© 2008 The Associated Press
Aug. 15, 2008, 3:32PM

TYLER, Texas — An East Texas man accused of helping run swinger parties that forced children as young as 5 to have sex took the stand Friday, denying the charges against him and saying the children were lying.

Patrick "Booger Red" Kelly, 41, is charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child and engaging in organized criminal activity. Kelly's accused of forcing a boy to have sex with his older sister during a skit, for Kelly's financial gain.

Last week an 11-year-old girl 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.

Kelly, the first witness called by his defense lawyers, denied knowledge of such pills, making children do any kind of sexual dancing or touching them inappropriately. He said he has never even been to the Mineola Swinger's Club, the Tyler Morning Telegraph reported in its online edition Friday.

If convicted, Kelly could face life in prison. That was the sentence jurors handed down earlier this year in the trials of two others linked to the club, Jamie Pittman and Shauntel Mayo.

Although Kelly admitted being friends with Mayo and Pittman and their two oldest children, he said he did not know the other three alleged child victims in the case.

Kelly's wife of 12 years, Rose Kelly, 54, testified that neither she nor her husband have ever done anything to harm any children. She said Child Protective Services took her stepson from their home for no reason and placed him in foster care during an investigation regarding allegations of sexual abuse.

Kelly is accused of helping start a "kindergarten" in his home 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 daycare and hospital in the tiny railroad town of Mineola, about 75 miles east of Dallas. Four of the five child victims testifying for the state identified Kelly as one of the adults who sexually abused them.

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

The alleged victims in the case include three siblings, who at the time of their 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 allegedly forced to dance and have sex with the other children.

Four other defendants in the case are awaiting trial.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5946388.html

Emphasis added by H4K Editor