Outcry (2020): Season 1, Episode 5 - Episode #1.5 - full transcript

[Greg Kelley] I do believe that
wrongs need to be made right.

[female reporter] The judge
in Williamson County has just

ruled that he should
be declared innocent.

[male reporter] Judge King
said that his attorney

in his first trial was
ineffective.

[Shawn Dick] You know, the
judge did find bad faith

on the part of the Cedar
Park Police Department.

I've never woken up in the
morning and wondered:

did we get the wrong guy?

It won't be over until the
Court of Criminal Appeals

issues its decision.



The Court of Criminal Appeals
can ignore that

and go the other way.

Which means he has to
go back into prison.

[Greg] I simply don't know
where I'm going to be

in six months.

I don't even know if I'm
going to be exonerated yet.

We believe that he's com--
he's committed a crime

and-and we intend to prove it.

[Keith] The search warrant
affidavit is a 180.

This was a drive-by
character assassination.

It seems like the
higher I'm getting,

he's going to find something
to smash me into the ground.

My worry, as I sit here
right now,

is how could we be defeated?



How could this all be
taken away from him?

[soft dramatic music]

I followed the case
a little bit.

Um,

I kind of grew up
dancing in the same,

like, area as Gaebri.

The only thing that I knew
really about the case

was that, um,

Greg was accused of
molesting a child,

potentially two.

And that's really
all that I knew.

So the first time that
I met Johnathan was

either like June
or July of 2014.

Um, he was tagging along
with one of his friends

to come meet my friend Emily.

Um.

Johnathan and I were
sitting in the driveway

waiting for them to get back.

And he started kind of
talking about

how he'd had a rough year,

um, and brought up,

"I don't know if you know
what's going on

with my best friend, Greg."

And I had kind of heard
of it and I was like,

"Yeah, I know a little bit."

And he just said that
it was really rough

and he was doing bad in school

and something happened
with football,

like he got kicked out of
football or something,

and, um, that it looked
like his best friend

was going to go to prison.

I met Johnathan
when I was 15.

And he raped me two weeks
before I turned 16.

And that was within
maybe a month or two

of Greg being officially
convicted.

♪ theme music ♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

[Greg] Today is January 9th.

Um, it's a Wednesday.

And it's another Wednesday of

finding out if relief granted
is going to be here or not.

Who knows, you know?

Stuff happens when you
least expect it sometimes.

All right, here we go.

[dramatic suspenseful music]

[Greg] Yeah, I was arrested,
um, July of '13.

Can you believe it's
been that long?

That is six years, that I'm
coming up on six years?

And then I looked at these
pictures of me in 2013 to now.

I was like a kid, you know.

I looked like a kid,
of course.

I mean I-I didn't-- I didn't
totally act like my age

but I was a kid.

I had no idea what
I was getting into.

I did-- I had no idea what
the other side of that door

looked like if I got convicted.

[dramatic music]

Yeah.

[Greg] Mm-hmm.

Twenty-four.

Twenty-four.

[male] Thank you, Mr. Chairman
and members.

Uh, unlike 48 other states,

Texas requires that all
post-conviction applications

for writ of habeas corpus
be approved

or denied by the Texas Court
of Criminal Appeals.

There is one small group of
cases that could be handled

more expeditiously.

These cases are ones in
which the trial court

and the state and this--
the district attorney

agree that the defendant
is deserving of relief.

State your name.

My name is Patricia Cummings
and I represent the

Innocence Project of Texas.

And I'm here today to
testify in support of 1273.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman,
I'm Gary Udashen.

I am the, uh, board president

of the Innocence Project
of Texas.

And I'm here on behalf of the
Innocence Project of Texas.

We are in favor of this bill.

[Keith] In April of 2017,

four months before
the writ hearing,

Patricia Cummings and what
would later become her lawyer,

Gary Udashen, appear
before a Senate committee

along with Stacey Soule,

the State Prosecuting Attorney.

My name is Stacey Soule,

and I'm from the State
Prosecuting Attorney's Office.

I'm the State Prosecuting
Attorney and I'm here for you

as a resource witness today.

The State Prosecuting Attorney
is appointed by the

Court of Criminal Appeals to
represent the State

before that court.

We have, uh, worked with the
State Prosecuting Attorney,

Ms. Soule, today to craft
some of these ad--

this additional language
to address some concerns

that have been raised.

