Local News in Brief : Molestations Bring Probation for Musician

A 50-year-old Studio City man who was once a member of the Lawrence Welk orchestra was placed on five years’ probation Friday after pleading no-contest to a charge of performing lewd acts on a child.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dion G. Morrow ordered Robert Ralston to continue in a program of psychological counseling and to refrain from associating with children under 18 unless accompanied by a responsible adult.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Rebecca G. Omens, who urged a state prison sentence, said Ralston met a 13-year-old runaway in New York whom he brought to California in early 1984. Ralston then engaged in sex acts with the boy in his home and in his Granada Hills music studio, Omens said.

Ralston, an organist, entered the no-contest plea earlier this year in exchange for an agreement from prosecutors to dismiss three other charges against him, involving two other boys.

Omens said photographs seized at Ralston’s studio showed him engaging in sex acts with several boys, some of whom could not be located by police. In other instances, the statute of limitations on the crimes had expired, she said.

If Ralston violates any of the conditions of probation, he could be sent to prison for six years, Omens said.