COLUMBUS — Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday granted clemency for Tom Noe, the central figure in the Coingate public corruption scandal, setting the stage for his release from prison six years early — despite a unanimous recommendation from the parole board against it.
The governor had started the review of Noe’s case as part of his broader effort to reduce population in light of the spread of the coronavirus inside state prisons. But that was not a good enough reason to release Noe, nine members of the Ohio Parole Board said.
“While the board took into consideration the applicant’s health issues, they determined that the applicant’s health did not outweigh the seriousness of the applicant’s behavior,” the board wrote in the recommendation delivered to the governor’s desk.
The parole board did not hold a new hearing. Board members met electronically to deliberate because of the coronavirus. In recommending that Mr. DeWine not commute Noe’s sentence, the board found that Noe requires routine follow-up health care just like many other inmates.
It said Noe betrayed public trust and “granting clemency would not act as a deterrent to future criminal behavior by either the applicant or others in a similar position of handling public funds.” It also cited that there was no plan for how restitution would be made.
But the governor approved clemency anyway.
“The ultimate decision under the Ohio constitution is mine,” Mr. DeWine said. “The buck stops with me.”
An unanswered question is how Noe will make restitution of the $13.7 million in state funds he was convicted of stealing.
“We're never going to get restitution while he's sitting in prison, and that's one of the considerations,” Mr. DeWine said.
The governor last week identified Noe with 25 other cases of nonviolent, nonsex-offender inmates who could be considered for early release because of spread of coronavirus behind prison walls. On Friday he approved seven of those.
“It does not mean they walk away free,” he said. “It means they're under supervision. Tom Noe, for example, has to report every six months. He has to have basically a debtor's exam — what money he has, where that money is. And there will be an opportunity, we hope, that he will be able to begin paying this money back...
“I felt enough time had passed, that he'd been in prison a long time,” he said. “He committed a serious act, a serious act. He's been punished for it, and I felt that was enough time.”
These particular inmates were identified because they were over the age of 60, had records clean of serious infractions behind bars, and had underlying health conditions that might place them at greater risk. Noe is 65 and, according to his long-time Toledo attorney Richard Kerger, has asthma and suffered a bout of pneumonia in 2016.
Noe has served nearly 12 years of an 18-year state sentence for theft, racketeering, and other charges for stealing from an unprecedented $50 million investment in rare coins that he arranged and managed on behalf of the Bureau of Workers' Compensation, the state-run insurance fund for injured workers.
Before that, he served nearly two more years in federal prison for illegally steering contributions through conduits to the 2004 re-election campaign of then President George W. Bush.
“It is what it is,” said Lucas County Prosecutor Julia Bates, whose office prosecuted the case.
“I asked the questions,” she said. “I don't think they were adequately answered. I hope for the best, that he'll just write a check and move on with life. There are so many more pressing issues with the virus, economy, government, and country — too much to be worrying about Tom Noe. We did our job.”
Mr. Kerger declined comment.
Noe, a former Lucas County Republican chairman, had the longest pending sentence among any of the 26 inmates under consideration for early release. He still faces a judgment to pay $12.4 million in outstanding restitution and court costs.
Asked by The Blade if he thought Noe deserved clemency even without the ongoing medical emergency, Mr. DeWine said that the coronavirus situation had forced his administration to take a look at these cases.
Noe was slated to get out of prison in 2026, but the clemency conditions, which Noe accepted, would keep him under the supervision of the Ohio Adult Parole Authority through until Oct. 22, 2031.
He must enter into a “good faith repayment” plan for costs, fines, and restitution based on his financial situation. Every six months he will have to update the authority on his finances. He is barred from having any business relationship with a public body.
If he violates the terms of the agreement, the parole board may hold a hearing to consider sending him back to prison to complete his sentence.
There were no restrictions included on his travel.
David Pepper, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman, noted that he has been publicly supportive of Mr. DeWine during this crisis because he has deferred to the experts when making decisions.
“Here he did the opposite,” he said. “To ignore the parole board’s unanimous judgment on this — on such a politically charged decision — is a real error of judgment. And further undermines the people’s confidence that there is a fair system of criminal justice in Ohio.”
Mr. DeWine was a U.S. senator at the time that The Blade uncovered the Coingate scandal, and he was among several public officials who subsequently shed his campaign contributions received from Noe.
His political action committee donated $5,000 received from Noe, along with $2,500 from the 1992 and 1994 U.S. Senate campaigns, to the Toledo Children's Hospital Foundation and the Mercy Children's Hospital Foundation in Toledo.
Mr. DeWine lost re-election the following year along with every other statewide executive officeholder with the exception of one. His political comeback began four years later when he was elected Ohio attorney general.
The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction did not immediately respond to a request for Noe’s release date from Marion Correctional Institution. The prison has been among the hardest hit with coronavirus, with one of its guards dying from it.
“The coronavirus made us go look at people over 60 who had compromised medical situation,” Mr. DeWine said. “That was certainly part of the consideration that went into my decision.”
Read Mr. DeWine’s commutation of Noe’s sentence here. The supplemental report from state parole authorities can be found here, and Noe’s acceptance of his conditional commutation can be found here.
First Published April 17, 2020, 6:36 p.m.
