Boydston cuts deal on theft charges

Longtime Hamilton County school board member Janice Boydston has indicated she is happy to do the community service ordered by a local Criminal Court, but she still maintains her innocence in an alleged shoplifting incident.

"She will do this community service just like she has done for the past 30 years," defense attorney Sam Robinson said on behalf of his client Monday.

Accused in the summer of 2008 of stealing about $40 worth of merchandise from the Lookout Valley Walmart, Ms. Boydston worked out a deal Monday with prosecutors in which she does not have to admit guilt in the matter but is required to perform 57 hours of community service at either the Chattanooga Food Bank or the Community Kitchen.

Despite the deal, Mr. Robinson reiterated that she would have gone to trial to prove that she was not guilty.

Ms. Boydston did not wish to comment yet about the one count of misdemeanor theft under $500 that finally is resolved, he said. She had been fighting the charge for more than a year.

The deal hinges on Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Rebecca Stern's willingness to grant Ms. Boydston pretrial diversion, an alternative form of punishment available only to those who do not have a prior criminal record.

Ms. Boydston must remain on pretrial diversion and complete her service within three months, after which all evidence of the criminal prosecution against her will be expunged from the public record.

Hamilton County prosecutor Bill Hall had been adamantly opposed to Ms. Boydston receiving pretrial diversion. He also had wanted Ms. Boydston to perform five full days of public trash pickup along local highways or, as an alternative, force her to work 80 hours at the Community Kitchen.

"Our office still takes a denial of (pretrial diversion)," Mr. Hall said Monday in court before agreeing to the compromise of 57 hours of community service.

Mr. Hall said he saw the surveillance video in which Ms. Boydston appears to be putting several items into her purse during a Walmart shopping trip and said he was sure a jury would have convicted her at trial.

Ms. Boydston always has maintained her innocence, telling the Chattanooga Times Free Press at the time of her arrest that she accidentally dropped the items into her open purse. She pointed out that she had paid for about $85 worth of groceries during the same visit.