Akron teacher's aide who sent girls to Copley also loses chance at license
By Ed Meyer
Beacon Journal staff writer
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Wednesday, Jan 19, 2011
Kelley Williams-Bolar is sentenced to sentenced to 10 days in the Summit County Jail, three years of probation following her release and 80 hours of community service by Judge Patricia A. Cosgrove as she stands next to her lawyer, Kerry O'Brien (left), in the Summit County Courthouse. She was found guilty of two third-degree felonies for having her children attend Copley schools while being an Akron resident. (Karen Schiely/Akron Beacon Journal)
An Akron woman was sentenced to 10 days in the Summit County Jail, placed on three years of probation and ordered to perform community service after being convicted of falsifying residency records so that her two children could attend Copley-Fairlawn schools.
Summit Common Pleas Judge Patricia Cosgrove, who handed down the sentence Tuesday afternoon in a packed courtroom, ordered Kelley Williams-Bolar, 40, to begin serving the sentence immediately.
Williams-Bolar, who was standing before the bench with her lawyer, sagged into the arms of sheriff's deputies as she was led away, sobbing loudly, to begin her jail time.
After seven hours of deliberations, a jury convicted her late Saturday of two counts of tampering with records.
While her two girls were registered as living with her father in Copley Township within the Copley school district, prosecutors maintained that they actually were living with Williams-Bolar on Hartford Avenue in Akron, in subsidized housing provided by the Akron Metropolitan Housing Authority.
In addition to the tampering offenses, Williams-Bolar and her father, Edward L. Williams, 64, were charged with fourth-degree felonies of grand theft, accused of defrauding the school system of two years of educational services for the girls.
School officials testified that those services were worth about $30,500 in tuition.
The jury failed to reach unanimous verdicts on those charges, and Cosgrove declared a mistrial.
A decision on whether to re-try the grand theft charges against Williams-Bolar and her father is pending, prosecutors said.
On the tampering conviction, Cosgrove gave Williams-Bolar the maximum prison sentence — five years — for each of the two charges, with the sentences to run concurrently.
The judge then suspended all but 10 days of the sentence, which will be served in the county jail. Cosgrove also ordered Williams-Bolar to perform 80 hours of community service in mentoring programs sponsored by her church or the NAACP.
Teaching pursuit derailed
Cosgrove noted Williams-Bolar faces another form of punishment.
Williams-Bolar, a single mother, works as a teaching assistant with children with special needs at Buchtel High School. At the trial, she testified that she wanted to become a teacher and is a senior at the University of Akron, only a few credit hours short of a teaching degree.
That won't happen now, Cosgrove said.
''Because of the felony conviction, you will not be allowed to get your teaching degree under Ohio law as it stands today,'' the judge said. ''The court's taking into consideration that is also a punishment that you will have to serve.''
Williams-Bolar addressed Cosgrove briefly before being sentenced, saying ''there was no intention at all'' to deceive school officials.
She pleaded with Cosgrove not to put her behind bars.
''My girls need me,'' she said. ''I've never, ever gone a day without seeing them off. Never. My oldest daughter is 16.
''I need to be there to support them.''
Williams-Bolar's two girls, now 16 and 12, are attending schools elsewhere. They left the Copley-Fairlawn district before the 2009 school term.
The Rev. Lorenzo Glenn of Macedonia Baptist Church also pleaded for leniency, saying his church has a mentoring program well suited for probation in lieu of prison time.
Glenn told the judge that he has known Williams-Bolar for more than 20 years and was overwhelmed by her convictions.
''This is a serious matter, but by all means,'' Glenn said, ''it was done to help her children.''
Glenn noted the attention the case has drawn and the resources used to prosecute the case.
All of Cleveland's major television stations had cameras at the sentencing.
''When I see all the media here today, you'd think it was a serial killing,'' Glenn said.
Cosgrove said some incarceration was appropriate, ''so that others who think they might defraud the school system perhaps will think twice.''
Assistant county prosecutor Terri Burnside, one of the two government lawyers assigned to the case, did not object to probation for Williams-Bolar.
After the sentencing, Brian Poe, Copley-Fairlawn school superintendent, said the prosecution of Williams-Bolar and her father ''obviously is a very difficult and uncomfortable case.''
According to court testimony, there were 30 to 40 similar residency cases involving other families from August 2006 to June 2008, when Williams-Bolar's children were enrolled in Copley schools.
Williams-Bolar was the only parent prosecuted, according to testimony.
Poe said an effort was made to avoid criminal charges.
''We were able to resolve 99.9 percent of our residency disputes with the folks we called in for residency hearings,'' he said. ''In this case, we were not able to resolve that.
''So, therefore, with the information that we were able to uncover, we felt it necessary to provide that information to the prosecutor's office.''
Prosecutors presented several hours of videotaped evidence — much of it shot by a private investigator through a wrought-iron fence. The videos showed Williams-Bolar dropping off her children at a bus stop, a short walk from her father's home, for the ride to school.
Poe said this case was not pursued as a deterrent.
''We have, for the past three and a half years, gone after residency cases and had residency hearings,'' he said. ''It's something that's important to us. We are not an open-enrollment district.''
Laurie Cramer, spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office, said Edward Williams has outstanding theft and tampering charges in connection with a case involving the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Those charges were separated from the Copley-Fairlawn residency case before it went to trial. A pretrial hearing involving Williams is scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday in Cosgrove's court.
Judge Patricia A. Cosgrove sentences Kelley Williams-Bolar sentenced to 10 days in the Summit County Jail, three years of probation following her release and 80 hours of community service. Williams-Bolar was found guilty of two third-degree felonies for having her children attend Copley schools while being an Akron resident. (Karen Schiely/Akron Beacon Journal)
Pastor Lorenzo Glenn of Macedonia Baptist Church of Akron (center) leads a prayer with the family and friends of Kelley Williams-Bolar before her sentencing in Judge Patricia A. Cosgrove's Summit County Court. Williams-Bolar was found guilty of two third-degree felonies for having her children attend Copley schools while being an Akron resident. (Karen Schiely/Akron Beacon Journal)
Edward L. Williams, the father of Kelley Williams-Bolar talks to the media after his daughter is sentenced to 10 days in the Summit County Jail, three years of probation following her release and 80 hours of community service by Judge Patricia A. Cosgrove in the Summit County Courthouse. She was found guilty of two third-degree felonies for having her children attend Copley schools while being an Akron resident. (Karen Schiely/Akron Beacon Journal)
No comments:
Post a Comment