Trial preparations underway for former Athens cop whose child molestation conviction was overturned

Kristin Matthew Ward

By Joe Johnson

Convicted of child molestation in 2018, a former Athens-Clarke County police officer is now gearing up for a new trial .

Kris Ward successfully appealed the conviction on grounds that prosecutors improperly used immunized statements he had made to superiors during a police internal affairs investigation.

Now 36 years old, Ward was released from prison in January 2021, after serving just three years of a 55-year sentence.

Although there is no law or standing rule, criminal cases involving police officers are typically prosecuted by a district attorney from outside the judicial circuit where the officers are employed.

Ward’s case was initially prosecuted by the Piedmont Circuit district attorney and the new trial is being handled by the Alcovy Circuit.

District Attorney Randy McGinley this week said that a status conference will be held in October with Western Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Lisa Lott to decide on a timetable for the new trial.

According to court records, Ward was a senior police officer with ACCPD when arrested in 2015 for allegedly sexually molesting a 13-year-old boy who was under his supervision a cadet in the Civil Air Patrol at Athens-Ben Epps Airport.

The officer was commander of the youth group,

He reportedly spent a lot of time with the victim and the boy’s twin brother outside of the Civil Air Patrol, playing video games at his apartment and having them for sleepovers,

The records show that Ward frequently took the boys out to dinner, gave them gifts and even brought them on trips to Savannah and San Francisco.

The alleged molestations occurred while the three of them watched television in the officer’s darkened home.

The victim eventually told his parents what had been going on, and he subsequently underwent psychological counseling and the incidents were reported to the police.

The case was referred to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for an independent review of the facts and an internal affairs investigation was launched by the police department to determine Ward’s continued employment.

After a trial in March 2018, a jury found Ward guilty of child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes and violating his oath as a police officer. He was acquitted him of the more serious charge of aggravated sexual battery.

Statements that Ward had made during the internal affairs probe were considered to have been coerced and were therefore excluded as evidence in the trial.

However, his attorney argued that prosecutors had improperly used the protected statements for trial preparation, and the Georgia Court of Appeals agreed and remanded the case back to Superior Court for a new trial.