SACRAMENTO (CA)
Sacramento Bee [Sacramento CA]
September 26, 2023
By Joe Rubin
Deanna Hampton wants justice for her son.
She wants the priest accused of sexually abusing her little boy to be brought back to the United States. She wants him to stand trial. She wants her son’s bravery – exemplified when he testified openly before a grand jury in 2014 – to mean something. Trevor died in a tragic accident two years later.
But Deanna Hampton also wants something else. She wants those she believes have played a role in denying her son justice – most notably the Calaveras County District Attorney and the Catholic Church – to be held accountable. She also has questions for the FBI.
The church acknowledges that Father Michael Kelly sexually abused Hampton’s son, Trevor Martin, then an altar boy, and at least two other young boys during his time in the Diocese of Stockton. “The diocese accepts full responsibility for the abuse of Trevor and the pain to him and your family,” a letter to Hampton from the diocese in 2017 said. Kelly denied the allegations.
But in the midst of legal proceedings against him, the accused priest fled to his native Ireland, where it is believed he remains today, despite federal charges for unlawful flight, and continues to hold the title of priest.
The Bee sat down with Hampton and also spoke to Trevor’s then high-profile attorney to try and understand how Kelly slipped through the justice system. The Bee also communicated with the prosecutor who handled the case, the FBI, church officials, another of Kelly’s victims and legal experts, including the presiding judge in one of Kelly’s civil cases. What emerges is a troubling account, marked by a series of missed opportunities, questionable decisions, a potential violation of victims’ civil rights and outright carelessness. Among The Bee’s findings:
▪ Calaveras County appears to have taken few if any concrete steps to extradite Kelly. That, despite having publicly vowed to “pursue justice for the victim when Kelly is caught and returned to Calaveras County no matter how long it takes.” ▪ According to the Calaveras County district attorney’s office, FBI agents told the prosecutor that Ireland was “unwilling to extradite Kelly.” But it’s unclear if that was merely an opinion or if any actual extradition process was pursued.
▪ The FBI was aware not only of Kelly’s location in Ireland but also that he had traveled to Morocco, where he was even taken into custody and held for months, and Mexico, known sex trafficking destinations. But, again, it’s unclear what action the agency took. Trevor’s attorney and another victim, a decorated U.S. Air Force pilot, are calling on FBI Director Christopher Wray to explain what happened.
▪ Calaveras County prosecutors dropped the charges against Kelly after Trevor’s death, a move legal experts found questionable. Legal experts also said that Hampton’s constitutional rights were violated when they did not inform her she had a right to object in front of a judge prior to charges being dismissed.
▪ According to multiple legal experts, the district attorney also violated Trevor’s constitutional rights by failing to inform them that Kelly had been arrested in Morocco and imprisoned for months. Kelly ultimately returned to Ireland.
▪ The Calaveras County District Attorney inexplicably lost the entire grand jury testimony, imperiling any future prosecution of Kelly. The office also admitted it had lost the actual indictment, which also contained valuable evidence. “After searching four file storage facilities and two buildings, we were unable to locate the paper file,” the district’s attorney’s office told The Bee. After online publication of this report, the district attorney’s office said it has now found the file.
▪ The criminal case against Kelly was sealed. Neither Hampton nor Trevor’s attorney say they were consulted about the decision, which they would have opposed. The district attorney said it did not make the request for the case to be sealed.
▪ Eleven years after Kelly was found responsible for sodomy and molestation in a civil suit, Diocese of Stockton officials acknowledged Kelly remains a priest. The diocese officials further stated they had begun the process to defrock Kelly, but would not tell The Bee when that process began, nor would they say when they were last in touch with Kelly.
“Trevor did the right thing. He came forward and told the truth,” said his attorney, John Manly, who frequently represents victims of child sex crimes, including USA Olympic gymnasts Simone Biles and Aly Raisman.
“Upon Trevor’s death what did Calaveras County’s DA do? They lost vital grand jury testimony, sealed the rest of the case without telling anyone, and dropped the charges.”
Manly said that it was a pattern of behavior “so baffling” that he has drafted a letter he will send to California Attorney General Rob Bonta “asking the AG’s office to investigate the entire circumstance of the case.
