While there were times her faith was in doubt, Nancy Smith, 66, a former Head Start bus driver from Lorraine, Ohio, said, had it not been for her faith, she would have given up. Smith was sentenced to 30 to 90 years in prison in 1994 for physical and sexual abuse against children in a Head Start program. She was recently exonerated.
Looking back on the ordeal she said, “You can never lose faith. You can never lose hope.”
She added, “There was a time when I thought I would never go home. But I never gave up my faith because I knew that … this was man’s time. This was not God’s time. And there were times when I thought He was not with me. … You gotta hang in there. You’ve got to be strong.” She said it was her faith that helped her do that.
Smith, who was a single mother at the time of her arrest, was convicted along with Joseph Allen for the alleged abuses against the children in 1994 despite both claiming their innocence.
Smith’s attorney alleged in a civil lawsuit that the claims against her were part of a “sinister insurance scam.”
The lawsuit further alleges that one of the children who accused Smith said an adult manipulated them into repeating false allegations of sexual assault against Nancy for one reason: a pay day.
Later testimony by each of the students involved in the initial complaint stated Smith had never touched them.