Prosecuting Attorney

County of Summit

NEWS                                                                                      CONTACT:  April Wiesner

For Immediate Release:                                                         Phone:   (330) 643-8386

Friday, September 2, 2011                                                     wiesner@prosecutor.summitoh.net

Ohio Parole Board Recommends Against Clemency for Kelley Williams-Bolar

Board finds Williams-Bolar “wholly undeserving”

AKRON, Ohio – September 2, 2011 – The Ohio Parole Board today recommended against clemency for Kelley Williams-Bolar, the Akron woman found guilty of two felony counts of Tampering with Records for stealing educational services from the Copley-Fairlawn School District.

“We are pleased that the Ohio Parole Board seriously considered the facts on both sides of this case and ultimately agreed that Ms. Bolar does not deserve clemency,” said Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh. “While I am always happy when a deserving person is given clemency, Ms. Bolar clearly does not fit into that category.”

The Parole Board’s recommendation was unanimous in its rejection of Williams-Bolar’s clemency request and deemed Williams-Bolar “a wholly undeserving candidate for any type of clemency.” Among its reasoning were:

• Although Williams-Bolar claimed her actions where merely designed to protect her children, she neglected to take any of the available, legal options to keep her daughters safe such as obtaining childcare.
• Instead of moving into the district to avoid prosecution, Williams-Bolar “continued this same pattern of conduct and deceitfulness.”
• Her claim that she needed a pardon because a felony conviction would ruin her dreams of becoming a teacher were “not well-taken” by the Board and “based on a goal that appears unlike to be sincerely pursued.”
• The case was not selectively prosecuted, the sentence was not unfair and Williams-Bolar’s noncompliance was not a mistake.
• Williams-Bolar has continued to deceive state agencies

It is now up to Governor John Kasich to either accept or reject the Board’s recommendation.

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