“I’m also asking the attorney general to refile the charges, prosecute Kelly and make sure he gets extradited this time. Clearly, more extensive resources are needed here than this small county has.”
The Bee initially contacted Calaveras County District Attorney Barbara Yook for comment, and was referred to Deputy District Attorney Dana Pfeil, who handled the Kelly case. She initially spoke to The Bee and defended the decision to drop the charges but did not respond to follow up questions.
CHURCH KNEW OF CONCERNS
Trevor Martin first revealed the abuse he endured in 2010, when he was 19.
The Diocese of Stockton, however, was aware of problems with Kelly long before that. A psychologist in 1999 examined Kelly after multiple complaints by parents to the diocese of inappropriate touching by Kelly.
The psychologist sent an alarmed letter to Bishop Stephen Blaire. The letter, obtained exclusively by The Bee, warned “some underlying or latent pedophilic elements may exist in this case…. I believe it is prudent that, in addition to undergoing psychotherapy, he not minister to children alone or to families that have children.”
Instead, Blaire assigned Kelly to a new assignment at St. Andrew Parish in Calaveras County. Oliver O’Grady, one of the nation’s most notorious pedophile priests, had served in the very same church seven years earlier. O’Grady was tied to at least 25 sexual abuse cases.
It was the church where Hampton and her children, Trevor and Melanie, faithfully attended service.
Hampton grew up in Sacramento. A self-described kid from “the other side of the tracks,” she attended Sacred Heart Elementary and Saint Francis High School in Sacramento.
She had a trusted relationship with the Catholic Church and found the clergy she grew up with to be “ethical and generous,” and she credits them for inspiring her to become the award-winning math teacher she is today.
That trusting relationship with the Catholic Church, in part, helps explain why Deanna says she didn’t act upon what might have been an early warning sign. It happened in 2000 when the church’s newly assigned priest visited her home for the first time.
As Kelly sat on the floor and played with then-9-year-old Trevor, she was charmed by the priest with the Irish lilt, fond of home visits and spearheading youth soccer leagues, including having helped found the Modesto Youth Soccer Association while he served as a priest at Our Lady of Fatima in the 1970s.
Hampton did notice something that made her briefly wince. Kelly’s stocking feet had inched toward Trevor and were rubbing up against his feet.
Still, she dismissed the game of footsie. She had no idea that openly touching children in front of parents — a tactic often used to normalize behavior with victims targeted for sexual abuse — was a pattern with Kelly and something that had landed him in trouble before. She also was unaware of the previous complaints and the psychologist’s evaluation.
What followed was two years of abuse. Although he told no one what had happened, Trevor was deeply troubled, struggling in school and prone to bouts of anger.
TREVOR MEETS FIRST LOVE — AND TAYLOR SWIFT
Seeking a new start, Hampton, Melanie and Trevor moved across the country to Hendersonville, Tennessee.
It was here, while in high school, that Trevor found his first love.
He had become fast friends with Abigail Anderson and her best friend, Taylor Swift.
Yes, that Taylor Swift. The now megastar had moved to Hendersonville from Pennsylvania to be closer to Nashville and pursue a career in music.
Hampton recalled the time Abigail and Taylor pranked Trevor by climbing into his bedroom window to wake up the sleeping freshman.
For a time, Trevor and Abigail became a couple. But when things started to become more intimate, Trevor abruptly ended the relationship.
Abigail says she spent years trying to figure out why Trevor ended things so suddenly. He never confided in her the abuse he had survived. Only recently did she come to understand that is common with victims of sexual abuse, Trevor struggled with sustained romantic relationships.
After high school, Trevor enrolled in the University of Tennessee. On a visit home in January 2011, Hampton found her son hanging from a rope and nearly asphyxiated. She quickly cut him down, saving his life.
Still, Trevor’s prognosis was uncertain. He remained in a coma for two days. During that time, Melanie told her mom the terrible truth she had learned a few months earlier when she found her brother distraught and crying.
Hampton recalls Melanie’s words: “Trevor said, remember that priest? He hurt me.”
