The Ohio Parole Board has decided against recommending a pardon for Kelley Williams-Bolar, who spent nine days in jail for lying to keep her daughters enrolled in Copley-Fairlawn schools.
The unanimous 8-0 decision was announced Friday. The pardon request now goes to Gov. John Kasich, who can agree with the board or grant the pardon the Akron woman is seeking.
In an often tersely-worded, 16-page ruling, the board said Williams-Bolar was “faced with a no more difficult situation than any other working parent who must ensure that their children are safe during, before and after school hours in their absence.”
“Most parents find legitimate and legal options to address this issue,” the board said. “Ms. Williams-Bolar’s only response was to be deceitful.”
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 this year on two felony counts of tampering with records for improperly enrolling her daughters in the Copley-Fairlawn school district.
She used her father’s address as hers to enroll the girls and contended she did so to protect her daughters from coming home to an empty home. Summit County prosecutors say Williams-Bolar repeatedly lied on documents in a defiant effort to keep her children, now ages 17 and 12, enrolled for the 2006 school year.
A clemency hearing took place in Columbus in June.
“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,” Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said. “While I am always happy when a deserving person is given clemency, Ms. Bolar clearly does not fit into that category.”
The board wrote that Williams-Bolar could have moved to the district if she were truly fearful for her daughters’ safety, as she has long claimed.
“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 said.
Board members also said her plea for a pardon to help her attain a teaching certificate is nearly moot, since 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.
Jail sentence defended
The board also found Williams-Bolar was not subjected to selective prosecution nor was her jail sentence unduly harsh.
The board also took Williams-Bolar to task for her persistence in using her father’s Copley Township address. 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] is not her legal residence,” the board wrote.
It said Williams-Bolar’s behavior since her conviction, including her testimony at the hearing, demonstrate “that she continued this same pattern of conduct and deceitfulness.”
Williams-Bolar’s father, Edward Williams, was also tried for his role in the school residency case, but the jury deadlocked. He was 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 Williams-Bolar’s jail sentence gained national attention. Kasich, after only days in office, directed the parole board to review it.
Kasich 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.

Case under appeal
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, i.e., those districts which have a fiduciary duty to the voters and taxpayers or their communities.”

Phil Trexler can be reached at 330 996-3717 or ptrexler@thebeaconjournal.com.