THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 10, 1994 TAG: 9411100640
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B01 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: EDENTON LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Elizabeth T. Kelly will be a free woman Nov. 26 or earlier after serving 11 months in prison in the Little Rascals case, the Parole Commission said Wednesday.
Kelly, 39, went to prison in January after pleading no contest to 26 counts of taking indecent liberties with children at Little Rascals Day Care Center in Edenton and to three other sex-abuse counts.
She was sentenced to seven years.
Kelly and her husband, Robert F. Kelly Jr., owned and operated Little Rascals.
Robert Kelly was convicted on 99 counts of child sexual abuse and sentenced to 12 consecutive terms. Former day care cook Dawn Wilson was sentenced to life in prison. Both Kelly and Wilson are appealing.
Another defendant, Willard Scott Privott, pleaded no contest to sexual-abuse charges in June and was placed on probation.
Four defendants still await trial.
The first charges in the case were filed against Robert Kelly in 1989. His trial, the first, began in August 1991 and ended in May 1992.
Elizabeth Kelly was eligible for release when she entered prison; her attorney, Joe Cheshire, argued that she shouldn't be incarcerated at all. But she was taken to prison after Superior Court Judge D. Marsh McLelland sentenced her to seven years.
The Parole Commission denied her release after hearings in April. Supporters argued for early release and opponents argued that she stay in prison. At that time, she became eligible for the November release date.
``It is important for the public to understand that the commission no longer has authority to keep Mrs. Kelly incarcerated,' said commission Chairman Juanita Baker.
The state's Fair Sentencing Act requires that people serving felony sentences longer than 18 months be released 90 days from their sentence expiration, said Tracy Herring, the commission spokeswoman. Elizabeth Kelly's sentence will expire on Feb. 24.
Other factors contributing to the release date are good time, gain time and merit time. Automatic good-time credit cut the seven-year sentence in half; Kelly received gain-time credit for working in the prison.
Kelly also received credit for the more than two years she spent in jail before she raised bond money. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Elizabeth Kelly
KEYWORDS: SEX ABUSE LITTLE RASCALS DAY CARE
SEX CRIME CHILD ABUSE
by CNB