From there, the story began to spill out. “It’s like a cog came together and everything made sense, the change in my son, the pain, the problems in school, the relationships that he had with people that just disappeared because he couldn’t hold on to a relationship with trust.”
By 2012, Trevor had made a decision. He was ready to finally confront his abuser.
He filed a civil suit against Kelly and the diocese that year. The complaint includes some of the horrifying details of the abuse Trevor suffered. “Using his position as priest, Father Michael Kelly would require that plaintiff take his pants off while wearing his altar boy robes because father Michael Kelly did not like to see his pants underneath his robes.” On multiple occasions, including on church grounds, Kelly then raped Trevor, according to the complaint.
CIVIL SUITS AND A CRIMINAL ALLEGATION
It was not the first lawsuit to contain such allegations.
Four years prior, in 2008, another former altar boy, Travis Trotter, sued Kelly and the diocese.
Overcoming the abuse, Trotter had gone on to become a decorated combat Air Force pilot who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The diocese briefly suspended Kelly, but after its own internal investigation and previously sending Kelly to a residential treatment center in Canada where he received therapy for boundary issues with children, reinstated him that same year.
“The reason I came forward was that I knew there were other victims out there,” Trotter recently told The Bee. ”I wanted to show someone like Trevor they were not alone, to give them the courage to come forward and put a predator and destroyer of young lives in prison.”
It would be four years from the time Trotter filed his civil suit until the case went to trial. Along the way, Trotter’s decision did indeed encourage someone else to come forward: Trevor.
Even before filing his own lawsuit, Trevor became aware of Trotter’s lawsuit and agreed to testify against Kelly.
But others were also coming forward – supporters of Kelly.
Trotter described the atmosphere in the courtroom during the six-week trial as “cinematic” and painfully isolating. That was, in great part, due to the “Friends of Father Kelly,” an informal organization that claimed 1,200 members.
A spokesperson for the Diocese of Stockton told The Bee that the group was “in no way affiliated with the diocese” and that “they have never reflected the diocese’s opinions.”
For six weeks during the trial, the group packed the courtroom.
“When he would stand up,” Trotter recalled, “all of the people in the courtroom stood up with him. Like as if he was on the altar.”
The Bee obtained 25 letters sent to the Diocese of Stockton, most addressed to Bishop Blaire, that Kelly proudly carried with him and spoke of during depositions. One from a high school principal asked that the diocese not follow through with plans to reassign him.
Some of the letters targeted Trotter’s character: “It seems impossible to believe that this person would be allowed to serve in the military.”
In the midst of the group’s show of support, Kelly was about to face even more serious legal issues.
When Hampton heard about Trotter’s lawsuit she reached out to his attorney, Manly. She wanted him to know about Trevor. Manly not only took on Trevor’s case, but he realized something important.
Trotter’s abuse had happened decades before – well beyond the statute of limitations for a criminal case. But Trevor’s abuse had not. And he made sure the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Department was aware – firing off a letter that led to a criminal investigation.
Kelly was now aware that he could be facing decades in prison. And he would also see a preview of what that testimony in a criminal trial would look like.
As part of Trotter’s civil case, Trevor testified before the judge in his chambers – with Kelly present.
Just days later, Kelly and the diocese were found responsible.
Nevertheless, three hours later, the diocese allowed Kelly one final service at St. Joachim Catholic Church in Lockeford, where he was currently assigned.
Kelly told parishioners, according to the account in the Lodi News, “The bishop fully believes that I’m innocent. He has no reservations; he has made that clear. This verdict doesn’t change that.”
The story reflects a sense of universal support for Kelly among the parishioners who attended the impromptu service.
“The churchgoers hugged one another, clutching tissues and listening to Kelly’s every word through bloodshot eyes,” according to the Lodi News story. One of the parishioners, Brigid Jenkins, during the post-verdict service called out “stand up by prayers to the heavenly Father. We have a martyr here. We are blessed to see a martyr in our midst.”
Reached 11 years later by The Bee, Jenkins said she was among a cadre of supporters who attended the trial every day. She told The Bee that she has not changed her opinion “one iota” about Kelly. Jenkins recalled that the service was held very close to Good Friday, “when we remember Jesus’ death on the cross. I guess we felt like all the apostles and the disciples of Jesus. He was wronged.”