The three of them,
Gary Udashen,

Patricia Cummings,

and SPA Stacey Soule,

they were working together,

urging that they pass a bill

that would entitle local
people who agree that,

s-say, someone's innocent w--

and save them from having
to go through the CCA.

Locally, the DA and the
local judge could agree

and then that person would
not only be free on bond

but would be exonerated.

And it would be over.

[Patricia] Nobody wants
somebody to spend any

time in prison if they're
innocent of that crime.

If we allow the existing
law to go in-in-- um,

unchallenged, unchanged,
essentially what we have

is we have situations where
prosecutors and trial judges

make a decision that a person's
conviction should be vacated,

yet because we have that
extra layer of review

then although this person
could get out of prison,

they would be placed on bond.

And so they're living
in legal limbo.

And so we do
support this bill.

We think it is good
for the State.

And we think when just one
person is affected like that

and we could do better,
why not?

When they're representing the
Innocence Project of Texas,

they're all for local
DAs and judges

immediately exonerating
people so they don't have to

go through the CCA.

Fast forward just a few months
later and not so much.

By August, where you've
got a DA and a judge

that want to do exactly that,

that are in agreement that
we've got an innocent man

and let's save
him some time,

behind the scenes,

unbeknownst to any of us,

Patricia Cummings and her
then lawyer, Gary Udashen,

along with her
other two lawyers,

are working together with
the SPA to deny Greg

the very thing that they
publicly said they

wanted to see enacted
into the law.

Greg's former attorney,
Patricia Cummings,

has filed an amicus brief
to influence the court

against Greg, 95 pages
pounding your former client

who you said was innocent

and playing yourself up
as the victim.

And they worked and
prepared a brief,

and now we know they worked
together with the SPA

to produce these amicus briefs

before the Court of
Criminal Appeals.

There are e-mails that
reflect that Gary Udashen,

one of Patricia's attorneys,

reached out to the State
Prosecuting Attorney

for assistance against the
ineffective assistance claim

to help Patricia Cummings.

December 26th, uh,
Gary Udashen writes

to the State Prosecuting
Attorney:

"Stacey, I thought you might
be interested in this brief."

And so that's
December 26th, 2017.

They've arranged a meeting.

By January 2nd, Stacey,
confirming that

"David Botsford and I will
see you tomorrow at 2,"

later that afternoon Stacey
says, "Yes. See you then."

So they're meeting about the
Greg Kelley case together.

[laughs] I can't.

Uh, this one is dated
Tuesday, August 22nd.

And it says, "Stacey"

and it has 12 lines
that are blacked out.

Don't know what it says.

Love to find out.

So I don't know what they
said behind closed doors

but it's not difficult for me
to infer it-it's the same team.

They're all on the same team.

And, yes, it's-it's, uh,
stark for a defense lawyer

to profess with this urgency
and apparent passion

for their client and then
privately get with the

State Prosecuting Attorney

and execute two affidavits to
completely undermine

the person you're claiming
you believe is innocent.

We're thrilled to have
Patricia Cummings from the

Philadelphia District
Attorney's Office.

And she is sort of an icon
in the conviction integrity

world, which is why we
wanted to have her

come and speak today.

Um, thank you very, Mark.

It's-it's a
pleasure to be here.

I'm going to add just a little
bit to my background

so you can understand why
I'm asking the question:

why choose to go to the moon?

Um, I tried a case where I
believed my young client,

who was 18 years old, was
actually innocent of what

he was accused of committing.

I went in and tried the case.

It was the hardest case
of my career,

and I lost.

And my client was ser-- uh,
sentenced to serve 25 years

day for day in prison,
and it was for,

like I said, something
I believe he didn't do.

[Keith] I've never seen this at
the Court of Criminal Appeals.

Patricia Cummings' attorneys,

they're elevating their
own self-interests

above somebody who has been
found to be innocent.

And-and their actions
could jeopardize,

even conceivably defeat,

his innocence claim.

What's happened is we've had
this national conversation

about how horrifying
it is to recognize

that our criminal
justice system,

probably the best in the world,

actually convicts
innocent people.

And it's horrific not only
because of the defendant

who gets wrongfully convicted
and is innocent

and sitting in prison,

but it's also horrific
because we recognize

that when we get it
wrong on that level,

what that means for society

is that the real perpetrator
is still often out in society

committing other crimes.

