Summit prosecutor defends residency case

Associated Press

AKRON

As a Northeast Ohio prosecutor defends the decision to bring felony charges against a woman accused of improperly enrolling her daughters in a school district outside of where they lived, the woman is making plans to appeal and thanking people who supported her as her case drew national attention.

Forty-year-old Akron resident Kelley Williams-Bolar, a single mother who worked as a high school teaching assistant and had no prior criminal record, was found guilty of felony records-tampering and served nine days in jail. Prosecutors said she registered her two daughters for school from 2006 to 2008 using her father’s address in the suburban Copley-Fairlawn district.

“The family wants nothing less than complete exoneration for what’s going on,” said the Rev. Bruce Butcher, who is serving as a spiritual adviser to Williams-Bolar, according to The Akron Beacon Journal.

A statement from Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh said it’s an “unfortunate situation” but that Williams-Bolar was prosecuted because she willingly broke the law.

“There are many single mothers and families in similar situations who want the best for their children who are not breaking the law,” Walsh wrote, noting that other school- residency cases have been resolved without prosecution because parents paid tuition or switched schools.

Jurors didn’t reach a unanimous verdict on grand-theft charges against Williams-Bolar and her father, but prosecutors will not pursue a second trial, Walsh said.

The judge who sentenced Williams-Bolar to five years in prison, with all but 10 days suspended, was among those who criticized the use of felony charges in the case.

It also drew interest outside Ohio. Democratic Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. asked that the U.S. attorney general look into the case, saying Williams-Bolar “represents millions of Americans who recognize the unfairness of an education funding system that is based on local property taxes.”