East Texas

By KENNETH DEAN
Staff Writer

For the third time in less than a week, the defense attorney in the “Mineola Swinger’s Club” case has filed a motion for continuance, this time raising new allegations about the foster family and the state’s “outcry” witness.

Thad Davidson filed a motion with 241st District Judge Jack Skeen on Wednesday asking for a 90-day continuance in the trial of his client, Patrick “Booger Red” Kelly, in a case involving the sexual exploitation and abuse of small children, who were forced to dance and perform sex acts in front of adults.

In the document submitted to the court by Davidson, the attorney requests more time to properly prepare his case, writing that he received new information in the criminal case against John Cantrell, who was arrested last week and is being extradited to California on child sexual abuse charges stemming from alleged incidents from 1990 to 1991.

Cantrell’s wife, Margaret “Rose,” (the outcry witness) has not been charged, but is named in the new allegations by Davidson.

She has told the Tyler Morning Telegraph in an earlier story that the allegations about her husband are false.

The newspaper obtained a copy of the motion for continuance late Wednesday and obtained motions by a local television station and the Smith County District Attorney’s Office seeking to quash subpoenas for a TV reporter and the lead prosecutor in the case.

Those motions to quash subpoenas for the TV station and DA’s office came after the Tyler Paper’s attorneys won victories Monday night and then again in court Tuesday morning.

Davidson began filing motions late last Friday asking for his first continuance hearing on what was to be the opening day of the trial.

While the hearing for the continuance was under way Monday morning, the Tyler Paper’s court reporter Casey Knaupp was called out of the courtroom and served with a subpoena to testify. The subpoena called her as a witness and requested her personal phone records and any recordings or written information she may have in regards to the case.

Because Davidson then asked Skeen to swear in the witnesses, she and other witnesses were placed under restrictions, keeping them from talking about the case, which kept Ms. Knaupp from effectively doing her job as the reporter covering the morning hearing.

The newspaper’s attorneys immediately sought emergency relief on the restrictions and filed a motion to quash the subpoena, which would take Ms. Knaupp off the witness list.

Monday evening, Skeen ordered that relief and allowed Ms. Knaupp to report on the hearing earlier that morning that gave Davidson his first continuance.

While attorneys and reporters for the newspaper continued to work the case Monday evening, Davidson made statements to other news media that he had also subpoenaed KLTV reporter Danielle Capper and Smith County Assistant District Attorney Joe Murphy, the prosecutor in the case, and said his reason was because the two reporters had dated the prosecutor and that their coverage of the case had been biased because of the relationships.

During a hearing on the newspaper’s motion to quash Ms. Knaupp’s subpoena, Skeen ordered that all reporters be allowed to cover the trial and barred them from being restricted as witnesses in the case. He further granted Davidson a continuance until Friday in the motion to quash.

The Smith County District Attorney’s Office, acting as the state, has also filed a motion to quash the subpoena for Murphy, as have KLTV attorneys for Ms. Capper.

The three motions to quash hearings are scheduled for 9 a.m. this Friday to determine if Ms. Knaupp, Ms. Capper and Murphy will have to testify in a change of venue hearing Davidson has also filed.

Davidson said the coverage by Ms. Knaupp and Ms. Capper he believed was biased would not allow his defendant a fair trial.

Skeen admonished Davidson in open court Tuesday, saying he shouldn’t be giving interviews to the media about the case then claiming the jury pool is tainted. Skeen then issued a protective and restrictive order in the case to keep the attorneys or witnesses, excluding journalists, from discussing the case.

Officials said the new motion for continuance and the change of venue would be held Monday morning and Skeen said once he had redacted some personal information he would release an exhibit that was filed with the petition for continuance.

If Skeen rules in favor of Davidson and allows the full 90 days requested to investigate new allegations in the Mineola Swinger’s Club case, there could be consequences affecting other trials — including the trial of a man in the infamous Kentucky Fried Chicken murders of 1983.

Davidson is the co-counsel with Tyler Attorney Don Killingsworth in the upcoming capital murder trial of Darnell Hartsfield, scheduled to begin in early September.

If granted 90 days to investigate before the start of the trial in the Swingers Club case, the KFC case could be put on hold.

Hartsfield is facing life in prison if convicted for his role in the KFC slayings. His cousin Romeo Pinkerton pleaded guilty after two weeks of testimony and was sentenced to life in prison last fall.

Officials in that case were unable to be reached late Wednesday to discuss the possibility of being stalled due to the Sex Club case.

Davidson stated in his new motion for continuance that there are out-of-state witnesses he wanted to interview.

Kelly, 41, of Tyler, is charged with engaging in organized criminal activity and aggravated assault of a child for allegedly forcing two young siblings to have sex with each other in 2004. He faces five years to life in prison for each charge.

The defendant is also charged with tampering with evidence for allegedly destroying evidence in the case, including costumes the children wore when they performed for audiences and videotapes of the children performing skits and having sex with each other. Kelly faces two to 10 years in prison if convicted of the third-degree felony.

The victims in the Mineola Swingers’ Club case — three siblings who are now a 10-year-old girl, a 9-year-old boy, a 7-year-old girl and their 9-year-old aunt — all have testified that Kelly and his co-defendants taught them, beginning at age 5, how to dance and perform sex acts in “kindergarten,” then forced them to dance and have sex with each other in front of an audience at the Mineola Swinger’s Club.

The defendants collected money for the performances, but only paid the children with food. The children were also given “silly pills,” or drugs, before they danced in the club.

In November 2004, Child Protective Services began investigating allegations of neglect and drug abuse. What they discovered, after the children were removed from the home in March 2005, were children suffering ongoing sexual abuse and exploitation.

Defendants in the Mineola Swinger’s Club case who are awaiting trial include Dennis Boyd Pittman, Rebecca Pittman, Shelia Darlene Sones and Jimmy Dale Sones.

Jamie Pittman and Shauntel Loraine Mayo have both been convicted in the case and sentenced to life in prison.