quote:

---

Parents accused of brutal abuse
JAILED: Troopers say children's grotesque discipline included being hit with a shovel and other tools.

By LISA DEMER
Anchorage Daily News

(Published: September 16, 2004)

Five Mat-Su children suffered abuse, neglect and violent, often bizarre punishments at the hands of their adoptive parents, according to a trooper affidavit filed this week in Palmer District Court.

Sherry Kelley, 35, and her husband, Patrick Kelley, 43, are in jail facing multiple charges of assault and kidnapping, the latter based on confining one of the boys against his will. Each parent is being held on $100,000 bail.

The Kelleys aimed the abuse and discipline techniques at their two sons in particular, according to the charging documents.

At times one boy was sealed naked in a coffinlike box, according to the affidavit. The other boy suffered burns in February that became infected; maggots hatched from the wounds this summer.

Both told troopers of being struck with a shovel and other tools. The boys' sisters backed up their stories.

The Kelleys were state-licensed foster parents when the children were placed with them starting in 1998 by what's now called the Office of Children's Services, Alaska State Troopers determined.

The lead trooper investigator said he's never seen a case like this in his 13 years of law enforcement.

"It just kept snowballing," said investigator Leonard Wallner.

The couple subsequently adopted the children through the state, according to Wallner's affidavit. There are three girls, now 6, 14 and 15, and two boys, 10 and 13. The oldest three are biological siblings.

At the time troopers intervened in July, the couple was receiving $3,400 a month in adoption subsidies from the state to care for the children, troopers deduced from check stubs found in the family's trailer home during a search.

None of the children had been to school in years, the affidavit said. The kids said Sherry Kelley didn't cook and they mainly fended for themselves, making rice and beans. Patrick Kelley worked in Anchorage as a landscaper.

The youngsters told troopers they did extensive manual labor at the family compound off Misty Lake Road between Big Lake and Wasilla, Wallner said. They worked in the vegetable gardens and greenhouses and cleared land for a home. The family lived in a trailer home, with a generator for electricity and an outhouse but no refrigerator and no place to bathe other than a pond, which was essentially a collection of water at the bottom of a hole.

George Long -- Sherry Kelley's father and the children's adoptive grandfather -- asked troopers for help on July 8, the affidavit said. Sherry Kelley and her 15-year-old daughter were arguing over whether the teen could get a part-time job when what seemed to be a minor family disturbance soon exploded into a tale of torment.

Troopers were told children slept in "junk vans" that the grandfather had brought in for them. Long and his wife, Shirley, live next to the Kelleys.

The parents had excluded the kids from the trailer and they had been "sleeping outside hither and yonder," Wallner said.

Troopers were told the kids were confined to the property and hadn't been to school since 2001. They soon found out about the severe, untreated burns suffered by one of the boys.

It took time to draw the children out.

"The fear exists that they will end up back in the same environment," Wallner said. "The safer they feel, the more information comes out."

The older boy eventually told troopers he had been hit on the back and head with a shovel and willow switch by both parents, though Sherry Kelley was the primary aggressor, the affidavit said. He had scars on the tops of his toes from being struck with a shovel last summer. He and his brother were periodically confined in a bedroom with a gate and alarm. He was often hungry and said his mother "did not prepare meals or like to waste money on food," according to the affidavit.

The boy said "he got caught stealing food from grandma and grandpa's house" and was thrown into the family's pond as punishment. He tried to run away, was caught and "was chained to a tree and not given any food for five days," according to what he told troopers. After that, he had a brick chained to his leg, apparently in spring 2003, according to the affidavit and charging document.

He was the one who was put into a long, rectangular wooden box, according to what the younger boy told troopers. An aunt said that her son, a cousin, also saw it, the affidavit said.

Both boys were forced at times to wear onion-sack "thongs" as punishment.

The younger boy told troopers his adoptive mother hit him in the face with a shovel, breaking a tooth, the affidavit said.

He was burned this year on Valentine's Day as he helped with torches the family used to light outdoor paths, he told troopers. Sherry Kelley didn't want him to go to the doctor because she feared losing custody of all the children, the grandfather told troopers, according to the affidavit. She used a stick to remove his scabs, the boy said.

When maggots hatched in the child's open sores, Patrick Kelley told him to wash them off, according to the affidavit. He also suffered frostbite in a finger while carrying firewood. When he asked Sherry Kelley to take him to the doctor, she told him to go away. His sisters scrubbed the dead flesh to the bone.

Just as troopers headed to the home for the first time, on July 8, Sherry Kelley herded the 10-year-old into her van because, as a relative later told troopers, she didn't want them to see the injured boy. She struck him with a steel pipe to get him into the van, the affidavit said. It was later determined that the blow broke his arm.

The situation was worsening and if the troopers hadn't come, the boy might have died, the grandfather later told troopers, according to the affidavit.

Before troopers got there, Patrick Kelley hit the 13-year-old across the back of the knees with a metal pole, bruising him badly, the boy eventually told troopers. The three children at home were turned over to an aunt.

Troopers returned the next day with an order sought by Kelley's family to have her evaluated at Alaska Psychiatric Institute. They found the 10-year-old hiding behind a building and called an ambulance. He underwent skin grafts and partial amputation of his finger during weeks of hospitalization.

