Tyler

By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer

A Texas Ranger who conducted a two-year investigation into the "Mineola Swingers' Club" testified for the second full day on Monday.

Patrick "Booger Red" Kelly, 41, Tyler, is on trial for engaging in organized criminal activity -- forcing two siblings to have sex with each other for his financial gain -- on Aug. 1, 2004. He could face five years to life in prison if convicted by the Smith County jury in 241st District Judge Jack Skeen Jr.'s court.

The victims in the case include an 11-year-old girl, her 9-year-old brother and 8-year-old sister, as well as their 10-year-old aunt and a 15-year-old girl.

Kemp testified all day on Friday and the jurors watched a three-hour video of an interview Kemp conducted with the two oldest siblings, then 7 and 8, in the case on Nov. 30, 2005. The jurors watched parts of the tape again on Monday, before watching two more videos.

Kemp said all of the five children said the same things happened to them - they were given "silly pills" and taught in "kindergarten" to have sex with each other and adults and dance, then performed the acts at the club - even though some of them had no contact for several months or up to a year. All of the children named the same perpetrators, which were the defendants in the case, he said.

Kemp said Kelly's picture was included in the photo-lineup he showed the two siblings but neither child identified him as Kelly or "Booger Red."

He said the children's foster mom Margie Cantrell assisted him in the interview and asked them some questions while he monitored her. He said he didn't believe the two children being interviewed at the same time in parts of the video contaminated their statements. The boy repeatedly said he didn't remember the club or kindergarten.

Kemp went to the "Mineola Swingers' Club" building in August or September of 2006. He said he photographed evidence found inside and outside of the club but he did not have anything tested for DNA or fingerprints. He said he didn't find any evidence of a dog or chickens being killed there, as one of the victims had claimed.

Kemp learned that Russell Adams had rented the building and he and his wife Sherry had operated the swingers' club. He said he was never able to locate and talk to Adams although he tried several times. He said he was not aware of any evidence connecting Adams with Kelly or any of the defendants in the case. Kemp said Sherry Adams was interviewed and she talked about operating the club. He said he didn't include pictures of the Adams in the photo-lineup with the children because he didn't have their names or information that early in the investigation.

The ranger said he was told Mineola Police had a list of license plate numbers from cars in the club's parking lot but when he reviewed the police records, the list was not there.

Kemp said he never went to Kelly's house and he found no evidence Kelly had choked a woman in his front yard, as one of the children claimed. He said he also didn't look for a fire pit at Kelly's residence where costumes and videotapes were allegedly burned.

Kemp said he attempted to identify other children who performed at the club after the eldest sibling gave him the first names of others. He said he showed them pictures of students from two area schools but the kids didn't identify anyone. He said he believed the child was telling him the truth but he found no evidence corroborating if other children were there.

The jurors were shown a video interview of a victim, who is now 15 and a former step-daughter of Dennis Pittman, given on Aug. 8, 2006 at a children's advocacy center in Wisconsin, where she now lives with her father.

In the nearly one-hour interview, the girl talked of Pittman beating her with a switch, a belt, a broom and his fists on several occasions, once breaking her jaw and sending her to the hospital. She showed the investigator scars and said Pittman used drugs, including speed, crack cocaine, marijuana, Vicodin and "happy pills."

When asked if Pittman ever did anything else to her body, she said she wouldn't let him.

Kemp said the girl never mentioned "Booger Red" Kelly, kindergarten or the swingers' club. In that interview, she never said she was sexually assaulted by anyone. He said she was interviewed again later.

Kemp interviewed the aunt of the three siblings in August 2006, when she wasn't ready to talk, and again in January of February of 2008 when she told him what happened to her.

The jurors watched a 40 minute video interview done with the girl, who is now 10. The Aug. 18, 2006 interview was conducted by Kemp along with Margie Cantrell, the foster mother of the three siblings, in the room.

The girl said she didn't know anything about "silly pills" or the club in Mineola. She said she had to have sex three times with other children but they never got caught.

The girl said she didn't want to talk about anything else that happened to her.

Kemp said he had Mrs. Cantrell in the room, although she had never met the girl before, because Mrs. Cantrell made the girl more at ease. When asked by the defense why it wasn't just Kemp and the girl in the room, he said he had the right to conduct his interview in a way that made the children feel conformable.

Defense attorney Thad Davidson will continue his cross-examination of Kemp on Tuesday.

Shauntel Mayo and her live-in boyfriend Jamie Pittman have been convicted and sentenced to life in prison and face additional charges in the case. Dennis Boyd Pittman, his ex-wife Rebecca Pittman, Shelia Darlene Sones, which is Ms. Mayo's mother, and Jimmy Dale Sones, await trials.

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Minutes before the jury entered the courtroom Monday, Davidson filed a motion for mistrial, claiming the state withheld evidence from the defense.

Davidson told the judge he had subpoenaed Mineola Police Captain Joyce Box, who interviewed Russell Adams -- the man who rented and operated the club in the summer of 2004. She told Davidson Adams had been interviewed by a Smith County District Attorney's investigator and was unable to identify any of the defendants in the case in a photo line-up, Davidson said. Adams also told the officer no children were ever present at the swingers' club and neither were Kelly or the other defendants, Davidson said.

He also mentioned other people who had allegedly been to the club but said they never saw any children there. Davidson said the Smith County District Attorney's Office had that information but didn't share it with the defense, which learned of it by doing its own investigation.

"We didn't know any of this existed," Assistant Smith County District Attorney Joe Murphy said.

He said everything Davidson talked about occurred in Wood County. He said his office talked to the officer and his office wrote letters to Wood County District Attorney Jim Wheeler requesting any information they had in the case. Murphy said Wheeler responded that he had nothing and he was not doing any investigations.

Murphy said he felt Wheeler needed to be brought to court to explain because it appears the defense is having contact with Mineola police and Wood County, who is telling them differently then what they are telling the state.

Murphy said he was never made aware of any of Davidson's allegations and Murphy had never subpoenaed Adams.

Davidson said Adams talked to a Smith County investigator but didn't know who.

Murphy said one of his investigators had talked to Adams but said he was no help in the case. Murphy said he was not aware of a photo-lineup being done. He said the state is required to give the defense any exculpatory evidence they possess and the defense can conduct its own investigation. He said they have indicted those they believe participated in the child sexual abuse. Murphy said there had been no allegations against Adams and just because he rented the building it didn't make him a party to the offenses, he said.

Skeen said he would not stop the trial Monday but would take up the issue later. He set a hearing for the matter at 5 p.m. Tuesday, after the jury is recessed for the day.