KELLY FLEES TO IRELAND
Nine days later, their martyr had fled the country.
“By the time you read this I will be in Ireland with my family,” Kelly wrote in a letter to Bishop Blaire. “My health can’t take it anymore. I have sat back and listened to the vicious false allegations.”
Weeks later, with Kelly in Ireland, the Diocese of Stockton settled Trotter’s civil case by agreeing to pay $3.75 million.
Bishop Blaire said at the time of Kelly’s sudden departure that “I have tried to reach Father Kelly by email and by phone to implore him to return and see the trial through to its completion.”
The criminal investigation continued, but it was nearly two years after Kelly fled that Calaveras County’s District Attorney presented evidence to a grand jury.
In July, 2012, three months after Kelly fled, Captain Chris Hewitt of the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office, voiced frustration that Kelly’s supporters were making the job of the investigator assigned to the case difficult.
“Friends of Father Kelly,” Hewitt told the Calaveras Enterprise at the time, “is just piling on, emailing him, sending him letters, just hindering his investigation.”
Manly says that in retrospect, he believes that the district attorney’s office “slow-walked the case” possibly because the community was so split about Kelly.
“With the sheriff’s office it was different,” Manly said.
“The investigator was personally driven to bring Kelly to justice.”
The Calaveras County Sheriff’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Pfeil denied that she was at all intimidated to prosecute a popular priest.
“A lot of people look to religious leaders as being morally superior and not capable of doing such acts,” she said. “In my field, obviously, I know that that is not true.”
KELLY IS INDICTED — AND FACES NEW CHARGE
Once convened, Trevor testified before the grand jury about the harrowing details. Four days later, the grand jury indicted Michael Kelly on four counts, including sodomy of a child under the age of 14 with force.
Kelly also had a new worry. After the indictment was handed down, the Sacramento-based U.S Attorney slapped the priest with federal charges for unlawful flight. An FBI affidavit as part of that complaint made it clear that Kelly knew he was under criminal investigation when he fled.
Referencing Trevor’s testimony in the judge’s chambers during the Trotter trial, the FBI agent stated, “Kelly was present….and became aware of the second victim’s testimony.”
The federal unlawful flight charge carries with it a potential five-year prison sentence.
That same day, Dana Pfeil, the Calaveras County prosecutor in the case, said in a news release that she would “work with the Office of International Affairs in Washington, D.C., to extradite Kelly from Ireland.” Pfeil pledged to “pursue justice for the victim until Kelly is caught and returned to Calaveras County, no matter how long it takes.”
Manly said the indictment had a huge and initially positive impact on Trevor. “It was vindication and a huge thing for Trevor when Calaveras County finally indicted Kelly.”
At first, Manly and Hampton said they had confidence in the district attorney’s and the FBI’s commitment to bring Kelly to justice.
“Ireland is a staunch ally of the United States,” Manly said. “How hard should it be to get a serial child molester back here to face criminal charges?”
Kelly’s whereabouts were no secret. In the federal complaint, the FBI acknowledges that even before the indictment, a private investigator hired by Manly had located Kelly.
“Kelly was residing at a parish in Ballylanders, Ireland, with another priest,” the FBI affidavit stated.
But what happened in the two years following the indictment deeply frustrated Hampton, Manly and especially Trevor.
CONCERNS OVER EXTRADITION EFFORT
Extradition is handled by the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs (OIA). An OIA official told The Bee, they would not comment on an individual case, but confirmed that “OIA works with local prosecutors regularly …on extradition requests…”
Just who did what in terms of pursuing extradition is unclear. The Sacramento-based U.S. Attorney’s Office which filed the still active unlawful flight charges against Kelly would not comment on the case.
Rachel Breen, a spokeswoman for Ireland’s Department of Justice, told The Bee that Ireland does not “comment on individual extradition cases, and therefore cannot confirm or deny whether an extradition request for a particular individual was received from the U.S.”
What is known is that the FBI tracked Kelly’s movements and became aware that he traveled to both Mexico and Morocco. Pfeil told The Bee the FBI also made her aware of Kelly’s travels.
