Wetteland trial witnesses testify whether accuser is truthful

Wetteland has pleaded not guilty to three counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child.

Nine people testified Wednesday. The testimonies covered the letter that started investigations, Argyle ISD’s content monitoring system, the psychological effects of trauma on children and the character of the accuser.

School technology

Greg Royar, the chief technology officer for the Argyle school district’s information technology department, testified about the system that flagged a digital letter in December 2018 that detailed the alleged sexual assaults.

The defense claims the letter was not written by the accuser, or the accuser was manipulated to write the letter — possibly by his mother or a man named Chris, who the defense said hates Wetteland.

Witnesses — including the accuser — from Tuesday’s testimonies said the letter was accidentally written on his school Google account, which was logged in from his mother’s computer.

Argyle ISD uses Gaggle, a monitoring software that flags inappropriate or alarming content in a student’s school account, Royar said. When a document is flagged, a Gaggle employee verifies the flag, then alerts school administration and sometimes law enforcement.

The defense claims it is not beyond a reasonable doubt that the accuser, or someone else in his home, purposefully wrote the letter on the school account knowing it would be flagged and the school would be mandated to report the allegation. After questioning from defense attorney Derek Adame, Royar said it would be possible that a student’s Google account could be logged into by another person if a tab was left open, the computer was left unlocked, or the person somehow gained knowledge of the password.

Jonathan DeLay, an assistant principal at Argyle High School, gave a brief testimony in which he covered the school’s handling of the allegation. DeLay said he believed the accuser to be truthful. He said his role in the case ended after he was mandated to report it.

Police testimony and the letter

Paul Cairney, the former chief of police for the Argyle ISD Police Department, testified Wednesday. He became aware of the case through the Gaggle flagging. Cairney, along with school administrators, was automatically sent a copy of the letter.

Cairney said when the accuser went back to school after the news broke of Wetteland’s arrest in January 2019, kids were talking about it and knew of the accuser’s relation.

Cairney approached the student and told him the staff were there to support him. Cairney said he clearly remembers the student was “obviously shaken” and had his head down, aware that people were staring at him.

Cairney read the letter aloud to the courtroom. He said when he first read it in 2019, he was disgusted by the contents and felt compassion for the accuser.

In the letter, the accuser addresses his family. The letter discusses how, as a young child, he wanted to spend as much time with Wetteland as possible. It describes Wetteland allegedly forcing him to perform a sex act, with details about physical sensations. Wetteland is “still an awful” man who sexually assaulted him, the letter reads.

The letter describes the accuser confronting Wetteland over the phone during their estrangement about the alleged incidents. Wetteland’s words to him were “You’re deluded … I love you still … Wake up,” according to the letter.

The accuser would go to sleep “in total fear” of Wetteland and said the alleged sexual assaults crushed his mind for years, the letter read.

The accuser writes about rationalizing the events at the time they happened by equating them to biblical stories he had recently learned. He did not want to tell anyone because he loved Wetteland, the letter read.

The letter says the accuser wanted to go back in time and “kick [Wetteland] in the balls.”

The accuser didn’t tell his family because he was afraid of losing those he loved, the letter says.

After Cairney finished reading the letter, he said he never had reason to doubt the accuser’s truthfulness.

Cairney mentioned during his testimony that he was familiar with the student through his extracurricular activities. The student was a fantastic singer and gave a “phenomenal performance” in a school production, he said.

Adame, during cross-examination, asked Cairney to confirm his use of the word “performer.” Cairney repeated that the accuser was a great performer. The defense claimed the accuser is an actor whose story of abuse is a lie coached by Chris.

Bartonville Police Chief Bobby Dowell testified about his involvement. Because of the department’s size — six officers total, including Dowell — he also responds to calls for service and investigates incidents.

The Bartonville Police Department received a Child Protective Services referral because the alleged offenses were said to have occurred in 2004, 2005 and 2006 at Wetteland’s Bartonville home.

Dowell never interviewed the accuser, because he didn’t feel the need to, and it is protocol for such interviews to be conducted by the Children’s Advocacy Center for North Texas. The center is “more apt” to handle the interview, he said. He observed the 2019 forensic interview with Cairney.

When a state prosecutor asked whether the accuser wanted law enforcement involved, Dowell said the accuser did not. When asked if the accuser was consistent in his account of the alleged sexual assault throughout various interviews, Dowell said yes.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Caroline Simone asked if Wetteland’s arrest was solely based on the accuser’s interview with the CAC and CPS. Yes, Dowell said. She asked if Dowell tried to interview Wetteland before the arrest. No, he said.

After a question from state prosecutor Rachel Nichols, Dowell said subsequent interviews with other members of the Wetteland family did not change his arrest decision. He said the arrest was made for concern for the accuser’s safety, and because he believed there was probable cause.

Simone asked if he said there was a safety concern. Yes, Dowell said. She asked if the accuser was living with Wetteland. No, Dowell said. She asked if there were other minors living with Wetteland. No, he said.

Expert witness

After the jury was escorted from the room, the state and defense attorneys argued whether the state could call an expert witness who has no familiarity with the case.

Judge Lee Ann Breading, with the 462nd District Court, overruled the defense’s objection, and testimony was allowed from Suzy Gange, the director of clinical services and education at the Children’s Advocacy Center for North Texas. Gange is a trauma-informed licensed professional counselor.

