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Friday, February 8, 2008

Ex-WDJX-DJ apologizes for fraud, offers to pay back money

By Jason Riley
jriley@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

Todd Smith, a former WDJX-FM disc jockey known on the air as Todd Kelly, admitted today that he made a “big mistake” and apologized to his family and the community for faking Lou Gehrig’s disease and spending more than $120,000 raised for research on himself.

“I deceived the good people of this Louisville community,” said Smith during his sentencing in Jefferson Circuit Court.

Reading from a prepared statement, Smith, said he was “truly sorry” and asked to be given a chance to “right the wrong I did,” promising to pay back the money he took.

“Hopefully the Louisville community will one day give me a second chance so I can start to make things right.”

Smith, the former promotions director of WDJX who announced in 2001 that he had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, has already been sentenced in federal court to 84 months in prison on charges of wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering.

In August Smith pleaded guilty in state court to several charges of theft and agreed to a 10- to 15-year prison sentence that will be probated for five years, as long as he pays restitution of more than $74,000 at 12 percent interest.

Today, Michael Ferraraccio, who represents Smith, asked Judge Mitch Perry for the minimum 10-year sentence to be imposed, noting that Smith had no prior criminal history and is already facing seven years in federal prison.

But Perry decided on the maximum 15-year sentence, telling Smith that what he had done will have a “chilling effect on charitable giving for who knows how long.”

Prosecutors allege that Smith began raising money in late 2002 for the Todd Kelly Foundation, which was formed about a year after he announced he had been diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, which paralyzes and eventually kills its victims.

For more on this story, read tomorrow’s Courier-Journal.

Reporter Jason Riley can be reached at (502) 582-4727.

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