'Outcry': If Greg Kelley didn't sexually assault the boys, then who did? 5 questions that need to be answered
Showtime's 'Outcry' is a searing documentary on the much talked about Greg Kelley case. Kelley was 18 years old when he was arrested by the Cedar Park Police on suspicion of sexually assaulting a young boy. At the time, Kelley was having a good streak — the football player had received four football scholarships to go to college. The arrest changed his life and despite his repeated pleas of innocence, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole. In 2017, he filed for a re-trial and was released from prison in August on bond. Two years later, in late 2019, Greg was finally exonerated with the belief “that he is actually innocent of committing the offense".
While Kelley has been exonerated, many questions linger about the case in which so many seemed to get so many things wrong. Perhaps a stronger investigation might have gotten a valid suspect behind bars, something that we will never know now. Here are five questions we have about the Greg Kelley case.
Who actually committed the crime?
This is the most glaring question. Two five-year-old boys had come forward to say that Kelley had sexually assaulted them. At the time it was established that the interviews of the boys were not done properly. Evidence showed that one of the boys had been subjected to at least eight “non-professional conversations” prior to his forensic interview at the child advocacy center. In 2017, the lead Texas Ranger investigating the Greg Kelley case, Cody Mitchell, revealed that he believed there were three suspects who could have committed the crime. Mitchell testified after four months of extensive investigation, the three people who remain suspects are Greg Kelley, Jonathan McCarty and a third person who he would not name.
Why didn't Kelley's lawyer present an alternate suspect?
When the trial went to the jury, Kelley's defense attorney at the time, Patricia Cummings, said the accusations were false and that nothing had happened to the boys. However, after the case was reopened, the focus was on Cummings as to why she may not have considered an alternate suspect, namely, Kelley's friend whose home he was staying at and the location of the crime, Johnathan McCarty. It was revealed that McCarty's mother was a friend of Cummings and that Cumming had represented members of McCarty's family, including a half-brother who had been prosecuted as a juvenile for sex offenses. Tracey Anderson — Kelley's girlfriend's mom — also testified that she expressed concern to Cummings that he had committed the crime. "She held up her hand in front of me and just said, 'We're not going to go there,'" Anderson testified. "Did you feel like it was dismissive of you?" asked Williamson County District Attorney Shawn Dick. "Yeah. I mean, she didn't want to hear about it," said Anderson.
Why was Johnathan McCarty not investigated further?
It was also revealed that the victims considered that Kelley and McCarty looked similar. Moreover, Mike Adams, a forensic investigator testified that he retrieved the McCarty family computer and found images of children that he identified as child pornography. Adams added that there were multiple adult pornography sites visited under Jonathan McCarty's user ID. Adams said he could not prove that the activity linked to McCarty's user ID was actually conducted by McCarty.
The Texas Rangers did not actively pursue an investigation with McCarty as a suspect due to lack of investigation by the Cedar Park Police. Dick clarified that while there were some nude images of children he did not necessarily think the images met the legal definition of child pornography.
Who is the unnamed third suspect?
Texas Ranger, Cody Mitchell investigating the Greg Kelley case spoke about a third suspect he would not name because the investigation was still active. According to court documents filed in 2017, a third man who lived in the house where a four-year-old boy is believed to have been sexually assaulted had a previous charge of indecency with a child. He also served time for robbery, according to the document. The man's attorney on the charges, which date back to 2007, was Patricia Cummings, who also represented Kelley on child sexual assault charges that led to his conviction. The documents contend that Cummings did not pursue that man as a possible suspect because of her prior relationship with him.
Why was the police investigation so messy, especially when questioning the victims?
During Kelley's retrial, it was revealed that the Cedar Park Police's investigation was messy and incomplete. There was the fact that the lead detective on the case admitted to asking the young boys leading questions. The police backdated the crime to make it appear that it had occurred when Kelley was staying at the McCarty household.
The police did not even conduct verification of the locations mentioned by the victims. One of the victims said he was assaulted in a room with a couch, a crib and a bed. His mother said that the one time she came to pick her son up, he was sleeping in a room with wrestling trophies. It was revealed that McCarty's room had a bed, a crib, a couch, and trophies. In contrast, Kelley’s room was so small that the bed took up most of the space.
This year, Kelley filed a lawsuit against the city of Cedar Park, former Police Chief Sean Mannix and Christopher Dailey, the lead investigator in the case against him, for an “incompetent, bad faith and fundamentally flawed” investigation. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, alleges that during the investigation conducted by Dailey, a Cedar Park police detective, the officer did not verify Kelley’s location the day of the assault, did not investigate other suspects, falsified information about when the assault happened, and deleted emails about the case.
'Outcry' airs on Showtime at 10/9c on July 5.
