Ex-DJ's mother sentenced in fraud case
By Jason Riley
jriley@courier-journal.com
Source:
The Courier-Journal
The mother of ex-disc jockey Todd Kelly pleaded guilty in U.S. District
Court today for failing to report that her son had fraudulently collected
contributions by pretending to have Lou Gehrig’s disease and cancer.
Sybil Smith maintained that she didn’t know Kelly was faking an illness,
but, in what is called an Alford plea, she admitted there was enough
evidence for a jury to convict her. Smith was sentenced to one year of
probation.
“It was a good conclusion and one that was appropriate here because she
didn’t know that her son was falsely stating” he was ill, said Smith’s
attorney, David Mejia. “She believed him just as everyone else did.”
But Mejia acknowledged that during Smith’s time as treasurer of the Todd
Kelly Foundation, she knew that none of the money collected had been given
to charity, despite public statements that 80 cents of every dollar was to
help find a cure to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
“She thought it was going to, but it never did,” Mejia said in an interview.
Mejia said Smith quit the foundation, to help care for her ailing husband,
before Kelly spent most of the funds on himself.
“My position is that she too was a victim,” he said.
Officials with the U.S. Attorney’s office have not yet commented on the
sentence today.
Smith had pleaded guilty last March but when she first appeared for
sentencing earlier this month, Judge Charles R. Simpson III questioned
whether there was evidence to prove she knew about the scam. He continued
the case until today.
Mejia said he told the judge that Smith wanted to go forward with the
sentencing under an Alford plea.
Smith also had pleaded guilty using an Alford plea in Jefferson Circuit
Court in December to 11 counts of misdemeanor theft. She was sentenced to
two years in prison that was to be conditionally discharged as long as she
followed the terms of the federal court sentence.
Todd Kelly, whose real name is Todd Smith, was sentenced in December to
seven years in prison after pleading guilty in August to wire fraud, mail
fraud and two counts of money laundering.
Smith admitted that he duped friends, fellow church members and the media
when he announced that he had ALS, a progressive and incurable neuromuscular
disease that eventually paralyzes those it afflicts, leaving them unable to
eat or breathe.
Reporter Jason Riley can be reached at (502) 582-4727.
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