Longs’ attorneys ask for dismissal

PALMER — The trial for George and Shirley Long will continue into this week.

The Big Lake-area couple is charged with failing to report child abuse. George is also charged with assault for allegedly chaining his grandson in a dog run. Prosecutors say they were legally required to call police after their adopted grandson was burned and their daughter, Sherry Kelley, did not seek medical treatment.

Kelley and her husband, Patrick Kelley, saw their five adopted children removed from their care in July 2004. The case against them included more than 100 counts of abuse, neglect and kidnapping, and the case — in which allegations were of children tied to trees and locked in boxes — gained statewide headlines.

Eventually, Sherry pleaded no contest to one count of criminal nonsupport and one of assault and Patrick pleaded to one count of child endangerment. Both were sentenced to time already served.

Now it’s the Longs’ turn. Prosecutors allege that burns suffered by the Kelleys’ boy when he accidentally lit his legs on fire should have been treated. The lack of treatment led to serious physical injury and is therefore an assault. The burns happened in February 2004 and the boy wasn’t treated until he was taken from the Kelleys’ care.

If a child is assaulted causing serious injury, the law says anyone who sees it has to report it as a crime.

Friday morning, lawyers for the Longs argued again that the case should be dismissed.

Laurel Bennett, representing Shirley Long, 64, said that if there was an assault the Longs weren’t there to see it and therefore are not witnesses.

She also reiterated that the assault never happened — the burn was an accident and nobody proved the lack of attention made it any worse, or at least not so bad as to rise to the level of a felony assault.

Indeed, she said, Sherry Kelley’s crime, such as it was, would have fallen under a different statute, one that nobody is required to report.

“There is a separate crime of criminal nonsupport that includes not providing medical care,” Bennett said.

John Pharr, representing George Long, 69, joined Bennett in asking the charges be dismissed. He said, as he has often during the trial, that George Long did in fact report the abuse — it was his call that got the kids taken away in the first place.

“The state’s trying to drive a square peg into a round hole,” Pharr said.

Assistant District Attorney Rachel Gernat, for her part, argued most forcefully that the case should be decided by the jury, not on a motion from the defense attorneys.

“Calling 911 isn’t the end of it. It’s calling 911 to report that crime,” Gernat said.

Judge William Estelle has not ruled on the motion for the Longs’ acquittal. The case is due back in court Tuesday.