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	Charges Dropped against Minister By Andria Simmons andria.simmons@gwinnettdailypost.com Gwinnett Daily Post May 5, 2006 http://www.gwinnettdailypost.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id= 32&url_article_id=14714&url_subchannel_id=&change_well_id=2 LAWRENCEVILLE - Child molestation charges that haunted the pastor of a small church in Norcross for the past 15 months have been dropped. The announcement Thursday afternoon at a press conference at Faith Life Fellowship Church confirms what the family and congregation of the Rev. Nathan Ridgeway have maintained all along - Ridgeway is innocent. "When something like this comes about in a pastor's life, it tarnishes their reputation in the community," Ridgeway said in a brief telephone interview earlier Thursday. "I have been wounded in a very bad way. I need a chance to go on." Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter said there was not enough evidence to prosecute Ridgeway on allegations that he molested a 3-year-old member of his immediate family. "Basically what we had available to us was the statement of the victim that was unsupported by any other evidence," said Porter, who said the decision to drop charges was made on April 6. "There was just not enough to support the victim's statement, and there were some inconsistencies within the statement that we just didn't believe was sufficient to prosecute." Ridgeway, 58, was charged with aggravated sexual battery and aggravated child molestation when the 3-year-old allegedly made an outcry of sexual abuse to his mother. Ridgeway was accused of molesting the boy while he was staying with him and his wife from Jan. 18 to 20, 2005. After being released on bond after 18 days in jail, Ridgeway volunteered for and passed a lie detector test, said his attorney Doug Peters. A psychological evaluation by the Behavioral Medicine Institute of Atlanta also determined Ridgeway did not suffer from a sexual disorder and there was no indication that he could have committed the alleged acts, Peters said. During a preliminary hearing last year, Detective Kathy Peal of the Gwinnett County Police Department testified the toddler was examined by a forensic nurse who found bruising on his buttocks. The child has also described an incident in a bedroom where Ridgeway fondled him, Peal said. However, evidence that the boy's mother had pin worms and that he may also have been suffering from the malady when in Ridgeway's care helped bolster the pastor's claims of innocence. Pin worms are known to cause irritation and itchiness in the anal area. After Ridgeway's arrest, three witnesses came forward to testify that bruises on the boy's buttocks that had also caused alarm actually came from an injury while the boy was playing at the church day care, Peters said. Peters said he doesn't believe Peal acted in bad faith, but his impression was that she was not properly trained by the Gwinnett County Police Department to handle the investigation. Peal no longer works as a detective, but she left the department on good terms, said Gwinnett County Police Department spokesman Cpl. Darren Moloney. Moloney disagreed with the attorney's assessment of Peal and said she was specially trained to do her job. "You have to be specially trained, you have to be an extraordinary officer to survive in that unit," Moloney said. "As a police officer, she had to do what she did. We have our job to do and the DA's office has their job to do." Nate Ridgeway Jr., Ridgeway's son and associate pastor at Faith Life Fellowship Church, said his father announced that charges against him had been dropped to the nondenominational congregation during a Tuesday night church service. "He wanted the people that stuck by him at that time to be the first to hear the news," Nate Ridgeway Jr. said. "Before we could get done, everybody was coming around hugging our necks." Although the outcome was the best the family could have hoped for, Ridgeway Jr. said his father's life will never be the same. The family members who made the allegations are still estranged, and attempts by Ridgeway to contact them have been unsuccessful, his son said.
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