The Fulton County Solicitor General’s Office will not prosecute the husband of a former Alpharetta city councilwoman over allegations that he roughed up a child on a playground last fall.
A Roswell woman claimed Paul Oakes slammed her daughter out of a swing at Wills Park, causing the girl to land on her back and head, because he wanted his granddaughter to have a turn. Oakes denied touching the child.
“Other than the testimony of a 4-year-old child, there are no witnesses as to what the mother of the child claims that Paul Oakes did,” Solicitor General Carmen Smith wrote in a letter to the GBI, obtained by Channel 2 Action News.
Alpharetta police handed the case to the state to avoid the appearance of conflict of interest. Some have speculated that the controversy following the Oct. 15 incident, including the mother’s charge that officers gave Oakes a pass, cost Oakes’ wife, Cheryl, her council seat in November.
Oakes said he considers the decision his vindication. “I trusted that the truth would come out,” he said.
The child’s mother, Christole Abdelmaseh, said she will seek an arrest warrant for Oakes through Fulton County Magistrate Court. She said she hopes a judge will see that responding officers botched the case, later receiving light reprimands for failing to seek out witnesses and writing up inconsistent reports.
“I just don’t understand how he can completely get away with harming a child,” she said.
Oakes said, given the publicity, any witnesses would have come forward by now.
“What it says is that my version of the story was more likely the facts,” he said of the solicitor’s decision.
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