Ralston critic says no ‘cabal’ is behind Bar complaints

House Speaker David Ralston

Credit: Bob Andres / bandres@ajc.com

Credit: Bob Andres / bandres@ajc.com

House Speaker David Ralston

A few weeks ago, House Speaker David Ralston said a pair of complaints with the State Bar of Georgia accusing him of misusing his legislative privileges to delay hearings for his legal clients were the work of a "small, disingenuous cabal."

One of the complainants, Amanda Mosher, responded this week with a 10-page rebuttal that there is no “political or improper motive whatsoever.” Her attorney, Linley Jones, added that Mosher “pursued this renewed grievance solely in the interest of justice and to benefit other aggrieved parties.”

Mosher has been an outspoken critic of Ralston for years, after he filed for 13 delays in the vehicular homicide case of the man who killed her husband and 4-year-old daughter. The case ended in a plea that gave the man a year on probation and a $1,000 fine.

Her complaint cites instances where Ralston invoked legislative leave in the case, but campaign finance records place him at political dinners and fundraisers around the times of nixed hearings and trial dates.

Ralston attorney James Balli said the complaints are “without merit” and urged the Bar to refuse to allow “such political nonsense to sully its disciplinary procedure.”

Mosher’s response, however, said that Ralston was trying to “thwart the timely administration of justice.” She’s asking the Bar to take a broader look at Ralston’s “decade-long practice of delaying justice.”

“For more than a decade, Mr. Ralston engaged in a course of conduct gaming the judicial system for his clients by exploiting legislative leave to postpone the cases against them and delay justice for his clients' victims,” Jones wrote.

>>>More: Bar complaints say Ralston was campaigning when he stalled court cases