By Sharon Coolidge
The Cincinnati Enquirer

In sentencing a Hyde Park con man to probation Friday morning, a Hamilton County judge said Kenneth Arron's biggest offense is the trail of disappointment he left in Cincinnati.

Attorney Jack C. Rubenstein talks with Kenneth Arron (right) during Arron's sentencing in Hamilton County Court. (Tony Jones photo)

"You are a fraud," Hamilton County Common Pleas Court Judge Mark Schweikert told Arron. "You raised people's expectations and then took them away.

"People's dreams and hopes were lost," the judge said.

Schweikert sentenced the 41-year-old Hyde Park man to three years' probation on his forgery conviction. Police said Arron signed a letter last spring promising that his charitable foundation would give the Taft Museum of Art $19,000 for scholarships to its summer camp - money he never paid.

After the museum awarded two extra scholarships, which were to be paid from Arron's pledge, officials discovered the foundation was fake and Arron had no money. The museum honored the scholarships.

Schweikert ordered Arron to pay a $500 fine and pay the museum $1,680 it spent on advertising the scholarships, money his parents provided, said Arron's attorney, Jack Rubenstein.

Arron also is to have no contact with a list of victims police provided to the court, including through e-mail, Schweikert said.

Arron will remain jailed until he is sent back to Illinois, where he faces similar charges that could land him in prison if he is convicted.

Authorities say the phony philanthropist, lauded as a high-buck contributor to several area groups, is a charming con man who worked to ingratiate himself among Cincinnati's elite.

Cincinnati Police Det. Timothy Tighe said Arron made similar phony promises to almost a dozen other Cincinnati-area nonprofit groups.

Arron told organizations he was the executive director of the Body Chemistre Cares Foundation, which would give out $5 million to local non-profits, Tighe said. Arron was a marketer for Body Chemistre, a Chicago-based clothing company, but the foundation does not exist.

"This is something he's done his entire career," Tighe said. "A lot of organizations have been touched by his criminal activity."

Arron has spent more than half his adult life in prison in Arizona and Illinois for crimes such as credit card theft, writing bad checks and scamming money from people based on lies, according to court records in those states.

Arron, who suffers from a bi-polar disorder, according to court records, said nothing at Friday's sentencing. Rubenstein said Arron's actions in Cincinnati were done in part because he had stopped taking his medicine.

"He was not thinking clearly or abstractly," Rubenstein said.

"He wants to put this behind him," Rubenstein said. "He's made some huge mistakes over the years, and has had a lot of time to think about it.

"He recognizes what he did was wrong."

Tighe said he would have liked to see Arron get a more severe penalty, but said he's keeping the bigger picture in mind:

"It worked out fine," the detective said. "We initiated our investigation and it gave Chicago time to work out their case."

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E-mail scoolidge@enquirer.com