Still, The Bee’s reporting found little, if any, evidence that Pfeil followed through with her news conference pledge. It appears that prosecutors never followed through with the U.S. Office of International Affairs to pursue extradition.
Pfeil told The Bee that based on multiple calls with FBI agents, she came to the understanding that Kelly was untouchable in Ireland because the Republic of Ireland was unwilling to extradite him.
“That was what I was told, generally speaking,” Pfeil said. “Ireland would not extradite.”
The problem is, that is not the FBI’s role in extraditions. An FBI official familiar with the case told The Bee, “we don’t extradite, we just find and wait for paperwork to be able to pick somebody out.”
The current extradition treaty between Ireland and the United States was inked in 2005. Multiple sex offenders have been extradited by both countries, including a pedophile priest sent from California to Ireland.
Patsy McGarry, a religious affairs correspondent for The Irish Times who has reported extensively on church abuse cases in Ireland, told The Bee he found it hard to believe that the Irish government would be unwilling to extradite Kelly.
“This is a peculiar case. I find it very difficult to believe that this state refused a U.S request to extradite Father Kelly to face abuse charges in California.” McGarry said that if U.S. authorities failed to let Irish authorities know their desire to extradite Kelly, it could actually have put the Irish public at risk.
“If such a request was not made,” McGarry said, “it would be difficult for the Irish authorities to act against this priest as he faces no allegations in Ireland.”
To gain a better understanding of what happened, The Bee first turned to the court records in the case.
But Gayle Downum, operations manager for Calaveras County Superior Court told The Bee “This is a confidential sealed matter.” When asked to provide details about the sealing, Downum responded, “you’re asking me to break the law and I am not going to do that.”
The district attorney’s office did not respond when asked if it had requested the seal. Upon online publication, the district attorney denied having done so. The Diocese of Stockton said it played no role in sealing the case, and, in fact, was not aware it had been sealed.
“How does an entire criminal case just disappear?” Manly asked. “One thing we know, Trevor didn’t ask for it to be sealed, and Deanna didn’t ask for it to be sealed.”
Hampton told The Bee that she plans to file a motion in Calaveras Superior to Court to unseal the case.
The Bee also made a public records request with the Calaveras County District Attorney’s Office seeking any communication involving extradition. The District Attorney’s office at first stated it had no letters, emails or documents related to Kelly’s extradition.
Later, Distinct Attorney Barbara Yook in a letter to The Bee amended that response to say that her department had found three emails which could “possibly be interpreted” as being communication “regarding extradition,” a “communication with a person in Ireland,” or a communication “regarding travel by Kelly to Mexico or any other country.”
But the DA refused to provide the emails, saying they were exempt from disclosure because they involved “law enforcement intelligence information.”
“As a former military intelligence officer,” Manly said, “that seems like overt nonsense.”
Rather than focus on extraditing Kelly from Ireland, Pfeil said the FBI’s priority shifted toward tracking Kelly’s movements and waiting for the priest to travel to foreign countries where it would be easier to nab him.
Multiple times the agency called her, Pfeil says, to let her know that Kelly was planning a trip to Mexico.
Why Kelly would not have simply been arrested in Mexico, a known child sex trafficking destination, following his indictment is not clear. The United States regularly extradites accused felons from Mexico.
But Kelly didn’t travel just to Mexico. In fact, he was arrested in another foreign country and even held in prison for months.
Sometime in early 2016 – four years after Kelly had fled the U.S. and two years after he was indicted – Kelly was detained by authorities in Morocco. An FBI source confirmed that agents tipped off Moroccan authorities leading to Kelly’s arrest.
Pfeil acknowledges the FBI made her aware of his arrest in Morocco. But something tragic was about to happen. Something that changed everything.
A TERRIBLE TRAGEDY
Over time, Trevor became increasingly tortured by the fact that Kelly had not been brought to justice.
“We had a lot of anguished late-night conversations,” Manly told The Bee. “Trevor couldn’t understand how a man who groomed and then raped kids could just be allowed to skip town and live the life of Riley in Ireland.”
Neither Trevor nor his attorney had any idea that Kelly had been arrested in Morocco.
