Judge rejects ex-Butler County auditor's request for early release

CINCINNATI - A federal judge has rejected a request by Butler County’s former auditor to be released from prison early, an attorney said Tuesday.

Brad Kraemer, attorney for Kay Rogers, told 9 News that Rogers’ request was denied by U.S. District Court Judge Sandra Beckwith.

Rogers has spent the past two years in a federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud and to filing a false income tax return. In July 2011, Rogers was sentenced to a prison in Lexington, Ky.

Although she has about six months left on her sentence, Rogers’ attorney earlier this week filed a request asking that she be allowed to serve the remainder of the time on home incarceration. Kraemer told the court that Rogers had lined up a $50,000 a year job, if she was released.

“(Rogers) has six children and has suffered tremendously for her mistakes and has already suffered tremendous losses,” Kraemer wrote in a letter to the court.

“She is tremendously remorseful for her offenses and would like the opportunity to return to being a productive member of society,” the letter added.

Dating back to 2004, Butler County embarked on an economic development plan that involved fiber optics. The county contracted with a now defunct company called Dynus Corp.

Dynus used the documents signed by Rogers to obtain bank loans that the company never repaid.

Rogers resigned as auditor in 2008 and cooperated with the FBI during its investigation of other elected officials and company executives.

As part of her sentence, Rogers has been ordered to repay $4 million that two banks lost when they made loans to Dynus.