[female reporter] A man
considered an alternate

suspect in the high-profile
Greg Kelley sexual assault

case, Johnathan McCarty:

he's accused of drugging a
woman and sexually assaulting

her at a frat party in
San Marcos in 2015.

The victim was 15
years old at the time

McCarty was 18.

Johnathan McCarty
drugged and raped me.

The morning after
Johnathan raped me,

I woke up on the floor

in a house in the
middle of nowhere.

And under the circumstances
that it happened,

I felt like no one
would believe me.

And if they did,
I'd be in trouble

because I was doing things I
shouldn't have been doing.

I kind of just pushed it away
and tried to forget about it.

And it wasn't until I was
sitting in my room

like years later

and had like five different
people text me

within 10 minutes.

And they all texted me
a news story

saying that there was
a new suspect

identified in the
Greg Kelley case

and it was Johnathan McCarty.

I called a family friend
who's a lawyer,

and told him what
happened to me.

Well, the next day I got home
and there was a Texas Ranger

at my house, it was
Cody Mitchell.

And before I talked to Cody,
I called up the lawyer again

and said, "Did you say
something?

Because there's a Texas
Ranger at my house.

And like why are they here?"

And he said, "No, I didn't
say anything.

But if he's there,

it probably means that
your name came up

in the investigation
in some way.

And enough things pointed to
you that they felt like

you were of value to talk to."

And Cody confirmed that
essentially,

that my name had come up
enough times that he

figured he had to talk
to me to figure out why.

Um, and that's when I told
Cody everything that happened

and, uh, he took it to Shawn
and we moved forward from there.

[Shawn] Today, uh, we had
a court setting in

Johnathan McCarty's case, uh,

and it was our final
court setting.

I was interested in holding
Johnathan McCarty accountable

for, um, the, uh, the abuse,

um, that he inflicted upon
an-an individual in our county.

So the original charge was
sexual assault of a child.

There were allegations of him
drugging and-and molesting

or raping women without-without
their consent

or without the ability
to consent.

Uh, we had reached an
agreement in principle

last week and set the case
for this morning.

[dramatic somber music]

♪♪♪

Johnathan did this to a girl.

He...

he drugged and raped her.

And then another teenage boy
getting accused of

sexual assault of a minor,

he's living in the same house,

rooms are next to each other,

look exactly the same.

You think that's
a coincidence?

I'm sitting here like:

does that even put up
any red flags?

You know?

Like what's the--
what's the chances of that?

Where you have a crime
th-that's occurred

a-and you put the innocent
person in prison

necessarily means the
other guy gets a skate

and he's still out there.

[Shawn] These charges have
nothing to do with the

Greg Kelley case.

They came about because
Johnathan McCarty was being

looked at in the-- in
the Greg Kelley case.

You know, I know there were
some allegations in some other

counties but to my knowledge
they're not prosecuting those

cases in those other counties.

But, you know, after
consulting with the victim

a number of times and,
uh, you know,

deciding what's best for her,

what's best for the County, uh,

but still holding
Johnathan McCarty accountable,

uh, we did agree to a plea
involving an ul--

unlawful restraint and
a delivery of a

controlled substance
to a minor.

I don't expect Johnathan
to be in prison forever.

And to be honest,

it doesn't make a
difference to me.

But what I care about and what
I value is that he isn't able

to do it to someone else.

Whatever happens, whether he
goes to prison for life

or for four years or
doesn't go at all,

I want to make sure
everyone knows who he is

and what he did.

And I want to make sure he
can't do it to anyone else

ever again.

And we moved forward
with that.

In Cause Number 190249K
through 68 to the second--

um, to the secondary
felony charge of

delivery of a controlled
substance to a minor.

Do you plead guilty
or not guilty?

And in Cause Number 190250K
through 68 to the

third degree felony charge
of unlawful restraint

with the intent to expose a
serious bodily injury,

do you plead guilty or
not guilty?

Are you pleading guilty
in each of these cases

because you are guilty
and for no other reason?

Uh, Mr. McCarty, because your
case is unique in the fact

that your name is probably
never going to be

removed from Google, um,
I feel like the public notice

requirement is-is met.

So it's my intent and-and our
understanding of this

plea agreement that we
are not requiring you

and not, um-- the-the
current law,

it-it's our understanding
that you are not going to be

required to register as
a sex offender.

Do you understand that?

[Shawn] He was being sentenced
to four years in prison.

