YOUNGSTOWN — Former Austintown trustee and Poland Township Police Officer Steve Kent’s request for a stay of execution has been denied.

Kent, 54, of Canfield, was sentenced to one year in prison last week after a jury convicted him in August on one felony count of tampering with evidence. The jury acquitted Kent on three charges of sexual battery, which stemmed from allegations that he forced a student to perform sex acts in 2021, while he was the school resource officer at Poland Seminary High School.

The jury found that Kent was guilty of tampering with evidence after state attorneys proved that he performed a factory reset on his phone a day after Poland parent Carla Bobbey notified Kent that she was aware of the girl’s claims and intended to report Kent to the school authorities and police.

Following the conviction, Kent filed a motion for a judgment of acquittal, which Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge John M. Durkin rejected on Friday.

After his sentencing Sept. 20, Kent was taken into custody immediately by Mahoning County Sheriff’s deputies. The next day, Kent filed a petition for a stay of execution, asking the court to allow him to remain free on bail while he pursues his appeal of the conviction. He remained in Mahoning County Jail over the weekend while Durkin pondered the motion.

On Tuesday, Durkin issued a ruling simply stating that Kent’s motion had been overruled.

However, in Kent’s motion for post-verdict judgment of acquittal, Durkin wrote that the court “has complied with the purposes and principles of sentencing…under Ohio Revised Code.”

“This court finds that a non-prison sanction would demean the seriousness of the offense, that it would not adequately protect the public and would not adequately punish the defendant,” Durkin wrote.

Kent also could get up to two years of probation after his release, at the court’s discretion, and could face additional jail time if he commits any other crimes during his sentence or probation period.

During sentencing, Durkin said he could not think of a tampering conviction in which the defendant was a police officer, and agreed with state attorney Kara Keating that “as public officials, we are — and we should be — held to higher standards.”

Durkin told Kent that his position as school resource officer put him in a unique position to impact lives.

“A poor decision as to a factory reset unfortunately impacted the ability of law enforcement to conduct its full investigation,” Durkin said.