Can You Afford Justice? Ramsey Case Almost Precedent Setting

October 12, 2004

All Alex Ramsey wanted was to be a father to his four year-old daughter Eden. Sadly, as so many fathers learn when they attempt to assert their paternal rights within a divorce and custody battle, when Alex followed Eden’s mother from Idaho to Arizona, he found himself accused of molesting the child. It was September 2003 and the unimaginable became reality and Alex was indicted by an Arizona Grand Jury on eight counts of child molestation. Alex Ramsey maintained his innocence as he was carted off to jail.

Faced with the possibility of serving life in prison without the possibility of parole and incarcerated on charges that offered no bail bond (in other words not even $3 million a la Michael Jackson could free him temporarily), and represented by a public defender who I shall call Alice, the 52 year-old Ramsey had little to be optimistic about.

Fortunately for Mr. Ramsey a few friends came to his aid. It was just after New Years 2004 when the undersigned received a phone call from another client from the small town of Prescott. The client informed me I would be receiving a query from one of Ramsey’s buddies who was driven to see him vindicated. In fact, I did receive the friend’s call and told him in these cases “one receives as much justice as one can afford.”

I was retained to consult on Ramsey’s case and the friend and my other client made sure I received a copy of the discovery in timely fashion. From Alice’s shoddy pleadings to nonsensical medical findings to the child’s fresh complaint- the product of scripting and taint, I recommended a complete new strategy which would require resources and experts. Real Experts!

Ramsey’s disciples scraped up the resources and I managed to secure a dream team to prove Ramsey’s innocence while simultaneously impeaching his daughter’s accusations. After Ramsey fired Alice upon my recommendation to do so, we retained a new pitbull criminal defense attorney, forensic pediatrician, cognitive child developmentalist that specialized in children’s suggestibilities, and sexual deviancy psychologist.

Aided by the March 2004 U.S. Supreme Court case of Crawford v. Washington, which stated that competent child witnesses’ “testimonial hearsay” must first be interviewed by defense counsel (Ramsey’s child was never cross-examined by defense counsel and her statements were going to be reported to a jury at trial by investigators and therapists), our medical expert’s report that stated the absent hymen was masked by a labial adhesion, our suggestibility expert’s findings that the child’s tapes were unintelligible and she never implicated her father, and Ramsey’s clean bill of psychosexual health which included passing a PPG (Penile Plethysmograph) and AASI (www.abelscreen.com), we had the State of Arizona on the defense, not the offense.

I saw my client, Alex Ramsey, in jail on August 27, 2004. He was emaciated and suicidal. It was obvious there was not much fight left in this man. But he held on until he heard the unbelievable news four days ago when the State of Arizona moved to dismiss all charges against him. And the Judge granted and signed the order to dismiss all charges and release him from custody. It’s very possible the State dropped charges to avert having a “Taint Hearing” on the issue of the child’s scripted and contaminated disclosures. There is no case-on-point in Arizona relative to Taint Hearings.

Surreal. Kafkaesque. Unconscionable. You can come up with a ton of adjectives to describe the case of Arizona v. Alex Ramsey. Yet, the issue of erroneous child sex abuse charges is pervasive and much bigger than Alex Ramsey. How many Alex Ramsey’s are sitting in jail across America awaiting “justice?”

Dean Tong