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Another felon running as write-in for Youngstown school board
YOUNGSTOWN
Keland L. Logan, who is running for the Youngstown school board, is the second write-in candidate for that office to be a felon.
Logan’s trafficking-in-drugs conviction from 2014 came to light from a tipster to The Vindicator on Wednesday, the same day the newspaper reported Clarence N. Boles, another Youngstown school board write-in candidate, was a felon.
Felons can run for elected office under state law, but cannot hold office should they win.
“I have hope that, if elected, I could go to court and get the right to hold the seat,” Logan, 36, said. “I regret the decisions I made, but I don’t regret the lessons I’ve learned from those decisions.”
Logan, of Oak Hill Avenue, and three others were indicted in April 2014 in Mahoning County after being accused of selling marijuana and heroin and laundering the money by making and producing rap music, according to Vindicator files.
Logan pleaded guilty Aug. 25, 2014, to trafficking in drugs, a felony, and had a felony charge of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity dismissed. He was sentenced to one year’s probation and served about 11 months with the final month dropped, according to court records.
Logan’s request to have his record sealed was denied Sept. 19, 2016, by then-common pleas court Judge Shirley J. Christian.
“The only reason it was rejected was because it was too soon” after the conviction, Logan said.
Logan is director of The Colony, an organization that works with young people to conduct citywide cleanups and other enrichment projects. He was among six people awarded $1,000 each Tuesday by the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. to use toward a city project and honored for work done to improve Youngstown.
“Having been through that [criminal] experience, I know what these kids are going through with peer pressure,” Logan said. “I want to use it as a way to have a real impact.”
Boles, of Idlewood Avenue, the other felon running as a write-in for the Youngstown Board of Education, resigned in September 2004 as the 6th Ward city councilman when The Vindicator reported his convictions from 22 years earlier.
He had served on council since the beginning of that year, and before that, served two years on the board of education.
Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court records uncovered by the newspaper showed that in January 1982, Boles and a woman named Barbara Foster were indicted on charges of felonious assault and endangering children.
The indictment stated Boles and Foster “tortured or cruelly abused” a 1-year-old girl, and the conduct resulted in serious physical harm.
In June 1982, Boles pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of aggravated assault and endangering children, both felonies. In August 1982, he was sentenced to two to five years in prison on each count.
Boles was released from state prison in October 1982 after the judge granted a motion for shock probation. The judge placed Boles on four years’ probation. His probation was terminated in June 1984 on a recommendation of the probation department.
Boles told the newspaper Tuesday he plans to challenge the law prohibiting him from holding elected office.
There are three candidates whose names will appear on the ballot for the three open seats on the Nov. 7 ballot: incumbents Ronald Shadd of Cabot Street and Jackie Adair of Kenneth Street along with Tina Cvetkovich of South Maryland Avenue.
In addition to Logan and Boles, there are three other write-in candidates – Nia L. Simms of Ferndale Avenue, Kyle Johnson of West Chalmers Avenue and Michelle Fleming of Summer Street.