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Court reverses convictions in Mineola swingers case
7 Comments
POSTED: Thursday, June 17, 2010 - 10:51am
UPDATED: Friday, June 18, 2010 - 9:54am
A major turn of events Thursday morning in the Mineola child sex ring case.
According to the judicial records on the 14th Court of Appeals website, the court has reversed the conviction of Patrick Kelly and Jamie Pittman.
Kelly and Pittman had been sentenced to life in prison for aggravated sexual assault of a child.
The court based its decision on sufficient evidence, errors by the trial court and an improper closing argument by the state.
The pair will be retried. No date has been set.
KETK will bring you more information as it becomes available.
Comments News Comments
It's TRIAL people not TRAIL. Please learn how to spell!
"many of these 'facts' did not come from the children and could not be prior consistent statements."..."the trial court adopted ad hoc evidentiary rules that operated to assist the State in proving its case". Read the opinion on the website for the 14th Court of Apppeals. Its clear that Skeen's behavior was improper in this case as it often is and it is also clear that these convictions had to be overturned. If you are worried about the cost of another trial, put the blame where it belongs.
"because of the pervasive nature of the errors apparent throughout appellant's trial"..."we conclude that these entirely inappropriate, prejudicial, and inflammatory evidence and remakrs, to which appellan'ts repeated objections were overruled, constitute reversible error"..."The Case Was Tried by Hearsay"..."The trial court clearly abused its discrtion"..."The trial court abused its discretion"..."Appellant's trial counsel was not permitted to adequately defend appellant"...
Some interesting quotes from the opinion: "The children initially denied abuse or that anything happend in the club."...______(child's name omitted) initially denied the abuse until both____and Margaret Catrell were allowed to quetion him and lead him into remembering abuse."..."the record of this case is rife with reversible error"..."Appellant's expert, also testified that Kemp's interveriews of ______ and__________ were improper due to leading questions, suggestive answer, and the....
It's not that hard to understand. The appellate court had no choice but to reverse these convictions. Bingham and Murphy withheld evidence, hid a witness and lied repeatedly. The "so-called" judge (really just another prosecutor) made up exceptions to rules of evidence, allowing improper testimony and precluded the defense from preseting much of their defense. It's long past time for Skeen and Bingham to go. They are guilty of criminal behavior in this case and should be proesecuted.
Katie007 June 17, 2010
at 11:19am
How did the two get sentenced to life for aggravated sexual assault of a child if there was insufficient evidence, errors by the trial court and improper closing by the state? I assume that the jury found them guilty. There has to be more to this story that we aren't hearing. This reversal of the court looks strange to me.
Another trail that will cost Smith County taxpayers. I knew two of the jurors that sat on the first trail and they both stated how they were emotionally affected by the evidence. The next trail will be just as horrible as the first. For the jurors sake I hope Smith County will offer support for them when it is over...the will need it.
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