ATLANTA - Former state Senator Ralph David Abernathy the Third is back in jail charged with violation of probation. <br>
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Abernathy was arrested today on charges of theft by deception. He is accused of taking money from friends and relatives of inmates to hire an attorney who would seek their early release from prison. <br>
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Abernathy tells Atlanta television station WSB that the charges against him are not true. <br>
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Abernathy was released from an Atlanta halfway house in May 2001 after serving about a year of his four-year prison sentence for misappropriating state money. <br>
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The son and namesake of a confidant of the Reverend Martin Luther King Junior was sentenced in 2000 for falsifying legislative expense accounts and forging vouchers for state reimbursements totaling $5,700. He also was convicted of trying to influence a witness. <br>
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WSB says Abernathy is accused of violating probation by taking money from friends and relatives of inmates to hire an attorney to seek their early release from jail. He is accused of taking $30,000 from a friend of one inmate and $5,000 from a relative of another inmate. <br>
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A spokeswoman for the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles says the board initiated the investigation. She says the Georgia Bureau of Investigation also is looking into the allegations. <br>
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Abernathy served his sentence at the state prison in Jesup before he was transferred to the Atlanta Transitional Center about six months before his reelase. <br>
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He served three terms in the state Senate until the 1998 elections, when he was barred from seeking re-election because his qualifying check bounced.
