Olney man sentenced to 28 years in assault case

An Olney man who pleaded guilty earlier this year to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon for beating his victim with a can of beans was sentenced to 28 years in prison last week for violating the terms of his probation, Olney Police Chief Dan Birbeck said.

Ryan Scott Ralston, 36, was sentenced in April to 10 years of community supervision and ordered to pay a $2,500 fine, restitution and court costs after admitting to assaulting his victim and tampering with a witness.

But in the intervening months, OPD had “multiple reports” that Ralston assaulted his former victim, caused criminal damage to her vehicle and was making contact with her in violation of a no-contact order, Chief Birbeck said.

Chief Birbeck said Ralston called the victim on her cell phone while she was at the police station, and he recorded the call and submitted it to Young County Probation Officer Spencer Key.

“I put together a violation of court order report and provided that to [Mr Key] and he filed a request to revoke and adjudicate Ralston for the original crimes because he is not following his probation orders,” he said.

At an Oct. 15 probation revocation hearing, Mr. Ralston contested Mr. Key’s report but District Judge Stephen Bristow found that he had violated the court’s order, Chief Birbeck said.

Judge Bristow sentenced Mr. Ralston to 20 years in prison on the aggravated assault charge, and eight years in prison on the witness tampering charge, he said. The sentences will run consecutively, he said.

Jail records show that Mr. Ralston has been arrested multiple times in Young County on assault charges, including arrests in 2021 and 2022 in addition to the current case.

“The message is … the Olney Police Department has been re-legitimized,” Chief Birbeck said. “We take our job very seriously. If you are harming the public … we are going to investigate it, we are going to adjudicate it, and we are going to do it with integrity and transparency.”