President Joe Biden Thursday commuted the sentences of 15 people convicted of federal crimes in Ohio. They were among nearly 1,500 people nationwide whose sentences were commuted by Biden.
All the people receiving commutations were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and “have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities,” according to the White House. Biden also pardoned 39 people, including four Ohioans, in what was the largest single-day act of clemency by a president in modern history.
The people who received commutations are:
Jimmy Dimora, 69. The former Cuyahoga County commissioner was convicted in 2012 of charges including bribery, extortion, wire fraud and racketeering. Prosecutors said he handed out public jobs, influenced Cleveland decision-makers and steered public contracts in return for bribes worth more than $250,000. In 2022, he was resentenced to 23 years. He has been on home confinement since last year. His sentence is scheduled to be commuted in April.Michael E. Davis, 55, pleaded guilty to methamphetamine trafficking, and in 2019 was sentenced to 10½ years in prison. He was a resident of Akron.JaJuan Godsey, 45, was convicted of trafficking drugs in Lima, and in 2012 received a 20-year prison sentence.Tremayne Guin, 54, was convicted of distributing heroin and fentanyl in the Cleveland area. In 2017, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.Delores Knight, 79, was convicted in a $8 million health care fraud scheme in Northeast Ohio. She was sentenced in 2017 to 10 years in prison.Don Maigari, 43, was sentenced in 2018 to nearly 10 years in prison. Prosecutors said Maigari, of Akron, ordered 500 grams of a fentanyl-related drug from China.Marquis Reynolds, 44, of Youngstown, was convicted of drug trafficking and in 2022 received a 63-month prison sentence.Rudolph Small, 73, of Toledo, was convicted of a drug conspiracy charge and sentenced in 2017 to more than 11 years.Tracy Bias, 60, of West Portsmouth, received a 14-year prison sentence in 2014 for drug offenses related to three pain clinics he operated, according to the FBI. He was ordered to forfeit the proceeds of the pain clinics he operated for two years in Portsmouth, Ohio, and Columbus, Ohio, worth $6,348,000.Allen Carnes, 55, of Cincinnati, was sentenced to 17 years in 2014 for his part in a heroin trafficking ring. He was one of seven defendants whom federal authorities said used several houses in the Cincinnati and Lincoln Heights area as “stash houses” to prepare and distribute heroin throughout Greater Cincinnati.Rodney Deloach, 44, of Cincinnati, pleaded guilty in 2019 to distribution of fentanyl and received a 10-year sentence, according to federal court documents.Christopher Hunter, 52, of Dayton, was found guilty in 2007 of possessing cocaine and a firearm by a convicted felon. He received 27 years in prison, later reduced to 24 years and four months, according to federal court documents.Thomas Parenteau, 60, of Hilliard, was a Columbus-area homebuilder convicted in 2011 on 11 of 13 charges of bank and wire fraud, tax conspiracy, money laundering, conspiracy to obstruct justice and witness tampering. A judge sentenced him to 22 years in prison.Jeremiah Pride, Jr., 32, was arrested in Cincinnati in 2017 but charged in Arkansas with intent to distribute methamphetamine.Charles Goff, Jr., 55, of Dayton, was sentenced in 1999 to 15 years on drug trafficking. He was sentenced to an additional 30 years in prison for what the Drug Enforcement Agency described as a “massive drug trafficking and money laundering conspiracy,” according to the Drug Enforcement Agency. His sentence is scheduled to be commuted in April 2025.Four Ohioans also pardoned
Biden also pardoned four Ohioans on Thursday: Duran Brown, 44, of Cleveland; Kim Haman, 75, of Lima; Jamal King, 53, of North Ridgeville, and James Russell Stidd, 79, of Groveport.
What are pardons and commutations?
A pardon “is an expression of forgiveness and can help eliminate some of the consequences of a conviction,” according to the Department of Justice. A commutation reduces a sentence imposed by a federal court, but does not erase the record of a conviction.
Columbus Dispatch reporter Bethany Bruner contributed to this report.
This story was updated to add a video.