Former Ohio bus driver still pushes for pardon

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

A former Head Start bus driver in Northeast Ohio who served more than 14 years in prison says she will continue pushing for a pardon in the child sex abuse case.

The Ohio Parole Board rejected Nancy Smith’s plea for the pardon, sending the issue on to Gov. John Kasich for final say on the pardon request. The Plain Dealer of Cleveland reports that Smith says she will keep trying, even with future governors if needed.

“I just want to clear my name,” said the 55-year-old Lorain County grandmother. “I don’t want anything else. I’m a grandmother. That’s all I want to do.”

She was convicted of child sex crimes in 1994, after prosecutors charged that she delivered preschool children to a sex offender. She was sentenced to 30 to 90 years in prison, but a procedural mistake resulted in her release in 2009. At one point, a judge threw out her conviction, but the Ohio Supreme Court reinstated it. A plea agreement with prosecutors prevented her from being returned to prison, but she continued to insist she didn’t commit the crimes.

The parole board last week voted 9-2 to deny her request for a pardon, saying the arguments presented failed to persuade most board members that she didn’t commit the crimes.

The board’s report also said the nature of her crimes make her a risk to repeat the offenses, saying her four years out of prison isn’t long enough to remove that concern. Her attorneys have raised questions about whether testimony of children in the case was influenced by what they heard parents and police say.

Smith said she wasn’t surprised by the board’s decision.

“This has been going on for 20 years. You would think by now somebody would want to stop this and do what’s right,” she said.

If Kasich turns her down, she will keep going back to him and any successors.

“I guarantee you, every two years I will be knocking on his door,” Smith said.