rigorousintuition.ca

[Jeff]

Texas town reels from horrific abuse in its midst

By PAUL J. WEBER, Associated Press Writer Sun Jun 22, 5:44 PM ET

MINEOLA, Texas - In the windowless front rooms of a former day care center in a tiny Texas community, children as young as 5 were fed powerful painkillers they knew as "silly pills" and forced to perform sex shows for a crowd of adults.

Two people have already been convicted in the case. Now a third person with ties to the club, previously known in town only as a swingers group, is set to go on trial Monday not far from Mineola, population 5,100.

"This really shook this town," said Shirley Chadwick, a longtime resident of Mineola. "This was horrible."

Patrick Kelly, 41, is charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child, tampering with physical evidence and engaging in organized criminal activity.

In all, six adults have been charged in connection with the case, including a parent of the three siblings involved.

Jurors this year deliberated less than five minutes before returning guilty verdicts against the first two defendants, who were accused of grooming the kids for sex shows in "kindergarten" classes and passing off Vicodin as "silly pills" to help the children perform.

Jamie Pittman and Shauntel Mayo were sentenced to life in prison. Kelly also faces a life sentence if convicted, and Smith County prosecutors hope for another swift verdict.

...

The one-story building where prosecutors say four children — the three siblings, now ages 12, 10 and 7, and their 10-year-old aunt — were trained to perform in front of an audience of 50 to 100 once a week has been vacant since the landlord ousted the alleged organizers in 2004.

Down a slight hill is a retirement home, and even closer is the office of the local newspaper. Doris Newman, editor of The Mineola Monitor, said rumors of swinger parties spread around town but that no one mentioned children being involved.

Newman, who can see the building from her office window, said she remembers the parking lot filling up with more than a dozen cars at night.

In August 2004, an editorial under the headline "Sex In the City" opined that if the swingers left quietly, "we'll try and forget they've infiltrated our town with their set of moral standards."

"It's not that we're trying to look the other way," Newman said. "But there's a lot more to Mineola than that."

According to a Mineola police report, the department first investigated a complaint in June 2005 in which the siblings' foster mother said one of the girls described dancing toward men and another child saying that "everybody does nasty stuff in there."

...

Permanent custody of the three siblings was given to John and Margie Cantrell. This week, prosecutors in California charged John Cantrell with sexually assaulting a child in the state 18 years ago. Margie Cantrell said her husband is innocent.

...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080622/ap_on_re_us/sex_club_children


More:

...

The girl drew a diagram and described the inside of the club where they danced. She said there were two guards standing inside the front door and "Dennis" would sit at the front desk where people had to pay for tickets to watch the movies made of the children performing sex acts.

The girl said there were eight kids who would perform in the club. Her brother had to have sex with a teenaged boy for the movies, she said, and she would make movies with some of the other children. Jamie Pittman filmed the movies, she said.

The movies would be filmed in one area of the club and people would watch the movies in another area. People would also watch as they danced and performed sex acts. Each time she was asked about what they did, the girl would spell out "s-e-x" but refused to say the word.

...

http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20080327/NEWS01/803270327

[8bitagent]

Geezus...how come this hasnt been in the mainstream news?(or the Hosana case for that matter)

My God...and people say organized pedophile rings in America is a hoax.
Why have only a few people been held accountable, when it's clear a ton of people were involved? Makes you wonder how many people were in on it...or *who* in the community went to these things.

Someday, I swear people wont be calling Mcmartin, Franklin, or Finders "hoaxes" anymore
_________________
"We should not be here. I'm scared, this is creepy. You know what I mean? This could go very deep, Carol. This could be like, you know, like with the Warren commission, or something. I don't like it."-Woody Allen, Manhattan Murder Mystery(1993)

[lightningBugout]

[pepsified thinker]

I'm glad if CNN, etc. are carrying this--but it's weird to only hear bout it now, for two reason.

First,

• that there was a specific, known location for 'swingers parties', with large numbers of people regularly attending,

• that there was a folks in town didn't like the existence of this group/activity

Second

• that this story is coming out now, only after the trial is complete
is amazing, as the charges and presumably the testimony, would/should have drawn all kinds of reaction and attention.

Something's fishy in the state of Texas.
_________________
"we must cultivate our garden"
--Voltaire

[hava1]

a town of 5000 only, implies that it was acceptable or widely tolerated. Mineola is mentioned in NYT from 2006, when state comptroller found lapses in monitoring sex offenders. Some town...dogville type.

Comes to prove the speculation that child sexual commercial abuse is acceptable to many people, despite the laws and the righteous indignation.
Governments therefore feel ok to run commercial child sex rings for "national security". The difference between, say, the US society and Moldava (considered "risk area" for trafficking) is the manner in which it is done. In Moldava it would be "over the counter", and in the USA and other places, it would be hidden, denied, and will be focused on using "branded" victims for the enjoyment of multitudes. Whereas, if its over the counter, its more dispersed and less "stigmatized".

Sickness abound.

[Uncle $cam]

I smell rotting <*))))>< ...

[wintler2]

Top listing story on my local papers website today. May it encourage more exposures.

[nathan28]

[annie aronburg]

[nathan28]

[professorpan]

There's a photo of the building here:

http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8086125&nav=menu117_2



Also, for what it's worth, a place called "The Retreat" is listed as a swinger's club in Mineola, TX (Wood County), on Hwy. 80.

http://www.swingerslifestyle.net/swingers-club/swingers-clubs.aspx?state=Texas

ON EDIT: Yep, the Mineola Monitor newspaper is located off Route 80, so "The Retreat" was probably the swinger's club in question.

http://www.mniguide.com/info.asp?CID=28594

[professorpan]

Club Name:
The Retreat
Club Type: 903-569-0973
Location: Texas, Mineola
Website: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TexasFriendFinders
Telephone: 903-569-0973
Address: hwy 80
Description: This on premises party house is open to couples and single ladies only,we have parties every friday and saturday nights.byob we have every thing else and we have a lot of room for couples to stay the whole weekend

http://www.swapperads.net/swingers-clubs/Texas/

[Jeff]

From the kltv link:

Gary Edwards is a reporter at the Mineola Monitor, ironically next door to where the sex ring set-up shop. He recalled how the community first learned something wasn't right.

"If you came by Friday evening or Saturday evening you'd see a lot of cars in the grassy area behind us there," said Edwards.

And an anonymous call confirmed just a fraction of what was happening inside.

"What she said to me was 'do you know what's going on next door?' And I said 'no." She then said 'It's a swinger's club and that it was ok with them, but these people weren't ok. These people, she said, were dangerous without defining what dangerous was."

Edwards began publishing editorials about the swingers club, but he said he never knew children were involved.

[chiggerbit]

[sunny]