STATEMENT ON 8/13/14 AFTER FILING A MOTION FOR A NEW TRIAL Good morning. My name is Jake Brydon and I am with Fight for GK. I will be reading a short statement and then we will be happy to take 4 or 5 of your questions. Just about a month ago, what we felt was an impossibility occurred in this very courthouse. A young man named Greg Kelley was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison on nothing more than an accusation by an innocent 4 year old boy. There were no witnesses. There was no evidence. And the truly amazing aspect of this is that there was no investigation. Child Protective Services, Cedar Park Police, and the Child Advocacy Center should have immediately undertaken a thorough and careful investigation of the reliability of the child’s accusation and, if reliable, whether Greg Kelley was even a likely suspect. Instead, these agencies simply accepted the accusations as good proof and began the process of preparing the child to testify against Mr. Kelley. Greg has begun serving his 25 year sentence without the ability to look forward to parole and without the possibility of an appeal. This court – this judge – has the sole responsibility of determining whether or not this case warrants a second review. We are hopeful that the judge will decide that we cannot tolerate another Michael Morton wrongful conviction coming out of Williamson County, and that for the sake of true justice, we must be certain beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused is truly guilty before asking a 19 year old to give up the next 25 years of his life behind bars. There are numerous legitimate and legal reasons that we are seeking this new trial, as outlined in the motion presented this morning. Please allow me to introduce those to you at this time: 1) At the very heart of our legal system is that the accused must be convicted only upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt determined by a unanimous jury. Greg was deprived of this fundamental right. Today, we presented with our motion, a sworn affidavit from one of the jurors stating, “I thought the prosecution’s case against Greg Kelley was trash. I was not persuaded Greg Kelley was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.” This juror went on to explain…”The other jurors were basing their verdict on his mannerisms, like how he sat or looked. One juror commented that she thought Greg Kelley was guilty because of the way the defense attorney looked and presented herself.” This juror admitted in their sworn affidavit to changing their vote when the judge threatened to sequester the jury and the other jurors were livid with them for continuing to say “not guilty.” 2) Each person who has been accused is entitled to a fair and thorough investigation. Again, Greg Kelley was denied. It has been reported that this young boy’s accusations remained consistent across multiple interviews. This is false. His accusation had numerous inconsistencies – stating that the abuse occurred upstairs, downstairs, on the floor, on the couch, the left side of the bed. Or how he knew the answers to questions like the whereabouts of Shama McCarty or the difference between the left side and the right side. The child had falsely claimed that his mother and Greg Kelley got into an imaginary fight or the father’s remark that “sometimes ______ lies.” The forensic interviewer for the Child Advocacy Center, Jennifer Deazvedo, made zero effort to go back and explore these previous conversations, contrary to the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children protocols. Likewise, she admitted to never hearing of child forensic interview terms as “structured interview” or “confirmation bias,” yet she is the expert that this investigation depends on. Dr. Stephen Thorne has also provided an affidavit stating that Ms. Deazvedo should be fired before she facilitates another tragedy like the one Greg Kelley is experiencing. 3) The jury did not get to know Greg Kelley. An affidavit and character letters have been presented stating that he is a young man of high moral character, industrious, caring, diligent in his studies, and a talented athlete. As Greg’s attorney states, “He does not merely fail to meet the criteria of a sociopathic serial child molester – his entire life refutes it.” 4) All who are accused should be afforded a fair trial. Unfortunately, Greg Kelley wasn’t. The young boy in this case was repeatedly shown his videotape made at the Child Advocacy Center. Repeatedly showing a child his own interview goes beyond reminding or refreshing a memory…it is tantamount to coaching. Shama McCarty was a key witness in this case whose native language is Sinhala. She had no interpreter at trial, but did the best she could to respond to questions. While she could respond to straightforward questions in English, she could not and did not reliably relate the circumstances of her daycare service to the jury. As a result, the truthfulness of her testimony was fatally undermined. For these reasons, this morning, the attorney for Greg Kelley – Keith Hampton - filed a motion requesting a new trial. We are hopeful and prayerful that the judge who will be reviewing this motion will see immediately that the previous investigation, trial, and verdict should be thrown out and order a new trial as soon as possible. A couple of final thoughts before I take a few of your questions… The singular focus for Greg Kelley, the Kelley family, Keith Hampton, and the Fight for GK movement has been that an injustice has occurred and it deserves a second look by a judge and jury. That is our mission. Because we are completely focused on this purpose, we have no room for those who mock us, call us names, or take to social media to try and pick a fight. There is only one person in our audience as of today, and that is the judge who will make this weighty and important decision. We trust that he will be just, fair, and objective as he reviews the motion presented to him today. Lastly, it is a difficult balance to try to establish and maintain when you believe with all of your heart that an injustice has occurred to one person, but by questioning it and drawing attention to it, it could cause the healing process for another person or group of people to be delayed. We have said all along that in a case like this, there are no winners. Lives are impacted and destroyed all the way around, through unthinkable violations or by wrongful convictions or even both. Regardless of Chief Mannix’s description of Greg’s supporters as nothing more than a cult of high school classmates of Greg, that’s just not true. There are over 8,000 who publicly support Greg Kelley, and many, many more who feel that they can only offer private support at this time. There are parents, business leaders, executives, and hard working average ordinary citizens, many of which have never met Greg and have no ties to him, who bothered to investigate the details of his case and had a burning in their gut that something wasn’t right. Most, for the first time ever, felt like they needed to let their voices be heard through protests, rallies, signing petitions, and sending letters to local and state leaders. Mr. Mannix, this isn’t a cult – it’s a community – one that you pledged to protect and to serve.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 19:47:39 +0000
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