Couple refutes allegations

Nov. 28, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

PALMER - Testimony began Monday in preparation for sentencing a couple accused of multiple counts of child abuse in 2004, and the hearing is expected to continue at least through today.

Sherry Kelley, 37, took the witness stand while her husband, Patrick Kelley, 45, sat at the defense table, listening

quietly.

&#8220I made bad decisions,” said Sherry Kelley. &#8220Absolutely, if I could change them I would.”

Five adopted children were removed from the Kelleys' Misty Lake property near Wasilla on July 8, 2004. The following September, after an investigation by Alaska State Troopers, the Kelleys were charged with two counts of kidnapping, five counts of second-degree assault, two counts of second-degree assault, 28 counts of fourth-degree assault, five counts of criminal nonsupport and reckless endangerment for their treatment of the children.

Last February, the state dropped most of the charges and the Kelleys entered pleas in Anchorage Superior Court. Sherry Kelly pleaded no contest to two counts of criminal nonsupport, and Patrick Kelly pleaded no contest to one count of reckless endangerment.

Josh Fannon, Sherry Kelley's appointed attorney, led his client through about three hours of narrative disputing allegations in a report prepared for sentencing.

In Sherry Kelley's account, the four older children acted out violently, needed protection from each other and took actions to try to get to her. She did what she believed she had to do to protect the youngest child, herself and the other children, Sherry Kelley said.

Sherry Kelley answered yes when Fannon asked her if she believed children took a &#8220small bit of truth and made it into something outlandish.”

Sherry Kelley admitted the 13-year-old boy had to sleep in an 8-foot box, which was her response to him slipping out of his tent, stepping over her while she slept and cutting the 10-year-old boy with a jagged can lid. She only kept the boy in the box for three nights, she said, and she let him out to use the bathroom when needed.

When Patrick Kelley returned from working in Anchorage, he brought out a wire-mesh dog run, with a lock on the inside, which Sherry Kelley and two children slept in for protection, and the 13-year-old returned to sleeping in his tent, she said.

She did not hit the younger boy with a pipe and injure his arm as alleged, Sherry Kelley said. The boy hit her with the pipe when she turned to get the 6-year-old girl out of her car seat in the van, she said. The boy hit her in the face, on her cheek below the eye, she said, although she wasn't sure which cheek. The boy told her he injured his arm the day before when he fell off the greenhouse, she said.

Sherry Kelley didn't seek medical treatment for the 10-year-old boy after he fell into a campfire and burned his legs and hip on Feb. 14, 2004, she said, but she treated him herself.

When Fannon showed Sherry Kelley photos of the boy's burns, she said they were &#8220terrible,” and said the healing was aggravated by the boy's incontinence.

Sherry Kelley treated the burns by bathing the boy every day, using three different burn creams, one burn gel, hydrogen peroxide and alcohol, she said, and she never picked at the scabs to punish him as alleged.

The Kelley's had to home school the children because of some of the children's violent actions, but they never denied them an education, she said. They had to buy many of the children's school books out of pocket because they were &#8220faith based” and the Family Partnership School wouldn't pay for them, she said.

To refute the children's allegations that they never received presents and never had toys, Fannon and Rachel Levitt - Patrick Kelley's appointed attorney - pinned up six poster-sized photos. The photos showed a row of bicycles at the Misty Lake property, a birthday party, a Valentine's Day celebration, a barbecue at Misty Lake, a camping and fishing trip to Kasilof, and the five smiling children with Sherry Kelley in the background at their house in Anchorage.

Fannon entered several photos of multiple boxes of food into evidence, refuting the children's claim they never had enough food.

Sherry Kelley confirmed she and her husband received about $3,400 per month in adoption subsidies, and the children received free medical care through Medicaid. While they lived in Anchorage, the children were in counseling, but everyone decided to take a break from therapy about 2002, and the counselors didn't object, she said.

When the Kelleys moved from Anchorage to the Misty Lake property permanently in January 2004, the children's behavior became worse, but Sherry Kelley never returned them to therapy.

&#8220I think maybe my not doing that was a mistake,” she said.

Sherry Kelley did admit the older boy was chained to a tree after he'd run away, been found and returned. But he was not there the five days alleged, and she didn't remember who chained him.

&#8220I didn't say I did,” she said. &#8220His ankle was chained to a tree with a tiny chain.”

Sentencing testimony is scheduled to begin again at 10 a.m. today, but even if it concludes before the end of the day, the sentence won't be handed down immediately.

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Michael Wolverton said there was a tremendous amount of information, and significantly different points of view to consider.

&#8220I'm going to need time to process,” Wolverton said.