And, uh, he also won't be
allowed to expunge

or erase the arrest for
sexual assault.

So he will be serving
two of those years flat.

He will become eligible
for parole,

but he still has a four-year
sentence to finish serving out.

I got sent to prison
for 25 years,

day for day, for something I
absolutely did not do.

And I would have to,
at 44, get out

and register for the
rest of my life.

That is a reality.

That's a living nightmare
for the rest of my life.

And this guy actually admits
that he did something

and he's going for four years
without registering?

How does that even work?

To me it was more valuable
that we got something

and that Johnathan was put away,

for however long
or however short,

with the arrest of sexual
assault of a minor tied to that.

And that is what happened.

If you look up his name,
you know who he is.

Everyone's going
to know who he is.

So to me,

that's enough.

[Shawn] I was careful not to,
um, to tie our hands.

If we learn of new information
in the future, uh,

then we certainly can still
prosecute Johnathan McCarty.

Uh, but at this point I'm
just not seeing anything.

And here we are, almost two
years later into the

Greg Kelley investigation.

And the ball hasn't been
advanced any further

in terms of filing a case
against Johnathan or, you know,

Greg or the third suspect.

And so at this time, I'm not
seeing any reason, uh,

to move forward with any
other charges against

Johnathan McCarty unless
something changes.

Towards the end of
the-the process,

before I got to acceptance
and at peace with everything

and processed everything,
I was mad.

And then I processed
everything,

now that all this information's
coming up of everything

that was done wrong,

and that what I believe now
is that what happened to me

could have been
completely prevented,

I'm mad again.

My abuser was
essentially told:

"We're not going to look at you.

We're not going to
go to your house.

We're not going to
ask you your name.

You're fine."

And it--

that just pisses me off.

[low dramatic music]

♪♪♪

[traffic passing]

[Greg] Gaebri and I have been
in New York for--

I've been here a total
of two and a half weeks.

Gaebri got accepted into the
Broadway Dance Center,

uh, on a pro-semester
for dance.

But we sat down and we talked
about it and we ultimately

made a decision that I would
come up here with her.

We've got a little 400-square-
foot studio apartment.

And, uh, so far
we're loving it.

Uh, it's kind of small but
I've been in smaller before.

So...

[upbeat music]

If you just do-- if you
search me right now,

it says that I'm an inmate
on the Wynne Unit of

Hunstville, Texas and
I'm bench-warranted

to the Williamson County Jail.

It doesn't even
say that I'm free.

So...

I'm not free right now.

I'm-I'm still locked up.

And I feel that every day,

that I'm not exonerated.

I feel that every day,
that I have to--

at 9:00 a.m. on a Wednesday
I have to, you know,

get in front of a list to see
if I'm on it so I can,

you know, hopefully go
play football again

because that's not even
certain either.

This does not feel
like freedom at all.

[dramatic music]

After going through three
years in prison and [sighs],

you know, having to go through
the heartaches of that place,

um...

I think I now would tell myself,

my 19-year-old self,

not to stay so quiet,

to be a little bit more brave,

to be a little bit more
courageous to say yes and no,

to make sure that I have an
attorney that cares for me

that's looking out
for my best interest.

Because I didn't know the law.

I didn't-- I didn't study.

I didn't even
know my-my rights.

I was trusting people
with my life that,

you know, I had no idea that
was working against me.

So...

yeah.

[dramatic music]

Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals.

These are the people that are
going to be determining

my fate pretty much.

Keith was like, "This is the
longest I have ever

had a case in the CCA."

He says this is not normal.

Yeah.

They've had my case for--

since December 20th of '17.

Yeah, it's November 6th
of '19 right now.

[low dramatic music]

I don't think they're going
to lose sleep for sending

somebody back to prison.

I know that there's parties
that are against me

that don't want me to
get exonerated.

And the thing I worry about
the most is:

are these people persuading the
CCA to make bad decisions?

Well, 10:00.

You ready?

[exhales sharply]

Relief granted.

[crying]

Finally.

[crying]

Thank God.

[crying]

I've got to text Gaebri.

[shakey breathing]

Whoo, man!

Hey, Keith?

Oh, man, dude.

I'm so-- I'm so pumped, dude.

Uh, dude-- I've-I've been
freakin' stressin' all week.

Oh, man.

Oh, my gosh.

This is so unreal.

Dude, I'm in-- the past-- the
past six years of my life

is just flashing
before my eyes right now.