Sherry Kelley now is charged with two counts of kidnapping, five counts of second-degree assault and two counts of third-degree assault; Patrick Kelley faces one less assault charge.

The investigation is continuing, Wallner said. The older girls told of being slapped so hard by Sherry Kelley that they thought their noses were broken.

The head of the Office of Children's Services said she could not discuss any specific case. Once an adoption is finalized, the state doesn't check on families unless they ask for help, said Marci Kennai, state deputy commissioner.

"Unless someone brings something to our attention, we don't know about these things, and that's why we need community to be involved," she said.

The children now are safe and in school, living together with a relative, Wallner said.

During the investigation, one of the boys told him, "I just want to be a normal, regular kid."

---

This is very sad.
I read the Pelzer books, too.
My goal in life, being a victim of abuse myself, is to rid the world of child abuse. Of course it's impossible; I know I'm overambitious. BUT, if people agree with me and they know big people, they can help. Anyone can help. If you are alive, you know someone who knows someone who knows someone etc etc. The point is, if you know the facts, you can do something. SHARE IT

Life sucks. http://myfragility.blogspot.com says a lot. Check it out!

MAN THAT IS HORRIBLE. This sucks. i mean i have never heard of anyone that bad before!

quote:

Originally posted by pretty_pink_princess:
thats really long and really sad my uncle raped me and all he went 2 was a masonic home for 3 weeks then moved back in w/ his mom which is my grandmother

OMFG!! THAT JUST SUCKSSS!!
this is when the legal system just makes me mad I mean that's just stupid it's like their telling them it's not that bad to do it cause there are very few & small concequences. did I spell that right?

Jeffrey Baldwin

Here's another one.

Terrible.

Um, why didn't the Grandfather act alot sooner? Innaction of child abuse, especially of this magnitude is just as evil as the act itself. The grandfather brought in broke down vehicles for them to sleep in? WHAT THE FU*K MAN!

It is not our place to tell others how to raise their children, but it is our place to report such abuse to the authorities to handle it.

I also read A Child Called It, and I think the scariest thing for me was not the abuse, was that I could relate to it, being a victim of severe child abuse myself. The most disgusting thing about most child abuse cases is that usually nobody knows, and the child is scared so bad that they can't tell anyone. That, and most perpertrators of child abuse get off or get very lenient sentences (example: my dad was convicted of four counts of felony child abuse, and served three months in jail) I still can't believe anyone would be able to raise a hand to child...a child! It's appalling!

i totally agree. this sucks. i will do anything. i'm very involved in our school and i will do anything to open our eyes up to this. oh god i feel so bad and ignorant. those poor kids make me cry.

Well I know something we all can do. We all o to school right. Some of us r shool reporters, student counsil members or even president. So let's get r shools involed start raising awareness. make a day to wear teeshirts or something. Our justice system doesn't alwsys do the right thing here in America thats why we have to be the Voice, take a stand, and make the future better. remember we are the Congersmen and women, president, police officers, and people of tomorrow

see, that is the kind of shit taht gets go me. that is just wrong on so many levels, i mean these kids have already had a bad life, not living w/ their real parents them not wanting them or got taken away. i cant stand people like that. i just....omg! it just makes me so mad! and u know there are kids out there that are going through the same thing, i just wish i could find some way to help them.

yess
seriously
what CAN we do ? does anyone have any ideas?
i'd love to help.

quote:

I believe that there IS a sexual abuse month, so we can't form that, but maybe write letters to our congressmen

well, i'm not thinkin just sexual abuse...i'm talkin child abuse...i mean, so much of it goes on...most of us have seen it happen....we should go all out and make noise about it...tee-shirts, writing until the congressmen go blue in the face...hmmmm...could be fun and helpful too...

quote:

Originally posted by HurleyGirly:
so lets stop talking about making a difference...and make one....what can we do???? lets do something people...this abuse happens too much.

Well, that is what we need to talk about next, hurley. I believe that there IS a sexual abuse month, so we can't form that, but maybe write letters to our congressmen and ask them if they could make a stronger bond of rules for preditors. Or something.

so lets stop talking about making a difference...and make one....what can we do???? lets do something people...this abuse happens too much.

quote:

Originally posted by pretty_pink_princess:
I agree clearVOICE we can do something about this world wide issue

Amen to that, everyone!

Peace,
Yuka

quote:

Originally posted by clearVOICE:
Many of these cases are really and truly foul and distgusting. A great many of us have our own personal stories on this hideoMany of these cases are really and truly foul and distgusting. A great many of us have our own personal stories on this hideous issue

I agree clearVOICE we can do something about this world wide issue

quote:

Originally posted by clearVOICE:
Many of these cases are really and truly foul and distgusting. A great many of us have our own personal stories on this hideous issue

Knowing that many of us have our own personal stories on this issue, we should be able to do something about it, other than talking. IF we all work together, then we should be able to make a different, some how, in being able to prevent child abuse. 'Cause action is more powerful than just talk.

Many of these cases are really and truly foul and distgusting. A great many of us have our own personal stories on this hideoMany of these cases are really and truly foul and distgusting. A great many of us have our own personal stories on this hideous issue

thats really long and really sad my uncle raped me and all he went 2 was a masonic home for 3 weeks then moved back in w/ his mom which is my grandmother