Murphy – A change of venue has been granted in the trial of a former Department of Social Service lawyer facing 20 counts of obstruction of justice.
Ronald Lindsay will be tried in Macon County, with a trial date and other details to be worked out later. The prosecution said it would be ready for trial in early 2024.
In May 2020, a Cherokee County grand jury indicted former Department of Social Services director Cindy Palmer, David Hughes (the former Cherokee County DSS Child Protective Unit supervisor) and Ronald Lindsay, the former Cherokee County DSS attorney, for creating illegal custody and visitation agreements used to remove children from their parents outside the courtroom.
Palmer and Hughes pleaded guilty in earlier court proceedings, while Lindsay’s trial date was set for March 7, 2022 and then continued.
On Monday, special prosecutor Benjamin Zellinger told Superior Court Judge William Coward that extensive pre-trial publicity in the case would make it hard to seat a jury in Cherokee County.
Zellinger had suggested the trial be held in Swain County, or even Graham County — “far away from Cherokee County,” where jury-eligible citizens were exposed to extension media coverage of the DSS case.
Zellinger also opposed a trial in Clay County, where “99 percent have heard of this (case),” he said.
Zellinger and defense lawyer Jerry Townson met with Judge Coward in his chambers, after which the change of venue was announced.
Zellinger, a special prosecutor appointed by the state attorney general, said he expects the trial to last up to three weeks.