From 1998: David Ralston’s Record of Fighting for Child Molestors
by PV
[Source for below post: https://groups.google.com/forum/#%21topic/alt.law-enforcement/dYyFpuVBGcQ]
GIVE US BACK OUR CHILDREN, & NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR FAMILY COURT JUSTICE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Vicki Pierce
August 5, 1998
KLEIN ENDORSED BY CHILDREN’S ADVOCACY GROUPS FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL
After reviewing past records of Republican Attorney General candidates, mothers interested in protecting children from child abuse and sexual exploitation, have found that State Senator David Ralston has a career record of legally protecting child molesters and abusers, and has argued in the courts against legislation which protects Georgia’s children. Ralston promises to defend our values and improve our juvenile courts, yet his past actions have made him an adversary to children’s advocates trying to change child abuse judiciary laws during the 1998 Legislative session.
In Dayton v. State of Georgia, Ralston argued that a 63-year-old man convicted of 2 counts of aggravated child molestation, oral sodomy and 1 count of regular child molestation of a 13-year-old girl, his step-grandchild, should be found innocent. Ralston argued against the use of the Child Hearsay Statute and claimed that the child initiated the sex and wanted it. In Hyatt v. State, Ralston represented a father convicted of sodomizing his 7-year-old son, saying that the 7-year-old was not competent to testify. This is the precisely the reason that the Child Hearsay Statute is so necessary for the protection of children against Father’s Rights’ litigators such as Ralston — that children are not considered credible witnesses, that youngest of our society virtually have no protection from child predators due to their youth and inability to successfully verbalize under cross-examination.
In Chastain v. State, Ralston again advocated to overturn an aggravated sodomy and child molestation case against a father of an 11-year-old girl. Ralston wanted to interview the child as to what she believed to be molestation, trying to say that the child consented to it. The child had previously been caught in bed with an uncle and Ralston tried to show that she was sexual and initiated the acts.
In Schuler v. State, Ralston represented a teacher in a cruelty to children charge with 21 counts of simple battery. Schuler had told a child “to go the bathroom and beat off.” Luckily, Ralston lost this case. Then there’s Weaver v. Chester where Ralston tried to help a dead-beat dad from paying child support. He lost that one, as well. There are so many others so onerous and numerous to list in a short release.
Last fall, when Sen. Joe Burton was conducting Senate hearings on Sen. Bills 71-75 before the Senate Special Judiciary Committee, Sen. David Ralston was a virtual ghost, even though his name was on the Bills. We, the mothers testifying before this committee, got no support from him. When trying to get community leaders to testify before this committee, I was asked by many why these bills weren’t being heard by the Senate Judiciary Committee, that the Special Judiciary Committee wasn’t as strong, that there was something wrong with this situation, especially since Ralston was on the Judiciary Committee.
I never got an answer to the question or why Ralston balked at helping us; but, after looking up his legal record, I now have the answers.
Georgia’s children deserve better than this, than just another Republican hypocrite in the AG’s office, who will not protect them in the courts.
Integrity in the Attorney General’s office is essential in upholding laws designed to prosecute child abusers, and that is why the mothers of Give Us Back Our Children and the National Alliance for Family Court Justice are endorsing and voting for Kip Klein.
