Grand jury hands down 25 indictments to Sheriff Pat Kelly

[courier]

They nailed him on the 1st degree felony charge, right? I'm sure being a big bad sheriff he'll get the treatment but maybe not as what many desire and expect. Also, I think the judge wasn't playing by immediately placing him in custody. The sentencing will certainly be interesting.

[Raider6309]

Only in Athens county the sheriff can get 30 years for selling a bread truck and a pedophile teacher that had relationships with students over a 10 year period gets 5 years. Blackburn should be embarrassed and all of Athens is pissed

[Steely Dan]

Raider - Don't disagree with you on the plea bargain. The one thing that hurt the strength of the case against the teacher was that the other two former students would not cooperate with the investigation. Had they done so, it would have made for a much stronger case going to trial. That's not an excuse though for the plea bargain. I don't like it either.

Now, with the news today about another Athens teacher under investigation, this is really starting to get disturbing.

Back to former sheriff PK.......

We all know that there was a lot more to the PK trial than just the bread truck. The pattern of corrupt activity was the big ticket, and his conviction on a RICO charge is going to result in a significant jail sentence. I will be interested to see where the sentence falls. I don't see Kelly in an advantageous position going into sentencing, based on his conduct in the courtroom, the contempt of court charge from the judge, denial of any bail (since the judge felt he was a flight risk) once convicted, and just the overall abuse of public office by PK. I'm guessing that the judge goes on the high side with the sentencing (towards the maximum of 27 years), versus something on the lower end, at least a double digit sentence. Plus restitution to the county for all of the missing money, a fine, and he pays back all of the salary collected while he was suspended (which is required by statute, so I don't see why the commissioners think that recouping that money is optional).

PK missed his calling in life, he should have been a tele-evangelist. Post conviction, the blind allegiance exhibited by his facebook followers is cult-like, and frankly scary. He could have made a lot more money from his "flock", going that route. :122245

[Raider6309]

I think the investigation on Pat Kelly was a waste of tax payers money like the John Light investigation. Yes he's guiltily but 30 years is ridiculous. Blackburn dropped the ball on the Thomas investigation and pretty much destroyed his relationship with the whole Athens community

[Steely Dan]

The outcome of the current investigation involving the administrators and others who may have known what was going on and either 1) turned a blind eye to it, or 2) were complicit in covering the entire situation up resulting in a failure to report anything, well, that has the potential to incite the folks of Athens even more. Only our prosecutor and his team know why they plea bargained in this situation, and eventually, will have to answer to the voters for that decision. Now, what follows with the current investigation(s) may tilt public opinion back in favor of the prosecutor, or absolutely kill his career. Time will tell.

[Raider6309]

This was all about Blackburn hated Pat Kelly. No one in their right mind believes he deserves 30 years. This should have been make him give up his OPOTA and pay a fine. No let's spend a million dollars of the communities money to boast your(Blackburn) ego. Let's spend $50 on a guy that's been preying on young girls for over 10 years. It's a joke and embarrassing