In May 2016, while Kelly awaited his fate in a Moroccan prison, Connor Alford, a close friend of Trevor’s and a Marine who had just returned from a deployment, traveled to California where Trevor was now living. The two former fraternity brothers set out on a backpacking trip up Mount Whitney.
Alford had no idea that Trevor planned to base jump during the trip. The sport involves jumping off a fixed point with a small parachute. Trevor had only taken a couple of classes.
Alford also was not aware his friend had been abused. When Trevor informed Manly of his plans to base jump, his attorney became concerned.
“I thought I dissuaded him,” Manly said, recalling their phone conversation. “I told him it was insane and begged him not to do it.” Manly said part of his concern was Trevor’s state of mind. “I knew that Trevor was suicidal.”
Alford recalls during their planned two-day hike, “out of nowhere Trevor just started digging through his backpack, and said, ‘I’m going to parachute off this cliff.’ He assured me he knew what he was doing, that he had just gotten certified.”
A video filmed by Connor shows Trevor initially having his parachute open and wind currents slowing him down, but then something went wrong. Trevor crashed into a cliff. His injuries were fatal.
Three weeks later, Hampton traveled to California for her son’s memorial service.
She then made another stop – to meet with Pfeil, who had promised justice for her son years before.
A DEVASTATING MEETING WITH THE DA
But her hope for justice was abruptly dashed. During that June 2016 meeting, Pfeil revealed two devastating pieces of news.
First, Kelly wasn’t currently in Ireland. He actually was in a prison in Morocco. Hampton recalls the DA telling her the arrest happened in February, four months earlier.
The Bee asked Pfeil why she had failed to tell Hampton, or Trevor while he was still alive, of Kelly’s arrest. Pfeil paused, and then said it was possible that she was asked “maybe not to say anything by the FBI.”
Then the DA told Hampton something even more shattering. Moroccan authorities were about to let Kelly go. The reason? The Calaveras County prosecutor was dismissing the charges. With Trevor dead, Pfeil told Hampton she lacked admissible evidence.
“She told me that her hands were completely tied,” Hampton said, “that she had no choice. I asked her again and again if there was anything I could do”
In an interview with The Bee, Pfeil corroborated Hampton’s account.
Pfeil defended the decision to drop the charges. She said the grand jury testimony would no longer be admissible because Trevor was never cross examined.
Multiple legal experts contacted by The Bee disagree.
Shan Wu, a former federal prosecutor experienced in prosecuting sex crimes and counsel to former Attorney General Janet Reno, was among those.
“As an aggressive prosecutor, I would not be in a hurry to drop a case of this gravity with a serial predator in custody in Morocco.” Wu said that although challenging because the grand jury testimony did not include cross examination, it could still be admissible and be augmented by the accounts of past victims.
“The way you can try murder cases, for example, without a victim is you can still prove that victims are dead, that someone had a motive, and present other evidence. In the case of this accused priest, if you had statements that the victim had made to people about the abuse, that would be admissible.”
Wu also said that if Trevor’s state of mind resulting from the abuse could be shown to have contributed to his death, that would help make an argument that Trevor’s grand jury testimony carries more weight even though it did not include cross examination.
Wu also noted the federal complaint for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution should have motivated Calaveras County.
“Since the guy’s on the lam, you should really keep working to get him back here. Because other things may happen in the meantime. Other victims could come forward, And for all you know, he may decide to want to end his life as a fugitive and just cut some kind of deal.”
A VIOLATION OF VICTIM’S CIVIL RIGHTS?
Legal experts brought up another concern related to Calaveras County’s handling of the case.
The director of two victim rights law centers said that the district attorney clearly violated Trevor’s and Hampton’s constitutional rights. The violations are of Marsy’s Law, a ballot proposition that was passed by voters in 2008.
According to the experts, Pfeil erred by failing to tell Trevor and Hampton of Kelly’s arrest and by not informing Hampton that she had a right guaranteed by that law to object in front of a judge to the dismissal of charges.
“With a motion to dismiss, victims have a right to be heard by the judge, because that’s a moment in time where victims rights are obviously impacted. And that’s the right under Marsy’s Law, the right to an expression of views,” Mariam El-menshawi, the Executive Director of the California Victim Legal Resources Center at the McGeorge School of Law, told The Bee.
