Kevin Kenerly pleads no contest, gets no prison time | VIDEO | Gwinnett Daily Post

Kenerly pleaded no contest to a single count of bribery Tuesday, nearly four years after his original arrest and resignation in light of allegations involving shady land deals. In a compromise reached with Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter, the four-term county commissioner will pay a $10,000 fine and spend the next decade on probation.

He will not be incarcerated.

“I think we resolved the case and took an albatross from around the neck of the county,” Porter said. “There are going to be people who disagree with it, but given the condition of (Kenerly’s) wife and given the condition of the case, and everything else I had to take into account — what is it? ‘The definition of a compromise is nobody’s happy’? That may be where we are.”

Kenerly’s wife, Beth, found out in recent months that she has Stage IV breast cancer with “multiple complications.” Her condition — and the fact the couple still has one child in middle school, two in high school and another in college — was a major factor in the prison-less sentence, Porter said.

Even after Tuesday’s plea, Kenerly and attorney Pat McDonough continued to maintain the ex-commissioner’s innocence, saying he had merely grown weary of fighting the charges.

via Kevin Kenerly pleads no contest, gets no prison time | VIDEO | Gwinnett Daily Post.