I am Thad Davidson. I was Patrick Kelly’s trial lead trial lawyer. My co-counsel was Tina Brumbelow.

The article correctly points out that the Smith County DA’s Office and Ranger Kemp hid, buried and lied about exculpatory evidence that cleared Patrick Kelly.
Numerous others did, too, including several CPS workers assigned to Smith County. This was clear not only during the Patrick Kelly trial, but was made even more so during pretrial hearings in the subsequent case, State v. Dennis Pittman, handled by the great trial lawyer, Jason Cassel, whose work began where mine ended. Also critically important in all of this is the brilliant mind and legal writing of Patrick Kelly’s appellate attorney, Wes Volberding, whom so many owe so much to in the Mineola Swingers Club set of cases. There are numerous others–lawyers, mental health experts, and more–who tremendously helped us from the shadows.

Patrick Kelly is an innocent man. He passed a polygraph given by one of the most respected, toughed examiners in the State. The raw data from that polygraph test was examined by 4 or 5 other top polygraph examiners, and all of them–ALL OF THEM–independently concluded that Patrick Kelly was completely truthful during his polygraph. The polygraph examiner who did the original exam is the same polygraph examiner the Smith County DA’s office used for years . . . and that office and the DA and lead prosecutor in the Kelly case ignored the polygraph results and ignored the examiner, who told them in writing that Kelly was truthful (meaning that he was innocent). Their conduct is beyond shameful.

But there is so much more–

No physical evidence in the case. No DNA. No forensics. No adult witnesses. Vastly and grotesquely inconsistent stories by the so-called child witnesses, who were primed, pumped, and led to their “testimony” by Kemp, Cantrell and Co.

Also: Lots and lots of buried, hidden, lied-about (and even destroyed) exculpatory evidence. And lots of lies by key State witnesses.

Also: The Wood County District Attorney has openly stated that no sex offenses occurred against children in his county in connection with any of the Mineola Swingers Club cases. And yet these crimes supposedly occurred there. The Mineola PD did an investigation. The FBI participated. What did they find? Nothing.

What the Smith County DA’s Office did here, with the help of Ranger Kemp and a number of CPS personnel, as well as two particularly crooked ADAs, is a miscarriage of justice rarely seen in TX criminal law history. (I am not permitted to freely express my feelings and opinions about the trial judge in the case.) The people who did this need to be punished, and severely so. As in removed from power and held personally liable via federal lawsuits.

One very small correction: I was a Marine pilot who flew RF-4B Phantom IIs. I also flew RF-4C Phantom IIs with the USAF. The Phantom II is a tactical jet fighter; I flew the reconnaissance variant of it (hence the “R” attached to the F-4B). Many aviators in my Marine squadron referred to themselves as “fighter-reconnaisance” pilots or aviators, or simply
“reconnaissance” pilots or aviators. Our primary mission was reconnaissance, although, in truth, we spent significant time dogfighting each other (and anyone else who wanted to scrap).

Thank you for your passion in the article. Keep up the good fight. Keep pressing until the innocent are freed and the guilty who put them behind bars . . . face bars of their own.

T.W. Davidson
Patrick Kelly’s Lead Trial Lawyer
Davidson Law Office
329 S. Fannin Ave.
Tyler, TX 75702
(903) 535-9600 (tel.)
(903) 533-9394 (fax)