| Abuse of Kelsey | ||
08/06/08 |
                                                                    
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--- The rest of the evidence is listed on this site. My question is where was Mike the day he sexually assaulted and murdered Kelsey? He left home at his regular time in the morning. According to his friend and co-worker he was at work for an hour or two at the most. He arrived home at approximately 2:30pm. Where had he been the rest of the day? Why hasn't anyone tried to determine his whereabouts? Was he at a strip club or somewhere that would have made him aroused before going home to a sleeping, helpless child? Why wasn't this relevant to investigators? And why has Kathie spent so much time going after Raye Dawn when her target was under her nose the entire time? Why spend so much energy attacking Raye Dawn and her entire family and absolutely no energy attacking the sick monster that murdered Kelsey? Why??
From Mike Porter's preliminary hearing: Dean A. Hawley, M.D., called as a witness on behalf of the State of Oklahoma, after having been first duly sworn, testified as follows:
Direct Examination By Mr. Smothermon:
Q – Good afternoon, Dr. Hawley.
A – Good afternoon.
Q – Could you tell this Court your full name, please, sir, and spell your last name for the court reporter?
A – My name is Dean Hawley, H-a-w-l-e-y.
Q – And could you tell this Court what your occupation is, sir?
A – I am a forensic pathologist, a medical doctor employed on the full-time faculty of the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis where I work in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. At the IU Medical School I teach pathology for the medical students. I practice pathology in the hospital laboratories, and administratively I’m the president of the faculty of the medical school.
Q – And could you briefly describe your training and expertise in the area of pathology?
A – I am a graduate of Purdue University and a 1978 graduate of the Indiana University School of Medicine. I did an internship in internal medicine at the private Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis and, after completion of an internship, then did four years of postgraduate residency training in the medical specialties of anatomic pathology and clinical pathology at the Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.
In 1983 when I completed my residency training, I became board certified in the medical specialty fields of anatomic pathology and clinical pathology. At that point, I moved back across the street to the IU Medical School campus to do a fellowship in the subspecialty of forensic pathology with former Oklahoma medical examiner, Dr. John Pless, P-l-e-s-s, at the IU Medical School.
Upon completion of my fellowship training in 1984, I became board certified in the subspecialty of forensic pathology. I joined the faculty at the IU Medical School, and I have remained there in that capacity ever since I completed my training. Working and teaching at eh IU Medical School is the only job I’ve ever had.
Q – Have you had the occasion to be called and testify as an expert in criminal cases or civil cases in courts throughout the United States and other nations?
A – Yes.
Q – Approximately how many times?
A – Hundreds and hundreds of times. I testify three or four times a week. Mostly murder trials in the Indianapolis area. I had a trial on – I’ve got to think of how the travel arrangements worked this week. I had a trial Monday afternoon in Indianapolis. I’m here today. Friday, I have a trial in southern Indiana. And hopefully, if the arrangements work out in between, I’ll be in Washington, D.C.
Q – Do you do any teaching on behalf of the Untied States?
A – Yes.
Q – And approximately what is your relationship with the Department of Justice?
A – The Department of Justice pays the medical school for my time for teaching. I teach programs for them, mostly related to ongoing educational programs at the U.S. Department of Justice Trial Advocacy Center at the University of South Carolina Law School in Columbia, South Carolina. I teach prosecutors classes for them in continuing education largely related to forensic evidence, forensic medicine, and issues related to domestic violence and child abuse.
Q – At my request, Dr. Hawley, have you had occasion to review items presented to you by me in regards to a child by the name of Kelsey Smith-Briggs?
A – Yes.
Q – And could you briefly run down for the Court what items you have had the opportunity to review at least prior to coming to Oklahoma City earlier this year?
A – Sure. There is a very lengthy list of materials, and I’ll try to describe these in some way so that if I’m not suing the technical terms that the Court knows the exhibits by, perhaps, you can jump in. But what I listed in my report is 23 items, which now today is expanded to 24.
