11-year-old girl testifies about being drugged and forced to perform sex acts

By PAUL J. WEBER Associated Press
Aug. 6, 2008, 4:30AM

Jaime R. Carrero Tyler Morning Telegraph Patrick "Booger Red" Kelly is the third person to be tried in the Tyler case. Two others have been sentenced to life in prison.

TYLER — An East Texas man took part in "pure evil" when he allegedly helped run swinger parties that forced children young as 5 to have sex, prosecutors told jurors Tuesday.

An 11-year-old girl then testified about taking "silly pills" and playing "doctor" with her younger brother at the so-called Mineola Swinger's Club, where prosecutors say the siblings performed for paying audiences.

"They were forced to do indescribable acts," Smith County Assistant District Attorney Joe Murphy said. "These acts were their life."

Patrick "Booger Red" Kelly, an alleged member of the club, is charged with engaging in organized criminal activity and aggravated sexual assault of a child. He pleaded not guilty.

Kelly's defense team postponed their opening statements Tuesday, when the trial finally began after several delays. Molestation charges filed in June against a foster parent given custody of the victims stalled the trial for more than a month, and began an almost constant filing of court motions.

If convicted, Kelly potentially faces life in prison. That was the sentence jurors swiftly handed down earlier this year in the trials of two others linked to the club.

"This case is about pure evil," Murphy said.

Kelly is accused of helping start a "kindergarten," where the children learned to have sex with each other and dance provocatively. From there, the children graduated to the sex club, which was a rented-out former day care and hospital in the tiny railroad town of Mineola.

To help perform, prosecutors say, the children were given Vicodin-like drugs the adults passed off as "silly pills."

During a sometimes anguishing four-hour cross-examination of the girl, defense attorneys asked about the pills she took and where she got them.

"Do you remember what they tasted like?" asked Tina Brumbelow, one of Kelly's attorneys.

"Old fish," the girl replied.

The girl, who wore a black bow in her hair and said she now likes watching television shows like Hannah Montana, led jurors through a sketch of the club she had drawn for investigators. In one box, in a child's scribbled handwriting, "SEX ROOM" was written.

The girl was scheduled to continue testifying when the trial resumes Wednesday.

John Cantrell, who was given custody of the girl and her siblings, is charged in California with sexually assaulting two of his foster children in 1990. Anthony Finkas, his attorney, has said Cantrell is innocent.

Margie Cantrell, John's wife, first told authorities in 2005 about what the children revealed to her about having being forced into sex inside the windowless rooms of the former day care.

Jamie Pittman and Shauntel Mayo were sentenced to life in prison after jurors deliberated less than five minutes in both trials. Four other defendants in the case are awaiting trial.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/5926805.html

Emphasis added by H4K Editor