Two Summit County men convicted of felony theft and fraud for stealing tens of thousands of dollars will not be released early from prison.
In separate orders issued Tuesday by retired Common Pleas Judge Ted Schneiderman, defense motions for the early release of Mark S. Peyakov, 47, and Edward L. Williams, 65, were denied.
Peyakov, who pleaded guilty to felony theft and insurance fraud, was sentenced in April 2010 to four years in prison.
Court records showed he stole more than $27,000 from the retirement and pension funds of his late father, Babcock & Wilcox retiree Ralph Peyakov of Barberton.
Williams, the father of Kelley Williams-Bolar, was sentenced to one year in prison. A jury convicted him in June of two counts of grand theft and two counts of tampering with records.
Court records in his case showed he schemed to defraud $64,900 from the U.S. Social Security Administration and more than $36,000 from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. A separate case that involved Williams and his daughter enrolling her children improperly in Copley schools generated national headlines.
Peyakov’s brother, area restaurateur Mike Peyakov, said his family and his brother’s two children were pleased with Schneiderman’s decision.
His brother’s children, he said, now will be able to continue their educations “without fear of disruption during this critical time in their lives.”
Mark Peyakov’s sentence runs until April 14, 2014. He is at Marion Correctional Institution.
Both of his children signed a letter to Schneiderman early last week, saying their father needs to serve the entire sentence to become, they hope, “a better person in life” when he gets out.
“The past three years have been very difficult on them, and we are all happy to be able to move on,” Mike Peyakov said.
Ralph Peyakov, who was 80, was hospitalized and died in February 2010 after being injured in a fall at home. Prosecutors had been preparing him to testify in the criminal case during the months before his death.
A presentence investigation of the scam showed Mark Peyakov and his estranged girlfriend, Denise L. Jackson, were responsible for forging and depositing 47 checks into Jackson’s account from the pension payments and personal accounts of Peyakov’s father.
Jackson was sentenced to two years in prison. She also was denied early release in an August court ruling.
Schneiderman noted in his orders that neither man has paid his court-ordered restitution, nor has offered to pay it.
Both defendants also have had a number of disciplinary offenses in prison, the judge stated.
In the case of Williams, Schneiderman’s ruling described his sentence as “relatively lenient when considering possible maximum penalties.”
The maximum penalty alone for grand theft, a third-degree felony, is five years.
Williams’ attorney, Job E. Perry, had urged Schneiderman in court records to suspend the remainder of the sentence, citing numerous health problems.
According to the records, Williams suffered a stroke while incarcerated and spent two months in a prison hospital. He also has been afflicted by chest pains, kidney failure and a gangrenous condition of the feet.
Both cases originally were handled by Judge Patricia Cosgrove, who retired from the bench in late August. Schneiderman, who serves the court as a visiting judge, was appointed to take over the cases.
Ed Meyer can be reached at 330-996-3784 or at emeyer@thebeaconjournal.com.