I just can't--

man, this is--

this is so awesome.

I l-- I literally feel--
I mean, I feel free.

[unintelligible muffled talking]

[Gaebri] [crying]

This is over.

[crying]

It's over.

[crying]

I ran so fast I'm
out of breath.

[crying]

This nightmare is over.

I know, I'm so excited.

Thank God.

Thank God.

[crying]

Oh, my gosh.

Exonerated,

fully exonerated.

Or h-- what does
it say at the top?

It doesn't matter
what it says.

It says that relief
has been granted.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, my gosh.

Keith said that he's doing
a press conference.

He's going to call me back.

He says, "I'm-I'm trying to
get ex-- get you compensated

as soon as possible."

He says, "We're-- you're going
to get compensated,

man, really quick."

I just can't believe
this is happening.

We totally thought--
- He s-- he said-- he said,

"I've got to do a
press conference.

I'm going to talk and we're
going to get a hearing date set

for your exoneration.

And everybody's going
to be there."

It's over with.

[Gaebri] [squeals]

This is so exciting,

best day ever--

what is today?

November--

November 6th.

[Gaebri] November 6th.

[Bryan Mays] He served.

He's been out on bond now for
a couple of years

while this whole appeals
process has played out.

And today that came to an end.

The Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals

has just ruled in his favor,

overturning the
guilty verdict against him

essentially saying Greg
Kelley didn't do it.

[female reporter] The former
Leander High School football

player convicted of sexually
assaulting a child

will not go back to prison.

[female reporter] A major
decision today from the

state's highest criminal court
undoes the conviction of

Greg Kelley and clears his
name once and for all.

When I read--
I had to read the phrase

"relief granted"
two or three times

before I punched my cell phone.

First call of
course was to Greg.

Um, and he, uh,
reacted, you know,

emotionally, as you might guess.

I just needed to reassure
him that everyone on the

Court of Criminal Appeals

voted in favor of
granting him relief.

So, uh-- and he
was overjoyed.

One of the things he said was,

uh, that the last six years of
his life flashed before him.

So at least he can move on.

He's been in limbo, you know.

He's been checking in with
a bondsman for the last

two and a half years.

He couldn't play ball,
uh, you know.

I mean the guy--

[getting choked up]

uh, he suffered these
last two years.

[dramatic music]

The next step is that we're
going to set a date

for a hearing before Judge King,

uh, on a motion filed by
the District Attorney,

Shawn Dick, uh, and have
a hearing

in which he will be publicly
and very specifically, uh,

exonerated with the sort of
language that he deserves.

The Williamson County District
Attorney ought to be

the person other DAs emulate.

So you look fairly at a case

and where you find that
your office was wrong,

you correct it.

And that's what he did.

And I don't understand why
other DAs cannot--

cannot do that.

But he did.

So, um, you know, today I
think really this is,

uh, about two families.

Um, and so the first family
I-I want to mention is, uh,

the family of the child that's
gone through, um,

six years of trial and retrial
and appellate proceedings.

And so obviously, um, my
thoughts are with them today,

um, you know, just
having to relive this.

And it obviously isn't
ideal for any of us.

I also think today really
is about Greg Kelley

and his family and, um,

you know, the relief that they
must feel at this point.

Uh, as I said from the
very beginning,

this case is not one that, uh--

it's not a conviction
that we could stand by.

It's not a case that
I could stand by.

[low dramatic music]

[Greg] I've never felt more
free in my whole life.

And now that I'm free,

I can finally go and
go do what I love,

which is play football,

and-and just be free
and enjoy freedom

and the things that, you know,
being free comes with.

I've got a lot to look forward
to and I'm-I'm just--

I'm just happy.

[uplifting music]

♪♪♪

[female reporter] Now to our
continuing coverage of the

Greg Kelley case, several
people are calling on the

Cedar Park City Council to
fire the police chief

and lead detective over
that investigation.

Following Kelley's
conviction in 2014,

Cedar Park Police Chief
Sean Mannix e-mailed a letter

to his officers calling the
Fight for GK movement

cult-like with no interest
of seeking the truth.

Those words came back to haunt
Mannix when Kelley's case

was retried and his
conviction overturned.

[male speaker] You have our
District Attorney,

a Texas Ranger and a
county judge that, uh--

investigation that was
totally inadequate.

As a 33-y-year resident
of Cedar Park,

I never dreamed that an
innocent young man could

be ruined by such an
incompetent investigation.

