A state Court of Appeals panel has upheld the dismissal of child molestation charges, holding that an eight-year delay in bringing the case to trial in Fulton County Superior Court violated the defendant’s constitutional right to a speedy trial.
In its opinion, the appeals court cited a finding by Fulton Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford Jr. that the trial judge on the case until 2008, now-retired Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore, repeatedly put the case off because it would take a long time to try. The case was transferred to Bedford, who ultimately ruled that the charges be dropped. But Bedford also acknowledged that he had not set the case for trial in spring or summer of 2008 in part because he was running for re-election, according to the Court of Appeals opinion.
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