Judge Thomas Michael Hanna, who replaced Judge Michael Murry on the case in July, sentenced Allison to pay a fine of $250, $150 of which was suspended, and suspended a 30-day jail sentence providing there are no new violations above minor misdemeanors within a year, according to court records.
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Allison, a structural engineer and elder at the First Church of Christ in Xenia, was charged as the suspect in the theft of a political sign that disappeared the day after the May election from the area of Feedwire and Clyo roads.
Six days after the case was closed, a letter from Allison was entered on the docket along with a personal hand-written note to Judge Murry.
Allison says in the personal note to Murry that he and his lawyer decided against reading the letter as a statement during court proceedings: “However, since our lives are inextricably intertwined, I wanted you to see it.”
Allison’s letter to the court includes an apology and the following: “My actions on May 8 were a juvenile prank to perpetuate an on-going joke at my office … I had no idea that I could be charged with misdemeanor theft for taking a yard sign from the public right of way … In my mind the signs had no value since the election polls had closed more than 24 hours prior.”
The owner of the sign, outspoken Bellbrook-Sugarcreek schools critic John Stafford, offered a $2,500 reward for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons who were responsible for taking his political signs.
Stafford read a victim impact statement to the court prior to Allison’s sentencing. Stafford told the judge in the three months leading up to the election, nearly 300 of his “vote no” signs disappeared from the district’s roadways, according to the statement he provided to the Dayton Daily News.
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“All the signs and the vote no campaign were financed by me personally,” Stafford’s letter reads. “Our right to put out our political message and ability to reach out to the community was being taken away …”
Sugarcreek Twp. police were involved in at least three other incidents during the Bellbrook-Sugarcreek May levy campaign involving alleged vandalism and thefts of political signs.
Voters overwhelmingly rejected the district’s proposed tax after the heated campaign.
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