The only way to bring back
confidence in our

police department is to fire
the Chief of Police

and Detective Dailey
immediately.

This should have changed
a long time ago.

If this was any of your
sons or daughters,

you wouldn't want
Dailey investigating

allegations against them.

You-you wouldn't want Mannix
backing up their play.

You've got the information
to make a decision.

You've been elected
to make a decision.

Now either do it or
take the consequences

of not making that decision.

Please do the right thing
so that you can be

part of the solution and
not part of the problem.

[Mayor] Also, resident
Keith Hampton,

uh, wishes to speak on legal
clarity regarding Greg Kelley.

Uh, Mr. Mayor,
council members, um,

I'm Keith Hampton.

I'm Greg Kelley's attorney.

Um, the reason I'm really here
is I read this statement

by the, uh, Chief of Police:

"As Justice Newell's concurring
opinion indicates,

this relief was based on
new evidence post-conviction

and not on the grounds of
deprivation of due process

or ineffective assistance
of counsel."

That's wrong and, uh,
it's demonstrably wrong.

Um, what actually happened is
that all nine judges agreed

that Greg Kelley is innocent.

They agreed that he proved by
clear and convincing evidence

that no reasonable jury
would ever convict him

based on all of the evidence,
including the new evidence.

Five judges, at least
five judges--

and five is a majority
at that court;

nine judges, five is a win--

five judges said--

agreed and upheld
Judge Donna King's findings,

upheld them,
did not disturb them.

I want to read a couple of them.

Detective Dailey's decision
to obtain an arrest warrant

commencing process of
prosecution without further

investigation deprived
applicant of due process.

His action was reckless
and uninformed.

He's not credible, and what
he did was made in bad faith.

[Mayor] All right, thank you.

Yes, sir.

Bad faith on the part of police

involves corrupt behavior--

concocting charges,

framing people,

con-concealing things,

fabricating evidence,

basically working
not for the truth,

but to ensnare somebody
to get them convicted.

And that's what they did.

[Mayor] Um, does someone
want to--

[Rosa] Mr. Mayor--

I'm sorry.

I don't--
- You have to--

you have to fill out a--
register to talk.

[man] For real?

Can you-- can you please
be decent?

Can you-- can you
give me that, please?

- She can come up here.
- Can you give me that, please?

[Mayor] You can go do it.

Can you please, Mom?
Go.

[Mayor] We just-- it means--
we have to do that.

[woman] I'd be more
than happy to wait.

[Mayor] We'll take the
time to register.

[applause]

Cedar Park Police Department

should be held fully
accountable for their behavior,

not just in their bad-faith
pursuit of Greg Kelley

but also for

letting the guilty party
go free

to commit additional crimes
and ruin other people's lives.

I hope Greg can look to
a bright future

and get on with his life.

I'm delighted that he's
about to get married.

He's not the teenager
that started.

He's a young man now.

He had some years
taken from him that,

as an athlete,
were very valuable.

And he can't get those back.

But he's free.

Uh, he-- he's won a unanimous
declaration of his innocence.

He's proved it.

And we're--

the society is about to be
able to give back

what it can in a form
of compensation,

which is the most
that we can do,

along with an apology.

[dramatic music]

[Clerk] All rise, please.

The 26th District Court of
Williamson County, Texas is

now in session, the Honorable
Donna King presiding.

[Judge King] Good morning,
be seated.

I now call to be heard
Cause Number 131367K26,

the State of Texas versus
Gregory Raymond Kelley.

Mr. Kelley, would you
please approach the bench?

Five and a half years ago,

at 18 years old, you stood
in this courtroom

and pleaded not guilty
to the charge of

super aggravated sexual
assault of a child.

You maintained your innocence

and exercised your
constitutional right

to a jury trial.

Believing in the process,

you trusted that the
right outcome would result

and that justice would prevail.

Your case was polarizing

and drew the attention of many
in our community.

Then came the jury's verdict.

[jury foreman] We the jury
find the defendant

Gregory Kelley guilty
of the offense of

super aggravated
sexual assault.

[Judge King] And on that
day in July of 2014,

when you were sentenced
to 25 years in prison,

many participants and
onlookers concluded

that justice was served.

We now know differently.

Mr. Kelley, when you received
the jury's verdict at your trial

you stood,

I believe at that table
right over there,

without the benefit or
comfort of your family.

