Posted on Friday, August 15, 2008

By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer

After the eighth full day of testimony in the trial of Patrick "Booger Red" Kelly, who is accused of forcing two young siblings to have sex with each other for a paying audience, the state rested its case Thursday evening.

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 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.

Since Assistant Smith County District Attorneys Joe Murphy and Jason Parrish rested their case Thursday, the trial will resume today with witnesses called by defense attorneys Thad Davidson and Tina Brumbelow.

The victims in the case include a now 11-year-old girl, her 9-year-old brother and 8-year-old sister; the siblings' 9-year-old aunt; and a 15-year-old girl.

The fourth child victim testified for about two hours Thursday.

The 9-year-old victim, who turns 10 on Saturday, testified about living with Sheila and Jimmie Sones before she was removed from the home and placed in foster care. When shown a picture of the "Mineola Swingers' Club," and asked if she knew it, the girl said it was "kindergarten." When asked what happened there, she said "sexual stuff." She and her two nieces and nephew would dance with and without clothes on, she said.

The girl pointed to and identified Kelly as "Booger Red," whom she said was also at the "kindergarten" when they danced. She said her parents told her that if she told anyone, they would hurt her. "Silly pills" were also given to the children, she said.

She said the children danced because "they made us" and "Booger Red" was one of the adults who made them. She said she was afraid of him "because he was a lot stronger than me."

During her testimony, the girl asked to speak with her lawyer and the judge gave her a moment to talk to her attorney ad litem.

She said that when the children danced, Jamie Pittman and "Booger Red" made tapes of it.

She said she was never told what to say and she never wanted to tell anyone about it because she was scared she'd get hurt.

When asked by defense attorney Tina Brumbelow what "sexual stuff" meant, the victim hesitated for a long time, then said, "bad stuff." When asked what that meant, she said "stuff that nobody wants to talk about." Ms. Brumbelow told the girl she had to know what she meant, and the girl said, "sexual harassment." When asked what that meant, she hesitated, then said "sexual stuff done to us." When asked again what that was, she said "we dance with our clothes on and off." When asked if anything else happened, she said she couldn't remember.

The girl said she didn't remember what the inside of the building where "kindergarten" was held looked like. She was then asked to draw the inside of the building and drew one room with a stage, chairs, people and a money box. She said the stage is where they danced and people coming into the building put their money in the money box before taking their seats.

The victim said she and the three siblings danced at Time Out, a Tyler strip club, when Jamie Pittman, Shauntel Mayo, Kelly and Sheila and Jimmie Sones were there. She said she thought there was money there, too, and that other people were there to watch them.

When asked by Ms. Brumbelow, the girl drew a picture of the inside of Time Out.

When asked by Assistant Smith County District Attorney Joe Murphy, the girl said she didn't remember if Jimmie Sones used to work at Time Out.

FOSTER MOTHER

The girl's foster mother, who asked not to be named to help protect the identity of the victim, testified she's been her foster mother since April 11, 2006, when the girl was 7. She described strange behaviors the girl had and how she acted out sexually toward a 6-year-old girl.

She said the girl only saw her two nieces and her nephew, the other victims in the case, one time at the Children's Advocacy Center when the girl went there for an interview with Texas Ranger Sgt. Philip Kemp in August 2006. She didn't see the other children again until the first defendant went to trial in March 2008. She said the kids were kept separate because they could not talk about what was going on.

The woman said her foster daughter didn't tell what happened to her at first and her main worry was that God didn't love her anymore. She said she had something bad happen to her but she couldn't talk about it. In January 2008, the girl told the woman she wanted to talk about it and said the other children were telling the truth about what happened. The girl's biggest concern was that her parents would be mad at her for telling.

When the girl was asked how she knew what the other children had been saying, she said she guessed what they had been talking about and she knew they were telling the truth "because they would never lie." She said she wanted to talk about it to get it all out.

The woman said when the girl was still getting to visit her parents, she became concerned because her older adult sister Stacy Needham was calling to check up on her. The woman said she learned later that Ms. Needham had threatened the children to stay quiet.

STATE'S EXPERT

Dr. Gayle Burress, a forensic counselor the state hired as its expert in child sexual abuse, testified she reviewed all of the discovery in the case, which included about 11,000 pages of documents and the video interviews done with the victims, but she has never interviewed the children.

She said she looks for consistency in the children's details and tries to get a feel for their personalities, such as the way they react to things and how open, defensive, worried or scared they are.

She said children who have been sexually abused tell a little bit more about the abuse each time they talk to someone and don't give all the details the first few times. She said children don't remember things as well as adults because their brains aren't fully developed.

She said details the children give can differ because people perceive things differently and the trauma can be so overwhelming they don't notice certain details.

She said she watched the children in the case testify and they appeared to be uncomfortable, embarrassed, reluctant to talk about what happened to them and "sick of talking about it."

"They're kids. This is not something a kid should have to go through," she said, adding that it's painful for them to be abused and then have to talk about it.

Dr. Burress talked about the signs of sexual abuse the children exhibited, including sexually acting out and how the boy suffered from encopresis, or having no control over his bowel movements. She said she doesn't just look at one symptom to determine if they've been sexually abused; she looks at their entire lives.

She said she believed the children were groomed for the sexual abuse they endured by the adults because small children would have to be taught to do those sex acts.

She said it was important to her that all of the children talked about being forced to dance naked on a stage by a group of adults. She said it would surprise her if they all drew the exact same picture of the stage. The victims are discussing events that happened four years ago, which for most of them, is half a lifetime ago and they were all given "silly pills."

Dr. Burress said that if more than one person is in a room when a child is being interviewed, it doesn't mean the interview is contaminated. She said a foster mother asking the questions instead of the interviewer could mean it was contaminated. She said a person can't tell to a scientific degree whether a person is lying and can't be 100 percent guaranteed a child is being truthful.

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.

http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20080815/NEWS08/808150325

Emphasis added by H4K Editor