Jack & Jill Politics

Kelley Williams-Bolar tried to give her kids a better life by sending her children to the nearby majority-White school district where her father lives — and she went to jail for it.  Now her career as a teacher is in jeopardy.

Real justice requires that the punishment fit the crime; what Williams-Bolar is facing is clearly over the top.  Call on Ohio Governor John Kasich to publicly denounce her punishment and also do all he can to right this wrong.

Go to Color of Change and sign the petition if you haven’t already.

But it’s woefully apparent that the prosecutor in this case had a racially motivated agenda:

The Summit County judge who sent an Akron mother to jail after she was convicted of falsifying records so her children could attend Copley-Fairlawn schools said considerable efforts were made to resolve the case before it went to trial.

Common Pleas Judge Patricia A. Cosgrove spoke out after becoming the target of public outcry over the case, which threatens the mother’s job and her hopes to become a school teacher.

Cosgrove said the county prosecutor’s office refused to consider reducing the charges to misdemeanors, and that all closed-door talks to resolve the case — outside of court — met with failure.

And why would the efforts be met with failure?

“The state would not move, would not budge, and offer Ms. Williams-Bolar to plead to a misdemeanor,” the judge said in an interview Wednesday.

Now, in the course of my career, there were times when I’ve had to go to court, and if a judge asked you to plea something down, you did it, or risk the judge overruling you and making you look stupid, but in the case of the prosecutor, Sherri Bevan Walsh, she decided to ignore the judicial advice and throw Williams-Bolar in jail for five years.  The judge reduced it to ten days, probation and community service instead, with the opportunity to expunge Williams-Bolar’s record if she complies.

Bevan Walsh isn’t talking, but since she thought she was so RIGHT on this matter, why not justify this action of throwing the book at someone who society always implores to pull themselves up by the bootstraps?

County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh declined requests from the Beacon Journal to respond to the judge’s comments.

Judge Cosgrove is trying to deflect the heat coming at her from the public on this issue:

Late Wednesday, Cosgrove issued a news release to area newspapers and television and radio stations, citing the need to respond to ”overwhelming public interest” in her sentencing decision.

”The Summit County Prosecutor’s Office retains complete control over whether to charge a person with a felony or a misdemeanor,” the release stated.

Cosgrove’s bailiff said the office had been bombarded by calls from angry area residents, most of whom were saying that Williams-Bolar’s punishment far exceeded her crimes.

And once again, the usual suspects from the Civil Rights Industrial Complex appear to be M-I-A.  They’re going to make me say it:

Why is it when it comes to Black Women being unjustly punished by the justice system, only groups like Color of Change is speaking out?  There’s an appearance of misogynistic tendencies from Black leadership that needs to be called out and addressed in comprehensive fashion, but for now, go over to Color of Change and sign that petition, cause all Kelly Williams-Bolar is guilty of is trying to be a good parent and give herself and her children a better chance at life.

More about Kelly here:

She is a single mother with two girls, ages 12 and 16, and is only a few credit hours short of graduating from the University of Akron with a teaching degree. She was working as a teaching assistant with special needs children at Buchtel High School. She also cared for her ailing father, who was charged with multiple felonies in the residency case.

But the State Prosecutor’s office decided to waste taxpayer money in a state that has already jeopardized getting anymore federal funds, thanks to the boneheadedness of its new Governor John Kasich, who has already killed federal construction projects that would have stimulated Ohio’s economy somewhat – by trying and convicting a single parent who only used her father’s address to send her daughters to a better school.

As Don King would say, “ONLY IN AMERICA.”