Tyler

EDITOR'S NOTE: The names of the victims in this article are not revealed to protect their identity and to encourage the reporting of sexual abuse.

By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer

Defense attorneys continued to call witnesses for the third day in the trial of Patrick "Booger Red" Kelly, who is accused of forcing young children to dance and perform sex acts at the "Mineola Swingers' Club" for a paying audience.

Kelly, 41, Tyler, is on trial for engaging in organized criminal activity -- forcing a boy to have sex with his older sister during a doctor skit at the club for Kelly's 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 a now 11-year-old girl, her 9-year-old brother and 8-year-old sister; the siblings' 10-year-old aunt; and a 15-year-old girl.

April Corrao, Kelly's niece, testified that she lives with her grandmother Linda Kelly and their house is about 150 yards from Kelly's house. She said in the summer of 2004, Shauntel Mayo and Jamie Pittman would visit Kelly's house, along with their two kids, for cookouts and to drink beer about every other weekend.

Ms. Mayo and Pittman have been convicted for sexually abusing their two children.

Ms. Corrao said she never saw the kids dance, no one took their clothes off, she never saw the kids engage in sexual acts and never saw anything inappropriate done to the children. She said she could see Kelly's house from hers but couldn't see what was going on inside his house. She also said she didn't know what went on at Kelly's house after she left and Pittman and Ms. Mayo were still there with their children.

Mineola Police Capt. Joyce Box testified she's been doing an investigation since March or April into "whether crimes occurred" at the swingers' club in Mineola. After prosecutors objected, she wasn't allowed by the judge to answer questions by defense attorney Thad Davidson about whether she found any evidence of Kelly committing a crime or if he'd been indicted by a Wood County grand jury.

Kelly and his co-defendants are being tried in Smith County because they lived in Smith County and the children were allegedly taught how to perform the sex acts at "kindergarten," which was allegedly held at the house of Kelly and other defendants. Prosecutors also claim when the children were sexually abused at the club in Mineola, the offenses began and ended in Smith County, then they left and returned to their homes.

Linda and Tim Rose each testified they went to the swingers' club in Mineola, called "The Retreat," two to three times in 2004. They each described the inside of the club, said they never saw any children there and didn't recognize Kelly or any of the other defendants as ever being there. They each testified that they were no longer swingers and they stopped going to the club when it shut down.

"I don't know what went on when I wasn't there," Tim Rose said.

Stacy Needham, the sister of Ms. Mayo and of one of the victims in the case, was called to testify by the defense but invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to testify because of self-incrimination.

Ms. Needham's 12-, 9-, and 7-year-old daughters each testified before the jury that they were never taught how to rub each other or others, were never taught how to do nasty stuff or dance. The two older children each said they didn't know Kelly.

When the 7-year-old was asked if she knew Kelly, as defense attorney Tina Brumbelow pointed to the defendant, the girl said, "Yes; I mean no." When asked again, she said "no."

The 12-year-old girl said she went to vacation Bible school with her two cousins, who are victims in the case, and Ms. Needham picked her up but she never saw her mom do anything inappropriate to her cousins there.

The 9-year-old girl said she didn't get to see her cousins, who are involved in the case, much, or her grandmother Sheila Sones. She said her parents, Ms. Needham and Michael Needham, never did nasty stuff to her.

When asked if she'd ever been to kindergarten, the 7-year-old said no. She also said she wasn't taught how to do nasty stuff. When she was asked what nasty stuff was, she said, "Taking off all your clothes and all that stuff; dancing."

The 11-year-old victim in the case testified earlier that her uncle Michael operated the video camera when she and the other children were filmed performing sex acts at the club. She named Michael and Ms. Needham's kids, the three daughters who testified Tuesday. The victim said the two youngest daughters were brought into the "sex room" at the club.

She said the last time she saw the 12-year-old girl was at vacation Bible school four years ago.

Earlier, the victim said when she went to vacation Bible school, Ms. Mayo's sister told her if she told anyone, she would get "Booger Red" after her. She said she was scared to tell anyone at first and was afraid no one would believe her.

The youngest victim in the case has said Ms. Needham's youngest daughter jumped at the club with her because they weren't old enough to dance.

Dr. Matthew Ferrara, a licensed psychologist and sex offender treatment provider who was hired as an expert by the defense, testified he has done assessments and treatments of both sex abuse perpetrators and victims. He said he reviewed records in the case, some of the video interviews of the children, the transcripts of the prior two trials of co-defendants and he watched two of the four children testify in Kelly's trial.

He said he has been trained on proper interviewing techniques, has interviewed children hundreds of times and has watched 300-400 interviews conducted at children advocacy centers by forensic interviewers.

Ferrara said coaching is when an adult talks to a child, usually in a sex abuse case, and the adult tells the child what to say. He said coaching works because children are suggestive and children feel pressure from adults to please.

He said he saw evidence that the children in the case were subjected to suggestive interviews. He detailed instances in the interview done by Texas Ranger Sgt. Philip Kemp with the two oldest siblings in the case. He said the children's foster mother, Margie Cantrell, taking part in the interview and having both children interviewed at the same time was improper. He said Mrs. Cantrell was not trained to ask the right types of questions and he saw examples of her instructing the children what to say.

He said a law enforcement officer with a gun and badge can make children being interviewed make statements about bad things happening that haven't happened to them

He said the youngest sibling, who is now 8, was interviewed at first by Kemp alone but Mrs. Cantrell was later brought into the room and took over the interview. He said the child was having difficulty with the facts, such as when she described "Booger Red" as having white hair instead of red hair.

"To me it looks like she's just pulling things out of the air," he said.

The now 10-year-old victim in the case, who is the aunt of the other children, was interviewed while her foster mother, who is not Mrs. Cantrell, was in the room with Kemp. Ferrara said even if the foster mother doesn't say anything during the interview, her being present is still an influencing factor and puts extra pressure on the child. He said Kemp used suggestive questions during that interview and he introduced facts in the case to her that the child didn't spontaneously give.

The interview done at a Wisconsin children's advocacy center of the now 15-year-old victim was a good, classic forensic interview with one child and one interviewer in the room and where open-ended questions were asked, he said. He said the girl talked about one specific instance where she was horribly raped by Dennis Pittman but she had nothing to say about the club and didn't mention Kelly or dancing, Ferrara said.

The jury will continue hearing Davidson's direct examination of Ferrara when the trial continues on Wednesday.

Kelly has testified in the trial, denying he sexually abused children or ever went to the club. He said he never held "kindergarten" at his house and never forced them to dance for an audience, as the children claimed.

Four of the five child victims in the case have also testified. All of them identified Kelly, whom they know as "Booger Red," as being part of a group of adults that forced them to perform sex acts for a paying audience.

Ms. 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 Pittman, his ex-wife Rebecca Pittman, Shelia Darlene Sones, who is Ms. Mayo's mother, and Ms. Sones' ex-husband Jimmy Dale Sones await trials for the alleged sexual abuse of the children.