In January of 2005, I was hired by current District Attorney Scott Ballard to work as an assistant district attorney in the Griffin Circuit. Initially I worked in the Fayette County office where I handled our circuit’s appeals and tried several cases.

In March of 2006, upon request by Scott Ballard, I transferred to the Spalding County office where I prosecuted a full case load until I left the DA’s office in November of 2007.

I am writing because it has come to my attention that misleading information has been given out by candidate Rudjard Hayes regarding my employment with Scott Ballard. Recently a friend of mine, who is a Peachtree City resident and knows my background at the DA’s office, told me that Mr. Hayes had come by his house campaigning.

My friend said that when he mentioned to Mr. Hayes that he knew a former ADA, Mr. Hayes claimed that my departure from the DA’s office was because I didn’t support Mr. Ballard as district attorney. The next day, my friend came home to find an unsolicited Hayes sign in his yard and two more on his doorstep.

This letter is intended to clearly state that I absolutely support Mr. Ballard in this election against Mr. Hayes.

I worked with both men during my time at the DA’s office. As a young attorney, I needed guidance in not only the substantive criminal law, but courtroom practice and procedure. Mr. Hayes was an early teacher of mine and actually sat with me during my first criminal trial in Fayette County.

Mr. Ballard, however, remained my primary mentor and sat with me on my second trial, and subsequent trials as necessary.

When I transferred from the Fayette DA’s office to the Spalding DA’s office, I initially prosecuted the majority of victim crimes, with the exception of the sex crimes, which were handled by Mr. Hayes.

Upon Mr. Hayes abrupt departure mid-summer of 2007, I was assigned to prosecute the majority of the sex crimes, in addition to my previous case load.

With Mr. Ballard’s assistance and support, I handled these cases through the summer and winter trial calendars of last year. My last trial with the DA’s office was in October of 2007, and resulted in the conviction and sentencing of a child molester in Spalding County.

I understand that a central theme to this election has been the appropriate prosecution of child molestation cases. Having prepared and tried these cases myself — specifically those cases left by Mr. Hayes — I think that the public has been provided a very unjust view of Mr. Ballard’s approach to these cases.

As Mr. Hayes well knows, there are many factors that go into the preparation and prosecution of these types of cases. Plea offers are made based upon such considerations as the evidence or lack of evidence in the case, the disposition of the victim, the believability of the victim, and the likelihood of harm to young victims by participating in a trial and being forced to confront his or her abuser, among many other things.

These are certainly the most difficult cases a prosecutor can handle, and it is my experience that during Mr. Ballard’s tenure in our circuit no plea offer has been made in a sex crime case without the consultation of the victim and his or her family.

Often times the recommendation may appear soft to the community, but has been made in a part due to the expressed desire on the part of the victim and his or her family to resolve the matter short of a trial.

As prosecutors we must present to the victims our assessment of the case, the likelihood of success, and the risk of acquittal and then consider their wishes in making our decision.

Although just about all victims want the defendant to go away for life, they often prefer to offer a shorter plea to avoid the trauma and risk of a trial.

This is not being soft on crime. This is ensuring convictions and a sentence in often difficult cases. There are simply too many factors that come in to play for any outsider, myself included now that I am no longer there, to fairly pass judgment on the appropriateness of a plea offer or sentence recommendation based solely on publicly available information.

I would like to be clear, however, that I have never been told by Mr. Ballard that I should make a “soft” offer because he believes a defendant deserves leniency or because we, as a DA’s office, cannot afford to lose the case.

Mr. Ballard, himself, has tried several “tough” cases and lost. I truly believe that these were difficult cases, and no attorney could have done better, Mr. Hayes included.

If our victims wanted a case tried, despite our explanation of the risk involved, we tried it. Mr. Ballard supports and empathizes with the victims in our circuit. I believe he does everything in his power to fully prosecute those defendants that appear in our courtrooms including, and perhaps most especially, the sexual offenders.

By now it should be clear that my departure from the DA’s office had nothing to do with my confidence in Mr. Ballard as a district attorney.

I was offered an amazing opportunity to come to work at Alston & Bird, a large law firm in mid-town Atlanta. I simply could not turn the offer down, and made clear to Mr. Ballard that I appreciated all he did for me, and hoped that we may work together again in the future. I also pledged my support for him in the upcoming elections.

Having worked with, and to some extent for, both men, I feel I’m in a unique position to offer advice on which candidate the citizens of this circuit should vote for in the upcoming election.

With enthusiasm, I highly recommend Scott Ballard for district attorney.

Cindy Spindler

Tyrone, Ga.

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