THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, April 30, 1996 TAG: 9604300335
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PERRY PARKS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: EDENTON LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
Robert F. Kelly Jr. will be retried on dozens of charges that he sexually abused 12 children at his Little Rascals day care center in the late 1980s, prosecutors said Monday.
Kelly also faces eight new charges in an unrelated Edenton case, involving a girl who was 9 or 10 in 1987, the time prosecutors say the crimes occurred.
``Based upon a review of the evidence and the law, we determined that justice would best be served by going forward,'' said Nancy Lamb, a senior prosecutor in North Carolina's 1st Judicial District. ``The decision was made quite recently.
``I feel optimistic that this was the correct decision. I wouldn't do it if I didn't feel that the evidence and the law and the ends of justice dictate that I should do it.''
The 99 molestation charges that were overturned last year and sent back for retrial are still pending in Pitt County, where Kelly was tried, Lamb said. She said hearings on Kelly's legal representation and trial dates probably would begin soon.
Lamb declined to say whether Kelly would be retried on all 99 counts. She also declined to give details about the new sex charges.
Kelly was indicted by a Chowan County grand jury Monday on several sex charges involving a female minor.
``The offenses occurred in Edenton, and she was living there at the time,'' said Lamb, adding that the girl had not been involved with Kelly's day care center. ``It came to our attention and came to light when I started reviewing the Little Rascals case.''
The new charges stem from incidents in 1987, all involving one girl who was about 9 or 10 at the time of the alleged assaults. Kelly was charged with two counts of first-degree sexual offense, one count of first-degree rape, one count of crime against nature and four counts of indecent liberties against the girl.
The announcement that Kelly would be tried again came almost exactly a year after the state Court of Appeals reversed Kelly's 1992 conviction on 99 counts of molesting 12 children and ordered a new trial. The 3-0 decision was issued May 2, 1995, and was allowed to stand by the state Supreme Court in September.
Lamb and other officials have spent the past several months trying to decide whether to retry Kelly on the Little Rascals charges or let him go free.
Kelly's first trial lasted nine months and cost more than $1 million - the longest and costliest in North Carolina's history. The cases against him and six other defendants drew national attention and divided the close-knit community of historic Edenton.
The children in the case, mostly toddlers at the time of the alleged assaults, are now in or nearing their teens.
But Lamb said Monday that the case was worth retrying.
Kelly probably will have a first appearance in court this week to determine whether he needs a court-appointed lawyer and to set bond. Kelly had been freed on $200,000 bond after his Little Rascals conviction was overturned, and has been working at Triangle Telephone Co. in Cary.
He turned himself in to the State Bureau of Investigation office in Fayetteville on Monday afternoon, said Fred McKinney, supervisor for the office.
No decision has been made on whether to retry Kathryn Dawn Wilson, a former Little Rascals cook who was convicted in 1993 on five abuse charges, Lamb said. Wilson's convictions were overturned on appeal at the same time Kelly's were.
Three women - Shelley A. Stone, Robin B. Byrum and Darlene M. Harris - have been charged but never tried in the Little Rascals case.
Two defendants - Kelly's wife, Elizabeth T. ``Betsy'' Kelly, and Willard Scott Privott - pleaded no contest to reduced charges and received prison sentences. Both have since been freed. MEMO: The Associated Press contributed to this report.
ILLUSTRATION: Kelly
KEYWORDS: CHILD ABUSE LITTLE RASCALS DAY CARE SEXUAL ABUSE
MOLESTATION SEX CRIME by CNB