It begins with, first of all: a printed color photograph disk collection from the medical examiner’s office in Oklahoma; a CD disk of autopsy photographs from the original autopsy, which was conducted here in Oklahoma City on October 12 of ’05; the autopsy by Dr. Yacoub, Y-a-c-o-u-b, for the medical examiner’s office in Oklahoma City; an interview conducted with Michael Porter on October 13 of ’05; an interview – or a police report from the Meeker, M-e-e-k-e-r, Police Department filed January 17, ’05; hospital medical records on Kelsey Smith-Briggs dated October 11, ’05, from the Prague, P-r-a-g-u-e, Hospital; an interview conducted with Laura, L-a-u-r-a Coley, C-o-l-e-y, on November 2 of ’05; an interview with Karen Cheatwood, C-h-e-a-t-w-o-o-d, conducted November 12 – November 2 of ’05; an interview with Melissa Gibson of October 17, ’05; an interview with Michael Gambrill, October 18 of ’05; an interview of David Higgins from October 17 of ’05; an interview of David McElhaney, M-c-E-l-h-a-n-e-y, October 18 of ’05; an interview with Kim Holmes, H-o-l-m-e-s, October 20, ’05, an interview of Joan Walters, dated October 14 of ’05; an interview of Bill Taylor, dated October 17, ’05; interview of Cindy Rodgers, dated October 14, ’05; a property supplement report by the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department dated October 12, ’05; interview of Jennifer Messer, M-e-s-s-e-r, October 14, ’05; interview of John Jenkins, October 14, ’05; interview of Sharon Asher, October 18, ’05; interview of Patti Bonner, October 11, ’05; interview of Scott Murrison, M-u-r-r-i-s-o-n, on November 2, ’05; and an interview of Michael Taber, T-a-b-e-r, November 14, ’05. Subsequent to the review of those records, I then received additional documents and have reviewed that subsequent list as well.
Q – Also at my request, Dr. Hawley, have you had an opportunity to come to the state of Oklahoma to perform an exhumation on the body of Kelsey Smith-Briggs?
A – Yes.
Q – And, specifically, if I could direct your attention, Dr. Hawley, to your findings, specifically as to – were you able to – or have you been able to make a finding as to any sexual – forcible sexual assault upon the body of Kelsey Smith-Briggs?
A – Yes.
Q – And could you explain for this Court what your findings were and what your basis for those findings are?
A – In my opinion within reasonable medical certainty, the body of Kelsey Smith-Briggs demonstrates at autopsy injuries of forcible sexual assault.
Q – And could you tell what you formed – or what items you reviewed that led you to that conclusion?
A – The original autopsy report by Dr. Yacoub, the photographs taken of the autopsy in Oklahoma City, the microscopic slides of the actual tissues of the body that were examined by Dr. Yacoub, and then the examination that I conducted of the tissues in the body at the second autopsy.
Q – And, specifically, could you tell this Court what injuries you found or noticed from the materials that you reviewed that specifically lead you to the conclusion of forcible sexual abuse or assault?
A – The child’s body at the time of the original autopsy demonstrated the presence of contusion, or bruising, of the perianal, p-e-r-i-a-n-a-l, skin, that is the skin around the anus; contusion inside the anus within the rectum down in the pelvis; contusion in the perirectal, p-e-r-i-r-e-c-t-a-l, pelvic floor muscles; a laceration through the urinary bladder that was bleeding in the pelvis; and contusion of the left internal pelvic wall muscle down in the pelvis opposite or on the front side of the pelvis from the injuries in the rectum.
Q – Dr. Hawley, were the injuries that you have just listed, were they fresh or older?
A – Every injury that I just listed shows no evidence of any inflammation or repair, and all are most consistent with having occurred at or about the time of death.
Q – Do the microscopic slides also lend themselves that finding?
A – Yes.
Q – And how so?
A – When we examine physical injuries under the microscope, whether those injuries are in the head, chest, abdomen, or genitals, the microscopic examination will reveal evidence of healing and repair for injuries that occur before death and at a time before death, such that there has been a reaction in the body called inflammation to those injuries. Injuries that occur within a few minutes, sometimes hours, prior to death will lack inflammation. Injuries that have occurred hours, days, or in the case of this autopsy, sometimes weeks prior, do show evidence of inflammation and can be reliably sorted out by their microscopic appearances.
It is not possible to tell you that it was five minutes, ten minutes, or two hours prior to death. But a lengthy interval of hours or days is not possible in the case of these injuries of forcible sexual assault.
Q – Dr. Hawley, specifically with the injuries that you have noted to the anus-vaginal area, were those injuries coming from the front side of the body of Kelsey Smith-Briggs or were they coming from the back side of Kelsey Smith-Briggs?
A – The forcible penetration was from the back with the force directed forward through her body. That force is from back to front up through her pelvis.
Mr. Sutton: Yes, sir. May I approach, your Honor?
The Court: Certainly.
