Posted on Tuesday, April 01, 2008

EDITOR'S NOTE: It is the policy of the Tyler Morning Telegraph not to identify the victims of sexual assault to protect their identities and encourage the reporting of such crimes.

By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer

A woman has been arrested in Washington in connection with a "Mineola Swinger's Club," where several young children were forced to dance and perform sexual acts for an audience.

Rebecca Pittman, 32, was arrested last Wednesday in Wenatchee, Wash. by U.S. marshals there on a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child for a July 1, 2004 incident in Smith County.

The woman is accused of holding down a child while she was allegedly raped by Dennis Boyd Pittman, Rebecca Pittman's husband at the time.

Dennis Pittman, 45, Tyler has been charged with five others for seven felony charges for helping run the club.

The victims in the case include three siblings, who at the time of the outcries in 2005 were a 7-year-old girl, a 6-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl. The siblings' aunt, who was 6, was also forced to dance and have sex with the other children.

A two-year investigation resulted in six people being charged with seven felonies. The defendants include Dennis Pittman, Jamie Pittman, 36, Shauntel Loraine Mayo, 29, and Patrick Stephen Kelly, 41, all of Tyler; Shelia Darlene Sones, 48, Mineola; and Jimmy Dale Sones, 33, Brownsboro.

On Thursday, Jamie Pittman was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child, forcing two young siblings to have sex with each other in 2004, and sentenced to life in prison for his involvement.

Assistant Smith County District Attorney Joe Murphy confirmed Mrs. Pittman's arrest on Monday and said she has waived extradition so she will be brought back to Smith County to face the charges within 30 days. Murphy said she is also suspected of being involved in the swinger's club. A 15-year-old girl testified Thursday that Dennis Pittman raped her when she was 11.

She said she was familiar with the victims in the case, as well as Jamie and Dennis Pittman and some of the other defendants. The girl, who has known Dennis Pittman for about 12 years, said she was 11 when he, Jamie Pittman and others would do methamphetamine and marijuana at her house. If they wouldn't offer her any drugs, which they often did, she would take the other kids outside because of the smoke, she said.

Later, she learned the "happy pills" they were feeding her were Vicodin and they also gave her marijuana. She said they took her to strip clubs and bars in Tyler and Dallas and once took her to a back room and asked her to strip for them. When she declined, they took the oldest victim in the case in the back room, she said.

She said she was 11 when Dennis Pittman raped her. She said it took her a while to talk to anyone about it because he told her he'd kill her if she told anybody. She said it was scary to talk about it Thursday because she will have to face him soon. Dennis Pittman also gave her a tattoo, which she showed the jurors.

Dennis Pittman was captured in Sevierville, Tenn., on July 25 and was extradited back to Tyler. The Texas Rangers and U.S. marshals learned he had moved there to live with his mother.

In March 2005, Child Protective Services began investigating allegations of neglect and drug abuse. What they discovered were children suffering ongoing sexual abuse and exploitation.

The three siblings and the aunt testified Jamie Pittman and the other defendants would give them "silly pills" before they performed at the club to help them dance. At the age of 5, the children entered "kindergarten," where they would learn how to perform sexual acts, first on dolls, then on themselves and other children.

When the two older siblings pointed out the building they said they danced in, their foster mother took them to the Mineola Police Department. But the police dropped the case in two days. It was only after Assistant Smith County District Attorney Tiffani Wickel, who handles all CPS cases, learned of the alleged sexual abuse and asked Texas Ranger Sgt. Phillip Kemp to investigate, that anyone was charged.

http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20080401/NEWS01/804010304

Emphasis added by H4K Editor