So at this time I'd like
to invite your mom

and Gaebri to stand by you

as we bring this
season to a close

and start anew.

The Court of Criminal Appeals

has granted habeas corpus
relief.

I can now say what you
deserve to hear

publicly and on behalf of the
citizens of Williamson County

and of the State of Texas:

Mr. Kelley, with the
full weight of the law

and provision for justice,

as much as humanity can provide,

you have carried your
burden under the law.

Proving your innocence,

you now have the right
to proc-proclaim

to the citizens of Texas
that you are innocent.

And with nine other
judges in agreement,

I declare you innocent and that
you are fully exonerated.

[applause and cheering]

And therefore, at this time,

the State's motion to dismiss
the indictment is granted.

What was is no longer.

[gavel pounds]

[applause]

[Greg] This is the day we've
been fighting for

for a long time now.

The heartache, worry and
long suffering

have taken an
indescribable toll on me,

my fiancée and
our families.

Truth and nothing but the
truth was the goal here.

Ultimately, truth would be the
catalyst that would supply

justice for all parties
that were wronged.

The Cedar Park Police
Department deprived

not only me but the victim here.

To the victim and his family,

I am absolutely sorry you
have to go through this.

Believe me, your
opinion matters.

For six years, I not only had
to fight to prove to the State

I didn't do this,

but I also had to fight to prove
to you that I didn't do this.

The justice system
failed me and you.

Today I receive justice
while you remain failed.

If anything is going to drive
me to seek accountability

of certain individuals,
it's going to be because

all victims deserve justice
the first time around.

I pray you have peace.

To my family,

my brothers,

my sister,

thank you so much for
being by my side.

You're the best family that
anybody could ever ask for.

The fear of me being torn
away from them again is over.

And I can't wait to spend
the rest of my life

creating wonderful memories
with the people I hold

near and dear to my heart.

[uplifting music]

♪♪♪

Thank you, Jake Brydon.

You had no idea who I was
days after my conviction.

You called my broken mother

and promised her you would
do everything you could

to fight for me.

I often wondered if
you were an angel

until I heard your mouth
open to save my life.

[laughter]

You are the mouth of the South.

I'm forever grateful.

Thank you, Keith Hampton,

for believing in me when
I was the most broken.

Thank you for taking this on
when you had absolutely

no idea what you were
getting yourself into.

If Marvel Comics ever wanted
to create an Attorney Man,

[laughter]

I'd say slap some
Spandex on Keith

because he's the
man for the job.

[laughter]

To my soon-to-be bride,

I can only imagine the
strength it took

to faithfully stick by me.

As teenagers, you
never doubted me.

You carried the burden of
being attached to me

while the world was
calling me a monster.

As we fought to prove my
innocence, you never stopped

unconditionally loving me.

You kept me alive.

[crying]

You gave me hope to come home

and I love you so much.

I can't wait to spend the
rest of my life with you.

[Jake] Well, with the
power vested in me

by the great state of Texas,

God,

and the Court of
Criminal Appeals,

[laughter]

I pronounce you man and wife.

Greg, you may kiss your bride.

[applause and cheers]

Keith, would you do me
the honor

in announcing this couple
for the very first time?

It's my pleasure

to give to you for the
first time anywhere

Mr. and Mrs. Greg and
Gaebri Kelley.

[applause and cheers]

Well, this was a case where
if everything could go wrong

for somebody, it did:

bad investigation,

defense lawyer with
blinders on,

all of the evidence that was
not produced for that jury.

It's as if there were dark
forces every step of the way.

In this case, I feel like we
lost the truth long ago.

I-I think that at that time
there were a lot of elements

that we could have checked off
if a thorough investigation

was done in the
very beginning.

And a lot of these questions
that we still have to this day

could have been answered.

Now knowing what I know,

I completely believe that
if there had even been

just this much more
investigation,

if they had gone to the house,

if they had talked
to Johnathan,

if just one person had
caught one thing,

I would not be sitting here

and this would not
have happened to me.

And it would not have happened
to countless other girls.

You know, if really it was just
a bad police investigation

but everyone else did
their job along the way,

maybe this never happens at all.

But you still had prosecutors
that allowed that to happen.

You still had prosecutors
that chose to take

those cases to trial.

These cases are-are very tough.

You know, to-to try a case
with two four-year-old victims

is-is difficult.

