Original subtitles

Successful prosecution.

[Keith Hampton] There's been an outcry in Leander, Texas.

Everyone is saying, "You've got the wrong guy."

[Shawn Dick] In walks a district court judge.

[Judge Mathews] I advised him not to file charges

at that point.

He said, "Well, it'll strengthen the case

against the first child."

Yes, I don't know why that-- why that would be unfair

to call it corruption.

[male reporter] Now the focus is on an attorney

who defended him back in 2014.

[Keith] The tables suddenly turn,

where his prior lawyer becomes his worst enemy.

Back at the time in 2013, there's a facial similarity

between Johnathan and Greg Kelley.

[Patricia] Was I aware that there was a resemblance?

Is that the question?

Sure, I was, yes.

They looked like twins to me.

For whatever reason, she's convinced that

Johnathan McCarty's not someone that we should

even be looking at.

[Cody Mitchell] I am a Texas Ranger employed by the

Texas Department of Public Safety.

Different entities did things that shouldn't have been done

and hit this-this defendant.

The only person that has met the

probable cause bar is Greg Kelley.

[female reporter] Now we are learning new information

from the Texas Ranger's investigation that

keeps him as an active suspect.

Yeah, I've passed every question but one.

Mr. Kelley has lied about several things.

[Shawn] I think initially I was pretty convinced

of his innocence.

Now I hate to say this but I-I just--

I wouldn't be surprised either way.

[dramatic music]

[jury foreman] We the jury find the defendant

Gregory Kelley guilty of the offense of

super aggravated sexual assault.

Mm-hmm.

[sharp exhale] He turned red and...

[dramatic music]

as a juror, after that, that's something

you want to block out.

How it went from 11 to 1 to 12 to 0?

Everybody was tired.

I wanted to go home.

And they were pissed.

And they knew I was the one vote.

And...

I should have kept to my guns.

But...

yeah, I told them-- I said,

"You want your conviction?"

I said, "Here's your conviction.

But this is on you all."

[crying]

Yes, I do.

I would say yes,

unless somebody can change my opinion on that.

I don't-- I don't see it.

Yes, the jury got this wrong.

What if he gets sent back to prison?

I don't know.

I don't know.

♪ theme music ♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

[female reporter] Breaking news: former high-school

football star Greg Kelley out on bond.

It's the first time he's seen freedom in three years.

[male reporter] The 22-year-old was convicted

of child sexual assault.

Today the judge signed an order granting Kelley bond.

[male reporter] Tonight he's being taken

to an undisclosed location, far away I'm told,

outside of any public view.

[Greg] I'm still dreaming.

I'm still dreaming right now.

I kind of slept in a little bit.

It feels great to be able to get up and-

and, uh, make myself a cup of coffee

and walk around a-a nice area.

And it's like, I'm not in the nightmare any more.

I do believe, uh, people need to be held accountable

for their actions.

And I do believe that wrongs need to be made right.

And we're going to do that in any way we can.

I-I think I was just sad when he got out.

I felt for the families who were reliving this,

um, for the parents of these little boys

who were now having to watch the news again

with his face plastered everywhere.

It seemed like all these wounds were getting reopened.

So I kind of put myself in their shoes as their family,

and for me it just seemed really hard when he got out.

[dramatic music]

[David Anderson] Great opportunity tonight.

[Greg Kelley] Yeah.

[David] Do you want to go over some of that stuff

and just try it and see--? - Yeah.

[Greg] [clears throat] All right.

Hello, thank you for having me here.

My name is Gregory Kelley.

I'm here for two things, accountability and truth--

accountability because the people that did this to me

need to be held responsible,

and truth because if the truth is never discovered,

then the victim cannot receive justice.

[dramatic music]

Since being incarcerated, I have studied due process

and the importance that it plays

in our criminal justice system.

[dramatic music]

Our justice system demands an accurate outcome.

And whenever that is not achieved,

we as citizens have an obligation to correct it.

[dramatic music]

When I watched Sgt. Dailey sit on that stand

and defend incompetence,

I realized that my purpose isn't just to inspire people

that have been treated unfairly

but to be the catalyst for real change in this community.

While I was incarcerated I received an outpouring

of love from this community,

and it grieved my spirit that the police chief,

Sean Mannix, tried to label them as a cult

just like how he tried to label me as a pedophile.

I believe this is a toxic culture

that excuses laziness and defends incompetence.

But when Chief Mannix called this the best police work

he had ever seen,

it became clear that change is required

because an organization can only be good as its leader.

This was about winning

and achieving a successful prosecution

at all costs

and had very little to do with justice and truth.

I will extend you the benefit of the doubt

that I was denied by the police department,

but I expect immediate action please.

