988 and is a senior. She is pursuing a bachelor of arts degree in family and consumer sciences and child development, but has no anticipated graduation date. The board found Williams-Bolar was not subjected to selective prosecution nor was her jail sentence unduly harsh. Finally, the board also took Williams-Bolar to task for her persistence in using her father's Copley Township address. Indeed, despite living in Akron, Williams-Bolar used her father's address when she renewed her driver's license just weeks before the July parole board hearing. "She does not seem to understand nor accept the fact that [her father's address] in not her legal residence," the board wrote. Williams-Bolar's father, Edward Williams, was also tried for his role in the school residency case, but a jury deadlocked. He was later sentenced to one-year in prison last June after his conviction for receiving more than $100,000 in Social Security and state welfare benefits over a six-year period beginning in 2003. After her conviction, the story of her jail sentence went national. Kasich, after only days in office, launched the inquiry into the case that garnered national and international attention by directing the parole board to review it. Kasich himself said he questioned whether the punishment -- a 10-day jail sentence, two years of probation, 80 hours of community service and a felony record that might prevent Williams-Bolar from fulfilling her dream of becoming a teacher -- fit the crime. Williams-Bolar is still appealing her conviction in the 9th District Court of Appeals. She remains on probation in Judge Patricia A. Cosgrove's court. The board concluded its decision: "Any effort to reduce or otherwise mitigate the verdict or sentence under these facts would communicate exactly the wrong message and result in a significant hardship for Copley-Fairlawn Schools and many other districts in Ohio who was similarly situated, ie those districts which have a fiduciary duty to the voters and taxpayers or their communities." ___ (c)2011 the Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio) Visit the Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio) at www.ohio.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]