Abuse defendants take plea deal

Nine felony charges and most of 34 misdemeanor charges dismissed

MARY AMES/Frontiersman reporter

ANCHORAGE - Two months after five children who showed signs of abuse were removed from their Valley home, their adoptive parents were charged with nine felony counts, including kidnapping and assault.

On Wednesday, the parents accepted a plea agreement that dropped the felony charges and almost all 34 misdemeanor charges against them.

Patrick Kelley, 46, was released from custody for the first time since September 2004 after he pleaded no contest to one charge of reckless endangerment. And Sherry Kelley, 36, pleaded no contest to two counts of criminal nonsupport, but remained in custody. As part of the agreement, they sever their parental rights over the four oldest children.

When Alaska State Troopers came to the family's home at Mile .8 Misty Lake Road, south of the Parks Highway between Wasilla and Big Lake, they found the five children, ranging in age from 6 to 15 years old, living in &#8220junk vans” with sleeping bags on the metal floors and a jar of peanut butter and bag of potato chips serving as the children's food, according to troopers.

Troopers came to the residence because they had received a call from Sherry Kelley's father, George Long, about an argument between Sherry Kelley and the 15-year-old daughter, who said Sherry Kelley had anger problems, the report said.

Before troopers arrived, Patrick Kelley hitchhiked back to work and Sherry Kelley ordered the 10-year-old boy into the family van and drove away with him and the 6-year-old girl, according to troopers.

The boy had been burned Feb. 14, 2004, when he accidentally spilled lantern fuel on himself and later lay down to sleep in front of a fire and rolled too close to the flames. He was never taken to the hospital. After Sherry Kelley tired of caring for his burns, she told two other children to take care of him, and maggots hatched in the wounds, troopers said. The 15-year-old told troopers that after the boy got into the van with Sherry Kelley, she heard him scream.

The three children troopers found July 8, 2004 were put in the custody of their aunt, Sandra Forman, Sherry Kelley's sister, after the Office of Children's Services told troopers that as long as the children had been fed that day, they wouldn't come out, the report said.

Sandra Forman said recently that she could not comment on the case as long as the children are with her.

When a trooper investigator came to the Misty Lake property the next day, Sherry Kelley told him she hadn't seen the 10-year-old boy all day and didn't know where he was, but investigator Rick Pawlak found him hiding behind the building, with &#8220bruising on his face, significant swelling and small laceration on his left arm and walking with a limp,” the report said. The boy was taken to Valley Hospital by ambulance.

The investigation concluded that the children had not been allowed to go to school since 2001; that some of them were beaten with a shovel and a metal pipe; they were thrown into a pond as another form of punishment, with one of the boys passing out from the treatment; they were punished for taking food without permission; one boy was chained to a tree with no food for five days and later had a concrete block chained to his leg and hadn't bathed or showered in a long time.

Charges were filed in Palmer, but the venue was reassigned to Anchorage in November 2004, according to court records.

The case was prosecuted by Rachel Gernat, an attorney contracting with the Palmer district attorney's office, who had been on maternity leave. Sherry Kelley's defense attorney is Wasilla attorney Josh Fannon, and Rachel Levitt with the Office of Public Advocacy represented Patrick Kelley.

Gernat said that after the initial media hubbub, the investigation continued, and while she couldn't comment on the documents she received from OCS, she said she didn't have them to look at until about a year after the charges were filed.

&#8220The crux is, the children were in a neglectful state, in substandard housing and were abused,” Gernat said. &#8220But what I thought I could prove on the stand, it was better to resolve the case. I had to weigh putting the children on the stand and maybe have them destroyed.”

Another trooper investigator said he has mixed feelings on the case right now.

&#8220I read the paper and rolled my eyes when I read one of the attorneys say that the truth will come out at sentencing,” trooper Leonard Wallner said. &#8220The charging documents speak for themselves. There was nothing flawed in the investigation. It was pretty horrid conditions out there.”

Long and his wife, Shirley Long, lived on the adjacent property, knew about the abuse, and sometimes George Long participated in the abuse, troopers said.

Charges against the Kelleys, who earned more than $3,000 a month from the state in adoption subsidies while the children lived with them, came on Sept. 14, 2004. Multiple misdemeanor charges against the Longs were filed a week later and included fourth-degree assault and failure to report a violent crime against a child.

The Longs are scheduled for a change of plea hearing in Palmer Superior Court March 16.

The Kelleys are scheduled for sentencing July 14 in Anchorage Superior Court.

&#8220I wouldn't recommend them as nannies,” Gernat said.

Wallner, who has conducted many interviews with victims of abuse, said the Kelley children stand out in his memory.

&#8220One impression that left with me from talking with the kids, is they didn't seem to have a lot of contact with people outside the family,” Wallner said. &#8220They were wary of an outside presence, so you had to build a rapport. They were withdrawn.”

The plea agreement includes a possible sentence from time served up to six years for Sherry Kelley, according to Gernat.

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.