Child Molest Charges Dropped Against Child Porn Judge

Child molestation charges against former Orange County Superior Court Judge Ronald Kline – still under house arrest in a computer child porn case - have been dropped in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court striking down California's law that allowed prosecution of decades-old sex crimes, the Associated Press reported July 3. 

Kline's attorney Paul S. Meyer told reporters he believed his client would have won if the child molest case went to trial. This case was based on a man claiming that as a 12-year-old boy, he had been molested by Kline between 1976 and 1978, the AP said. Prosecutors told the AP they were disappointed but had no choice with the high court ruling. 

Kline still faces federal child porn charges, but a majority of the evidence against him in that case was recently thrown out after a judge ruled it had been obtained illegally by a Canadian computer hacker who claimed himself a law enforcement worker.