Leonard Church, who served two terms as mayor of Kennesaw before he was convicted of molesting a child, has tentative approval from the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles for early release from his 18-year prison sentence. The victim's mother is now calling on the public to submit letters opposing his release, as the case that shocked this Cobb County city more than a decade ago resurfaces with new urgency.
Church led Kennesaw as mayor from 2000 to 2008, according to Atlanta News First. He was arrested in June 2014 on two felony counts of child molestation, the outlet reports, and pleaded guilty the following year. Court records cited by Atlanta News First show he was sentenced to 18 years in prison followed by 22 years of probation as a registered sex offender, though The Atlanta Journal-Constitution described the total sentence as 40 years, with 18 years to be served behind bars and the remainder on probation.
Guilty Plea Detailed the Charges
Church pleaded guilty to two counts of child molestation and four counts of sexual exploitation of a child, according to WSB-TV. That station reported Church admitted he molested a 9-year-old and exposed the child to 800,000 images of child pornography. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's account of the same plea instead states Church admitted to sexually abusing a 9-year-old boy and possessing what prosecutors described as nearly 1,000 images of child pornography — the two outlets differ on the number of images involved, and the discrepancy has not been resolved in available reporting.
As part of a civil judgment tied to the case, Church was ordered to pay the victim $9.5 million in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages, per the same Atlanta News First report. As of that February report, the outlet noted, Church remained in prison.
Parole Board Signals Early Release
Now, according to FOX 5 Atlanta, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles has tentatively approved early release for Church. The station reports the victim's mother is calling on the public to submit letters opposing his release. Kennesaw, where Church once held elected office, sits in Cobb County, Georgia.
Georgia's parole system is designed to allow public input at this stage. The Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles describes its parole process as an open public process that allows correspondence about a case to be submitted to the Board at any time during an offender's consideration, according to the Board's own guidance. The Board's website also includes parole-case information.
The available reporting does not establish a final parole decision, a hearing date, or a release date for Church. It also does not detail the Board's rationale for the tentative early-release determination in this case.
