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

Prosecutors and defense attorneys rested their cases Wednesday afternoon after 12 days of testimony 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 of the first-degree felony by the Smith County jury in 241st District Judge Jack Skeen Jr.'s court.

After more than three days of calling witnesses, defense attorneys Thad Davidson and Tina Brumbelow rested their case, which was followed by two rebuttal witnesses who testified for assistant Smith County district attorneys Joe Murphy and Jason Parrish. The jurors will return this morning to hear closing arguments and begin their deliberations into whether Kelly is guilty or innocent of the charge.

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.

Dr. Matthew Ferrara, a licensed psychologist and sex offender treatment provider who was hired as an expert by the defense, testified he reviewed records in the case, 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.

He said he saw evidence in the case that the children were subjected to suggestive interviews. He detailed instances in interviews done by Texas Ranger Sgt. Philip Kemp with victims in which their foster mother, Margie Cantrell, took part in the interview. He said he saw examples of her instructing the children what to say.

In an interview Kemp did with the victim who is the aunt of the others, Ferrara said Kemp did a very poor job and detailed instances that he said violated standard interview techniques.

From those interviews, he said he saw evidence that Mrs. Cantrell had talked to the children about the allegations before the interviews.

"It was bad and should have never happened," he said, adding that the interviews were contaminated.

A children's advocacy center interview done with the two oldest siblings in June of 2005 was "pretty good," he said. The sister talked about sexual abuse she endured at a home but not at a club, he said. Ferrara later said the girl talked about a man named "Booger Red," dancing in a club, people giving money, playing doctor and wearing costumes. The brother didn't say anything about sexual abuse during that interview, he added.

Ferrara said in other cases, he has seen children make false allegations and there can be a number of motives for them. He said children can be slow in talking about abuse because they are uncomfortable and don't want to talk about it or they are making it up as they go along.

Ferrara talked about the boy victim having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and encopresis, when someone is unable to control their bowel movements. He said having ADHD could cause a child to develop the other two disorders and there are many other reasons for them. He said encopresis was not a red flag of sexual abuse but acting out sexually was.

There has been testimony that four of the victims acted out sexually.

Ferrara said he has done three forensic-type interviews of children making first-time outcries of sexual abuse; the other times he referred them to a forensic interviewer.

He said he looks at consistencies of the children's first outcries of abuse but it's not the most important thing to him. He said it is not the most important thing during a forensic interview to make the children comfortable.

Kemp testified that he did his interviews the way he did to make the children comfortable and more at ease so they would talk about what happened to them.

Ferrara said most of the interviews he's done were of children who have recanted their statements of being abused sexually and he did the interviews for the Innocence Project.

The woman who has made allegations against John Cantrell, her former foster father who she said sexually assaulted her in California about 18 years ago, before she moved with Cantrell to Texas, was called to testify by the defense but attorneys were not allowed to ask her any questions regarding the Cantrell allegations.

Cantrell is the foster father of three of the victims in the case and has a pending charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child in California because of the witness' claim. Skeen has repeatedly told the attorneys in Kelly's case that Cantrell's California case would not be tried in Smith County during Kelly's trial.

The witness said she had seen the building referred to as the Mineola Swingers' Club but has never been inside it. She didn't recognize or know any of the defendants in the case, she said, as she was shown pictures of the accused.

The woman's husband "David" testified he was aware of allegations made that he had been to the club.

One of the child victims said a man named "David" with a dragon tattoo on his back was at the club when they performed sex acts for an audience.

The man said he had never been to the club but has driven by it since he lives in Mineola. When shown pictures, he said he did not recognize or know any of the defendants in the case, including Kelly. He said he has never done anything inappropriate to the children in the case.

The jurors were shown pictures of his many tattoos, which included a dragon on his neck and one on his arm. He did not have any tattoos on his back. He said the last time he got a tattoo was in 2001.

Anglique Stamps, a bartender at the Brass Star for two years, testified that before she worked there, she was a regular patron and never saw any children enter the club.

One of the victims in the case has said she and another victim were taken to the Brass Star by some of the defendants and one of the girls was taken into a back room to dance for the men.

Ms. Stamps said her two children were taken away by CPS two years ago.

After the defense rested its case, prosecutors called two additional witnesses to the stand.

Sheri Ellington, who was the foster mother of the aunt victim in the case from about October 2005 through April 2006, testified that the girl prompted a discussion about the abuse in November 2005 and she wrote down what the girl said.

The girl said Virginia Mayo, a grandmother of some of the victims, had lied about what happened to them. Mrs. Ellington said the girl appeared to act like the statement had been rehearsed; like someone had told her what to say. She then asked the girl about the pills she said they took and the girl continued to talk about what she said Virginia Mayo lied about.

The girl said Virginia Mayo lied about the children having to "put on clothes and dance sexy." The girl described the costumes she had to wear as well as the costumes her two nieces and her nephew wore. She said she had to take pills, which she described what they looked like, tasted like and said they were to "make her dance sexy for the boys."

The girl also said Virginia Mayo lied when she said the kids were taken to the club to dance by Jamie Pittman and her mom, her mother passed around a hat for money and that there was a video but that Jamie Pittman burned it.

Mrs. Ellington said she doesn't know who Virginia Mayo is and never asked the girl.

Mrs. Ellington said the girl prompted the conversation so she asked open-ended questions because she felt the girl wanted to talk about it. She said after the conversation was interrupted by her son, she wrote down exactly what the girl had said. She never asked her about it again but reported it to her Child Protective Services case worker.

"How did she (the victim) know what Virginia said," defense attorney Tina Brumbelow asked.

"I don't know," Mrs. Ellington said, adding that she never asked the girl how she knew.

Mrs. Ellington testified that the girl told her it was all a lie that Virginia Mayo told and said that "Virginia always gets her way."

She said she didn't know Margie Cantrell, the foster mother of three of the other victims.

She said the girl never talked about Kelly or "Booger Red" during their conversation.

Jason Gillentine, a CPS supervisor in the cases of the victims, as well as Kelly's son, who was removed from his home by CPS in 2005, testified about the CPS investigation.

He said Kelly's son, who is now 18, was removed from the home because of allegations he was being sexually abused by Kelly. He said the defendant had an opportunity to fight the allegations in court but although Kelly was there, he did not dispute the claims so the child was removed.

Gillentine said the boy had encopresis, which gave him concern because it could be a sign of sexual abuse and there was no documented medical reason for the boy's condition. He said he was also concerned that the boy told CPS workers he was told by his father to not talk to CPS about the "strip club."

He said even if a child is victimized by their parents, the child will still try to protect the parents. He said he saw those traits in the Kelly case.

Gillentine said he was aware of the findings of retired CPS Investigator Katy Wady; that she was unable to determine whether Kelly sexually abused his son. He said that meant that CPS didn't have enough information to say he abused the boy but they had enough information to not rule out the possibility.

He said they couldn't say he's been abused because he never made an outcry. He said he stood by Ms. Wady's findings.

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 and taught them in "kindergarten."

Ms. Mayo and her live-in boyfriend, Jamie Pittman, have been convicted of sexual abuse 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.

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, when they left and returned to their homes.