By SCOTT W. COLEMAN, Four Points News
A former Leander football player who earned all-district honors last season was back in jail Friday morning on charges he had inappropriate sexual contact with a second young child.
Gregory Raymond Kelley, 18, was arrested early Friday morning on a charge of Felony Indecency With A Child By Contact — a 2nd Degree Felony. It was the second arrest for Kelley within a month, both based on allegations Kelley had inappropriate sexual contact with young children.
Kelley was first arrested on Aug. 9 after reports surfaced that he allegedly had inappropriate contact on two separate occasions with a four year old boy who was attending a day care in the home where Kelley resided between December 2012 and June 2013. Kelley was released later that day on bond.
An ongoing investigation into the incident led to a second arrest on Friday morning, when Cedar Park police arrested Kelley at the alternative education campus where he has been attending school this semester.
According to court documents, a Cedar Park detective uncovered and investigated a claim by a second young boy. An arrest warrant was issued late Thursday afternoon based on charges involving this second incident, which also is alleged to have occurred at the home/day care where Kelley was residing at the time.
“Further investigation uncovered a second victim, unfortunately, also a four-year-old male. Kelley had access to the juveniles through the in-home day care (where) he had been living,” said Cedar Park Chief of Police Sean Mannix.
Chief Mannix told the media on Friday afternoon that his department will continue to look into these incidents and said the department is, “Looking to see if there are any other children in the same age group, fitting the same profile, that may be in the same day care. We are also encouraging any parents who may have granted unsupervised access (to) their child to Mr. Kelley to come forward.”
Mannix also said police have no indication that the owner of the day care had any knowledge of the incidents involving Kelley at the time they were alleged to have occurred, and there are no other allegations against Kelley at this time. The Department of Family and Protective Services says the owner of the day care has voluntarily closed the center.
Following his first arrest, support for Kelley, who was expected to play a key role on the school’s football team this year, was strong. During the summer, Kelley said he had verbally accepted an offer to play football at UTSA starting next year. This year, as Leander fights through a tough district, most of his teammates rallied in his support. All through the parking lot at Leander High School during the first week of school, cars painted with the slogan “Pray for GK” could be seen.
While that simple statement can be interpreted in many ways, many of his teammates and a large contingent of followers on Twitter were quick to dismiss the allegations against Kelley. That is, until his second arrest on Friday, as more students began expressing some doubts after hearing that a second boy had come forward.
Still, Kelley’s supporters held a bake sale at Leander’s Bledsoe Park on Saturday, hoping to raise funds to help with his legal expenses. Flyers passed around campus and reposted on social networking sites said the event would feature “BBQ, Bake Sale, and Live DJ” and “Please come out and support!” along with a picture of Kelley in uniform.
While Kelley’s case, and his guilt or innocence, will be decided in court, some who say they’ve known the high school senior most of his life just can’t believe Kelley could be guilty of the crimes he’s accused of committing.
However, Chief Mannix said after Friday’s press conference that with a bake sale planned and all the cars painted with “Pray for GK”, perhaps too much attention was being paid to the accused and not enough attention was being focused on the victims.
“We have two young 4-year-old children that will be scarred for life as a result of this,” Mannix said.
“I’m glad to live in a country where innocence is presumed until guilt is determined by a court. I will also add I do not believe there is a cabal of 4-year-olds out there making up stories about this gentleman,” said Mannix.