Mr. Sutton: If it please the Court, your Honor, comes now the defendant, Michael Porter, through his attorney, and demurs to the state’s evidence and moves to strike and/or dismiss the crimes charged for the reason that the state has an absolute burden to prove that a crime has been committed and it’s likely that this defendant, Mr. Porter, committed this crime. The state has failed to do that in this case and most especially as it relates to sexual abuse.
I have set out in my written motion, your Honor, the elements of each of the crimes that Mr. Porter stands accused of here today. And I would state to the Court that the state has failed to prove the elements of each and every one of those crimes, or each element of every one of those crimes here today.
In relation to child abuse – skipping over murder, which I have set forth and won’t argue that specifically. But as to child abuse, that a person willfully or maliciously engaged in injuring or torturing or maiming a child under the age of 18, there’s no direct evidence that Mr. Porter did anything like that. In fact, there’s no direct evidence whatsoever that Mr. Porter did any of the acts that resulted in this child’s death.
And, in fact, the circumstantial evidence before the Court is that if anyone did this, it would most likely have been the mother. The facts are that he was only with her a very, very brief period of time, a few moments between the time that the mother left the home and he called, made the first call to Gayla Smith seeking help.
There’s no evidence of sexual assault. There’s no direct evidence, no witness, no testimony, no prior history, no factual basis, other than he was with her for a very few minutes before he made a call for help and that this doctor thinks that there was some penetration of this child by something that caused her some injury.
There’s no proper predicate that has been laid for child abuse. There’s no proper predicate that – and the elements haven’t been set out for the crime of child sexual abuse, no less the crime of murder.
Judge, I would ask you to reconsider your finding and to dismiss the charges.
The Court: I appreciate your motion, and it’s a well-presented motion, but your demurrer will be overruled and denied. And I find that there is probable cause to believe that Michael Lee Porter did commit the two crimes – three crimes, one count being in the alternative, Count 1, as alleged in the amended information, which is filed July 21st of this year. Having made that finding, he will be set for arraignment in front of Judge Vassar on September 6th at 1:30 in the afternoon.
____________________________________________________ Dr. Hawley's testimony fits with my opinion of what happened to Kelsey the day she died. Mike Porter came home from wherever he had been all day and was left to care for a child who was sleeping in a T-shirt and no underpants. Mike had been looking at child porn on his computer for who knows how long before that day, and he had been physically abusing Kelsey for a minimum of one to two weeks, each time, causing her to vomit. He realized he had plenty of time before Raye Dawn returned or his friend arrived to look at the tires he had for sale. He woke Kelsey and took her into the kitchen and bent her forward over the bar and sexually assaulted her. Afterward, he cleaned her off in the sink and as he was cleaning her she became unresponsive. With the water still running, he ran into the bathroom and took a Pull-Up out of the closet while dialing Gayla and lying about Kelsey having a seizure. She instructed him to call 911 and he did so as he stood in the driveway holding the dying child in his arms and wondering what he had done. I don't think he ever intended to kill her and that's why his act of panic looked so real. He was panicked. He had been abusing that baby and thought he could continue to get away with it but he made a mistake and went too far and Kelsey paid the ultimate price.
So why do the Briggs blame all the Smiths for not seeing anything, but tell the Porters it's not their fault? If one family should have seen, so should the other! Right?
Why is Mike Porter being protected? Why did he got off with a plea and why do some think he "manned up"? In my opinion, Mike Porter is not a man and he should be the target of all the hatred and revenge, not Raye Dawn. If Mike Porter had been the target of the hatred, he would have gone to trial and we may have learned what he did. Now all we can do is wait and see if he ever grows a conscious while we struggle with possible scenarios that ended Kelsey's life.
Kathie and her supporters have claimed that Raye Dawn is the one who murdered Kelsey. That is impossible and nonsense!
Some have tried to say Raye Dawn was gone the day
Kelsey died for only 10 or 15 minutes. That's impossible! The EMT said he got
his first call at 3:16pm. The EMT left his headquarters at 3:20pm and arrived at
the home at 3:27pm. Raye Dawn got home between 3:30 and 3:40. The DA has never sought to implicate Raye Dawn with
what happened on October 11th outside of allowing it to happen, unless you
include the underhanded tactic of referring only to the first ME report. During
the trial, the DA sought to suppress the 2nd ME report in an effort to underplay
the significance of sexual trauma, which tends to be associated with male
perpetrators.
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This site was last updated 07/26/08