El-menshawi and another expert, Stephanie Richard, Director of the RISE (Rights in Systems Enforced) Clinic at Loyola Law School, also said that the District Attorney erred in another area, which violated Trevor’s constitutional rights while he was still alive
That failure to provide updates, especially about an incarceration, after the victim has asked to stay updated, is another violation of constitutional rights in the case.
Wu said he found the failure to inform Trevor and his family of the arrest of Kelly troubling. “It seems like they would have dropped the ball if they never even told the family of the update. It’s obviously tragic because maybe that would have made a difference to the victim, that there is some hope of justice coming.”
A LAST HOPE FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
Hampton and Manly still hold out hope that there will be justice. But they also want accountability and transparency.
In addition to the settlement, Hampton received a measure of accountability from the church almost a year after her son’s death when, out of the blue, she received a letter from Bishop Blaire.
“I sincerely apologize for the sexual abuse Trevor suffered as child,” wrote Blaire, who died the following year of cancer.
Transparency has been hard to come by. The diocese acknowledges that Kelly remains a priest in Ireland and that they have begun the process of defrocking him.
But when The Bee asked when that process began – he was indicted nearly 10 years ago – and when was the last time they had been in contact with Kelly, a diocese spokesperson would not answer.
Manly and Hampton are most concerned with the actions of Calaveras County prosecutors, who not only dropped the charges, but from their perspective, dropped the ball. Repeatedly.
Manly believes it’s time for California Attorney General Rob Bonta to step in. He wants Bonta to not only investigate the district attorney’s actions but also to take over the case, refile charges and pursue extradition.
Hampton also feels strongly that Bonta should intervene.
“This is why we have an attorney general,” she said, “ to make sure there is true justice.”
They also are calling on the FBI for more transparency about what actions it took and to reveal what really happened in its communications with the Calaveras County prosecutor.
Manly said he thought the failures in extraditing Kelly point to the Calaveras County district attorney.
“I’m not saying the bureau specifically did something wrong,” Manly said, “but because of what the DA is saying, we need some clear answers.”
Hampton and Manly called on Director Christopher Wray to explain the FBI’s role with what transpired in Ireland, Morocco and Mexico.
Trotter, the former combat Air Force pilot and abuse victim, also wants answers. “It’s infuriating and soul crushing. I came forward out of a sense of duty and so did Trevor. The FBI needs to explain what happened.”
Trevor’s former high school girlfriend, Abigail Anderson Berard, who Trevor once drove on Tennessee backroads with Trevor and their mutual friend, Taylor Swift, also wants to see accountability and justice.
“I think that if you think that because this particular victim is no longer earthside, that justice can’t be served, that’s just incredibly wrong,” Anderson Berard said. “I want justice for Trevor. But this is so much more important than that. We need justice for every single person that this man ever harmed and anybody in the future that he could potentially make uncomfortable.”
But to receive justice, not only would someone need to pursue extradition, but they would need to rebuild a criminal case.
And that won’t be especially easy given Trevor’s death and a seemingly incomprehensible fact:
In July, the district attorney’s office admitted it had lost the entire grand jury transcript as well as the indictment.
“After searching 4 file storage facilities and 2 buildings,” the district attorney’s office told The Bee, “ we were unable to locate the paper file.”
Upon publication online at sacbee.com, the district attorney’s office said the file has now been located.
That revelation — that the district attorney could not initially locate the file — stunned retired San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Robert McNatt, who presided over Trotter’s civil trial as well as that of another disgraced priest.
“I have the dubious distinction of trying the two major Catholic Church molestation cases in San Joaquin County, Oliver O’Grady and Father Kelly. There were a number of similarities.”
McNatt told The Bee that he is convinced that like O’Grady, Kelly is a serial pedophile who could offend again.
That makes the Calaveras County prosecutor’s inability to initially locate the grand jury testimony that much more troubling.
“Honestly, I have never heard anything like that,” McNatt said. “If I ever encountered a situation like that in my courtroom – an entire grand jury file just disappearing – I would want answers.”