After Ralston postponed hundreds of court appearances

ATLANTA — Lawmakers who say Georgia’s House speaker abused his power introduced a bill to rein in legislative leave. That’s the law Speaker David Ralston is accused of using over the last decade to postpone hundreds of court appearances for his legal clients.

Rep. Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) has survived calls for his resignation following disclosure of his prolific use of legislative leave. Now some of his critics are targeting the law he used.

When he’s not presiding over the state House of Representatives, Ralston is a defense attorney – who postponed hundreds of appearances in north Georgia courtrooms, according to documents examined by 11Alive news.

Eight postponements were in a sexual assault case. The victim was Hailie Massey, who was 14 at the time.

"It was very emotionally stressful. And it took a physical toll on me at times," Massey, who is now 21, told 11Alive, Thursday.

Massey said her case in Towns County stalled for more than six years as Ralston, who represented her attacker, invoked the Georgia "legislative leave" law, saying his legislative duties took precedence over the scheduled court case.

"I think it was borderline illegal. I mean, aren’t we under the US Constitution allowed a fair and timely trial? Do you think six and a half years was fair and timely?" asked Laurie Wilson, Hailie Massey's mother.

The defendant, Jason Brothers, got a 10-year sentence of probation in 2019 as part of a plea agreement. He served no jail time.

An independent study of eight counties, conducted by former FBI agent Derek Somerville, found Ralston requested nearly 1100 legislative leave continuances – affecting 279 cases. The majority of the cases postponed had been scheduled outside of the actual legislative calendar. Ralston argues that his duties as Speaker consume much of the calendar year.

"No action I have taken has been illegal, wrong, unethical or immoral," Ralston told his House colleagues last year after the postponements became public.

Thursday, some of Ralston’s fellow Republicans introduced a bill to make it illegal for lawyer-legislators to use the legislative leave law to postpone serious criminal cases including homicide, assault and sex crimes.

"We have not mentioned Speaker Ralston’s name. This is about the victims," said state Rep. Jeff Jones (R-Brunswick). "We want to stop this situation from happening to any victims in the state of Georgia ever again."

Last year, the legislature enacted a measure to give judges discretion on whether to grant legislative leave. Rep. Jones and other Republicans said the new bill, if enacted, would free judges from having to make such a decision when the request comes from a powerful lawmaker.