George Long guilty of abuse

PALMER — It took a six-member jury all of an afternoon to decide George Long was guilty of assaulting his grandson in 2004.

Long and his wife, Shirley Long, had been on trial in Palmer for two weeks. They are the parents of Sherry Kelley who, along with her husband, Patrick Kelley, had lived next door to the Longs with their five adopted children in the Misty Lake area. In 2004, the Kelley children were taken away by the state and the Kelleys were slapped with nearly 100 counts of abuse, neglect and kidnapping. Allegations were of children regularly beaten, tied to trees, locked in boxes and thrown in ponds.

For their part, both Longs were eventually charged with not reporting a serious assault on a child — a charge judge William Estelle chose to acquit them on.

That left one count for the jury to decide — did George Long assault his 10-year-old grandson when he tied the boy to a dog run?

Neither side denied Long’s actions. His defense attorney, John Pharr, argued that it was a minor, brief incident, which was more for expedience’s sake. The boy’s siblings were picking on him, Long removed him from the situation, then dealt with the issue at hand.

Prosecutor Rachel Gernat had a different interpretation.

“It was just another assault in a string of assaults that happened on that property,” Gernat argued.

She pointed out that Long had many other options, he could have sent the boy inside his house or a nearby greenhouse, he could have sent him to go sit on a nearby swing. Gernat said Long tied the boy up not to protect him but to punish him for dragging a hose through the Longs’ potato patch.

"The state is happy with the verdict and believe it lends credibility to the children’s testimonies and also the living conditions endured by them," Gernat wrote in an e-mail post-verdict. "The verdict shows that, at least regarding George Long, he was partially responsible for some of the abuse."

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.