J. Kevin Kelley sentenced to six years in prison

J. Kevin Kelley leaves the John F. Seiberling Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse after being sentenced to serve 6 years in prison and pay $650,000 in restitution Friday, December 20, 2013 in Akron. The sentence stems from the Cuyahoga County corruption probe. (Joshua Gunter/ The Plain Dealer)

J. Kevin Kelley

AKRON, Ohio – A federal judge today sentenced top snitch J. Kevin Kelley to 6 years in prison, concluding one of the biggest corruption cases in Cuyahoga County history.

The FBI launched the five-year investigation during the predawn hours of July 28, 2008, with a countywide sweep of government offices, contractors’ businesses and the homes of suspects.

Within hours, Kelley, 44, an anonymous midlevel county employee and a member of the Parma school board, approached the FBI offering to turn on his buddies in County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora’s inner circle, dubbed the A-Team.

Kelley’s risky ploy paid off, as he was able to strike a plea bargain with federal prosecutors that spared him from a potentially much longer prison sentence.

In exchange, Kelley provided investigators with a detailed inside look at myriad criminal schemes he took an active role in.

U.S. District Court Judge Sara Lioi said she gave him credit for helping to expose and bring to an end corruption in the county. But in addition to the prison term, she also ordered him to pay $600,000 in restitution to the county, Parma Schools and the Internal Revenue Service.

Kelley confessed to being a bagman for bribes, an integral part of criminal conspiracies, and a witness to years of debauchery, parties with prostitutes, and feasts at expensive restaurants paid for by contractors seeking county business.

Kelley’s testimony helped prosecutors obtain racketeering convictions of Dimora and his driver, Michael Gabor, plus guilty pleas from ex-County Auditor Frank Russo, attorney Anthony O. Calabrese III, and others now serving time in federal prisons. More than 60 politicians, government employees and private contractors have been convicted in the case over the past five years, and the case led to voter approval of a new form of county government in 2009.

Kelley’s sudden notoriety had its downside, however, as he was ridiculed in the local media and abandoned by his extended family and former friends, his attorney, John Gibbons, said. He has spent the past four years living in a rented home in suburban Tampa, and suffers from a multitude of physical ailments.

U.S. District Court Judge Sara Lioi agreed with Kelley’s request to recommend that he spend his time at the federal prison camp in Pensacola, Fla.