Um, but I think this case
is proof that-that

they can be won.

The prosecutor,
Geoffrey Puryear,

he green-lighted a second--

a second accusation
that-that was fabricated.

It was created just
to support his case.

Two, he moved the date.

Uh, he had to-- he-he had
to have called that shot.

So in that sense,
they framed him.

And then you add
SpongeBob pajamas.

The kid tells you
SpongeBob pajamas.

Geoffrey Puryear recognized
that that piece of evidence

was exculpatory and that he
had a constitutional duty to

disclose it to the defense.

And he did it at the
last possible moment

and then disclosed it
to the defense lawyer

who didn't know
what to do with it.

And that's a real shame
because wh-- of everything

we know about those
pajamas now.

I remember Johnathan
walking into my house

wearing SpongeBob
SquarePants pajama pants.

And my sister
remembers it too.

Geoffrey Puryear shouldn't
have been promoted

after his actions in this case.

The day after Greg
was exonerated,

Governor Abbott appointed
Geoffrey Puryear as a judge.

So he will be taking the
oath of office as a judge.

[dramatic music]

You know, the timing was
obviously, um,

probably not ideal for
everyone involved in that.

And I do know that some of the
people involved in this case

were disappointed that, um,
you know, others were being

held to account for their
actions in this case

but the prosecutor seemed
to be rewarded.

Uh, what we do here
is very important.

It affects people's
lives tremendously.

But, you know, we-we're right
back to where we were,

where we have a child that
said someone violated him

and we don't have any
answers for the family.

I know they still firmly
believe that Greg Kelley

is the person that did this.

They have obviously spoken
to their own child

and it's their belief that
he's never changed

who did this to him.

This happened in
Cedar Park, Texas.

This isn't like some
hypothetical of:

what if the wrong person
does the wrong thing

and all these people miss it
and something bad happens?

This is: this actually
happened and it happened here.

We know when it happened

and we have a list of all the
people that were hurt by it.

But Greg's not the
only victim here

and I'm not the
only victim here.

And those kids aren't
the only victim here.

There are more people than I
can count on my hands

that are victims here because
the wrong person was put away.

Anyone could have
been Greg or me.

It could happen anywhere.

And we're very fortunate to be
in a place that we caught it,

because it took a lot
of people fighting

all the time

to try and catch it

and figure out what happened.

Honestly, I believe that there
are more innocent people

in prison due to false
accusations

because there are no
requirements

that the outcries or the
accusations be reliable.

And if it's not properly
investigated,

if the detectives are not asking
that question did a crime occur,

if they're not trying to
make their case, uh,

more reliable looking for
corroborating evidence,

digging deeper to see
if it happened,

then you'll have more
Greg Kelleys.

[dramatic music]

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

[Greg] I was watching--

the other day I was watching
a movie going to sleep.

And, uh, I was watching
"The Truman Show".

And you know how in "The Truman
Show" this-this-this guy,

every movement that he does
it's been a reality show

for other people's
entertainment, right.

And th-- and really Truman was
never really actually free.

He never got to, you know--
he was restricted

within that dome
that he was in.

And, um, I was like,
man, that's--

it's a little bit of what I'm
going through pretty much.

You know, I've never actually
thought in my life

that every movement that
I would be doing

would be a camera right there,
you know.

And it started when I
was 19 years old.

I've had a camera in
my face, you know.

And every movement
that I've done,

everything that I've done,

I've had to take caution
on what I do, you know.

I wasn't ever fully free.

I felt like there was
a weight over my head.

Somebody was watching me.

My life was under a
microscope, you know.

I had to share things
about my personal life

that should stay with me,
you know.

My life was an open
book to everybody.

And at that moment,
I felt like

I didn't know what
freedom was, you know.

I felt like I was
just an experiment.

And just at the end of the--
end of the movie, you know,

the guy in the movie-- if
you guys watch it, he said,

"Truman, say something."
Right?

And I don't know what he--

I don't know if you know
what he did,

but he turned around and
he looked at the camera,

and he said his catchphrase.

He said, "In case I
didn't see you,

good afternoon and good night."

Right?

And he walked off.

You know?

And, um, man, he could have
cussed everybody smooth out,

right.

He could have cussed
the whole world out.

And he didn't.

He smiled and turned
and walked away

and went out into the world.

I was like, man,

I want that so much.

[dramatic music]

♪♪♪

♪♪♪

♪♪♪