Gange told the jury upon their return that a child commonly does not give all the details of an abusive event right away, but slowly discloses more over time. The defense previously said the accuser’s story became more detailed because he continually rehearsed initial outcries before the letter outcry.

Gange said it’s common for a child who has been abused to question their sexuality, regardless of their gender and their abuser’s gender. The defense’s cross-examination of the accuser on Tuesday included questions about him claiming to be of different sexualities. to Wetteland. The defense suggested the accuser’s statements about his sexuality and gender point to attention-seeking and untruthful behavior.

Gange said trauma often causes avoidant behavior and delayed disclosure in a victim.

Nichols asked Gange to explain what the term “scapegoat” means. It is a person in a family who is labeled as the bad child, blamed for problems within the family, and if the child acts out, they are labeled as a liar, she said. They are often acting out because they are holding on to heavy feelings, she said.

This creates an atmosphere in the family where if the child outcries, they would be discredited since they were previously labeled a liar. She said family scapegoating of a child is common in child abuse cases. Nichols asked if this label and family dynamic makes for the perfect victim, and Gange said yes.

The accuser’s mother and sister, who testified Tuesday, said the family had an inside joke about how the accuser would often make “silly” observations that were not true, or tell what they called harmless lies, although they said he would quickly own up to the lies and they believed him to be a truthful person.

Nichols asked Gange if it’s common for a child to still love their abuser, especially one who is biologically related. Gange said yes and that it’s common for the child to still want to be around the abuser. If the child is very young, they are not aware it is abuse and they trust the family member, Gange said.

In the cross-examination, defense attorney Simone asked what a parent should do if a child makes an outcry. The accuser’s mother did not report the allegations to law enforcement or CPS.

Gange said she would hope that the parent would report it, as is required by law. Simone said it would be hard for a parent not to report it, right? Gange said she disagrees and it is not surprising to her when a family does not report. Families commonly don’t want allegations of abuse to be known outside of the family, because they think they can deal with it themselves.

The accuser’s friends and educators

Two of the accuser’s close friends during high school testified Wednesday. The accuser disclosed the allegations to these friends while they were in high school.

One female friend called the conversation “heavy” and said the accuser was in tears when he told her. They spoke of it a second time and she said much of the information was a repeat of the first time, though he gave her some additional information. He cried again, she said.

The defense claimed in opening statements Tuesday that the accuser used the first conversation with this friend as a trial run to practice a false allegation so he could assess how to make his story more believable in future outcries.

When Nichols asked if she had formed an opinion of the accuser’s truthfulness, the female friend said yes, and said she believed the accuser to be very truthful and it breaks her heart this happened to him.

Adame’s cross-examination covered a call between the female friend and law enforcement. The accuser asked if he could share her phone number with officers. The female friend had difficulty remembering specific details of the call, and about the timing of aspects of the initial outcry and investigation. Nichols objected multiple times on the grounds of speculation to Adame’s cross-examination regarding this call.

A male friend of the accuser testified as well. He said he could tell something was wrong and prodded the accuser about what it was.

He said the accuser was very upset, crying and close to a mental breakdown during the conversation. They talked about it again at later dates and he said the accuser was very quiet and it seemed like it hurt him to talk about it.

Simone asked about a previous interview between the male friend and state attorneys. She said the friend told the attorneys he thought the accuser was happier after the news broke out.

After Wetteland’s arrest, the accuser got very quiet any time it was brought up and didn’t want to talk, the male friend said. But on other occasions, he was outgoing and happy like he knew his friend to usually be, he said.

The friend said he believed the accuser to be a truthful person.

The accuser was involved in theater and choir when he was a student. His former choir director and theater teacher testified Wednesday. Both witnesses said the accuser did not come to them about the allegations.

Theater teacher Jessica Reynolds called the accuser a great kid who was outspoken, loud and always did anything she asked him to. She said there was one disciplinary issue where he could have gotten away with it, but he owned up to the problem and faced the consequence. Reynolds said she knew him to be a truthful person.

Simone referenced a previous interview the teacher had with state attorneys in which she said the accuser had boundary issues. Reynolds initially disagreed with that statement, then said she meant he sometimes cussed in front of her and she would reprimand him, but that was normal for a teenager.

Simone also said Reynolds mentioned in a previous interview that the student stopped taking care of himself during his senior year. Simone asked if this was in relation to a role in a production. The teacher said no, she noticed after news broke of Wetteland’s arrest, that the accuser seemed to have stopped showering and his theater costumes smelled unwashed.

Simone asked if he was good in theater. Reynolds said yes, he was very talented.

Will Griswold, a former choir director at the school, had the accuser as a student for his junior and senior years. Griswold said there were no major disciplinary issues and he owned up to his fault in one minor issue. He said the student was very outgoing his junior year, but during his senior year, he wasn’t the same emotionally or socially.

Adame asked Griswold if, in his experience, he commonly saw emotional changes in teenagers. Yes, Griswold said. Adame asked then if the change was not related to the allegations. Griswold said he could not definitively say whether the change was or was not related.

Griswold told Adame the allegations surprised him. Adame asked further questions about his use of the word surprising, and Griswold said you never expect to hear about such allegations because of their nature.

The trial continues

The court adjourned early Wednesday because the defense’s witnesses were not available. The defense told Breading they expect to have witnesses testify Thursday.

The trial will pick up at about 8:30 a.m. Breading told the jury she expects they will start deliberating Thursday, though she did not know what time.