By Martha Deller
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
March 3, 2006
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/14008183.htm
FORT WORTH -- Former Baptist pastor Larry Nuell Neathery plans to take the witness stand today to challenge the graphic testimony of five boys who have accused him of sexually assaulting them in his home and church.
Prosecutors rested their case Thursday after calling 10 witnesses to support multicount indictments accusing the 56-year-old Fort Worth man of molesting five boys from 5 to 14 years old between 1998 and 2004.
If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison on felony charges that include aggravated sexual assault, indecency with a child and sexual performance of a child. He is also eligible for probation.
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| Larry Nuell Neathery |
With the prosecutors' agreement, Judge Mike Thomas acquitted Neathery of one count each involving two boys but denied a defense motion to dismiss the remainder of the charges.
Defense attorney Leon Haley then questioned Neathery about his intention to testify even though his testimony could allow prosecutors to introduce evidence against him.
"I understand that and I'm ready," Neathery said. "I'm testifying and standing up for myself."
He also told Haley that he disagrees with legal rulings that prevent him from introducing results of a polygraph test that he claims he passed.
"You asked for it, I passed it," Neathery said. "I think it should be put on."
For three days, Haley and co-counsel Roderick White have tried to suggest that the five boys have falsely accused the former pastor of the Westside Victory Baptist Church because he was a strict disciplinarian who made them behave according to Biblical principles.
Prosecutors Rebecca McIntire and Mitch Poe have countered that the pastor "groomed" boys whose fathers were absent from their lives or were ill. Neathery spent time with the boys and bought gifts for them before gradually introducing various forms of sexual abuse, prosecutors said.
Two accusers who testified Thursday had stories similar to those told by three others this week.
An 18-year-old Denton man said he was 11 when he moved near Neathery's River Oaks home and the pastor invited him to his church. A few months later, as Neathery drove him to church, the pastor began placing his hand on his leg near his crotch, the teen testified.
At the time, the teen said, he did not think much about the touching, just that Neathery was being too friendly. But after it went on for a while, he began pushing Neathery's hand away because it made him uncomfortable, he said.
The teen said that in the sixth grade, he attended the Masonic Home and School in east Fort Worth and didn't spend as much time with Neathery.
The summer he returned to River Oaks, the teen said, he remained after church on Sunday to help Neathery with chores. The pastor invited him into his office, where he asked him whether he'd like to perform oral sex and then exposed himself to the boy, the teen testified.
The teen said he knocked Neathery out of his way, ran out of the church, jumped some fences to get to a friend's house and never returned to Neathery's house.
He said he didn't tell anyone because he questioned whether it meant he was homosexual. He said he was afraid if he told his parents, his Dad, who was dying of cirrhosis of the liver, would try to kill Neathery. He said he gave a statement to an investigator who learned about him after another teen accused Neathery of abusing him.
The 8-year-old brother of a previous witness also testified Thursday that Neathery began molesting him when he was 5 and beat his older brother with a belt buckle when his brother tried to stop the abuse.
Martha Deller, (817) 390-7857 mdeller@star-telegram.com
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