Thank you very much; God bless you all.

[male] Thank you, Mr. Kelley.

Thank you.

[female reporter] Cedar Park Police facing a review

after criticism into how officers there handled

the investigation that ultimately convicted Kelley

of child sexual assault.

Officials say the review will start as soon as possible,

but it's unclear when the findings will be released.

Critics have said police did not fully investigate the case,

including whether someone else may have

committed the crime.

To get, uh, Chief Mannix and, uh,

Chris Dailey out of there.

[Sean] Well, you know, I don't wake up in the morning

wondering, uh, who-who wants me in or out of my job.

And, uh, so, you know, all those, uh,

people shaking their fist and, you know,

torches and pitchforks aren't something that I find

intimidating or scary or anything else.

It's part of my job, is, you know, some people are going

to criticize you and some people are going to praise you.

And some people just don't care.

Uh, we're going to play that by ear.

We don't know what's to come in the future.

Uh, we're playing it day by day right now.

I've got a few dreams.

I've got a few hopes.

But, uh, that will come later.

You know, I'm just going to enjoy freedom,

be with my family,

start preparing for my future, you know.

I'll start preparing now.

[dramatic music, rolling waves]

[Gaebri] I've stuck by Greg for the last four years,

ever since the beginning, because I knew he was innocent.

He's been my best friend since eighth grade and, uh,

I'm completely in love with him.

Even my friends, they'd be like,

"Are you going to wait 25 years?"

and my answer was always, "Yes."

And they just thought that was insane.

Yeah, it was him that actually said,

"You don't have to stay with me.

You don't have to stay with someone that's

falsely accused in jail for 25 years."

You know, that broke my heart

that he could even think that I would break up with him.

No, I'm in this with you until the very end.

I-I mean I felt more in love with him

whenever he was in prison.

Any phone call we had, any visit we had,

always reminded me why I'm so in love with him.

And nothing can really shake that.

It challenged us.

I think any relationship that can overcome that obstacle

is going to be a very strong,

very, very strong relationship.

[female reporter] Breaking news in the Greg Kelley case

this afternoon, a judge in Williamson County has

just ruled that he should be declared innocent

in a child sexual assault that led to his conviction

and 25-year prison sentence.

[male reporter] Now, the ruling by State District Judge

Donna King says, "The Court finds that the culmination of

evidence supports Applicant's claim of actual innocence.

He has met the burden and established he is actually

innocent of the offense for which he was convicted."

[dramatic music]

In her ruling, Judge King said that his attorney

in his first trial was ineffective.

She also granted a Due Process claim saying that

Kelley's rights were violated because of a botched

Cedar Park Police investigation.

She found that Greg Kelley was denied due process

because of the bad faith and negligent police investigation

that was conducted.

You know, the judge did find bad faith

on the part of the Cedar Park Police Department.

The judge did find that their investigation was-was

reckless, reached sort of a reckless standard.

This nonsense about this, uh, due process, uh, issue,

uh, is--

it's a standard in law that doesn't exist.

The way the system works is the police develop

probable cause that a crime was committed.

They then go to the District Attorney's Office

and the District Attorney makes a charging decision.

The District Attorney's Office brings it to a grand jury.

The grand jury hands down the indictment.

It then goes to trial, and a jury of 12 different people

get to hear all elements of the case,

including any criticism of the police report,

and make their determination on guilt or innocence.

And all of those things happened in this case.

To look at that ruling today,

you would think that this went to the probable cause part

and conviction,

that none of those other steps, you know,

took place, which is just baloney.

If the due process issue were to hold,

it would be a horrific piece of case law

from the standpoint of basically

what it would be saying is that police officers

now have to go beyond probable cause

and rule out any possible, you know, person, uh,

for every, you know, single crime.

And that's just untenable.

It's not something that's-that's realistic.

Judge King's rulings will now go to the

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

That is the State's highest criminal court.

Those nine judges will likely take months to rule,

so we now know that this whole saga will likely be

well into next year before we see any kind of final outcome.

I-it won't be over until the Court of Criminal Appeals

issues its decision, which could literally take

anywhere from a few months to another year.

The Court of Criminal Appeals every Wednesday

hands down decisions, and we call them hand-downs.

It's not a defendant-friendly court.

I don't know if there-- such a court actually exists,

but it's not the Court of Criminal Appeals.

The general population of Texas--

I-I don't think they know the court at all.

I-I don't-- I think most people don't even know it exists.

I think everybody that's on the Court of Criminal Appeals

is a former prosecutor.

And many of them, that's all they've ever done.

All they did is spend a career looking for ways

to uphold the conviction.

Then they go from that to the Court of Criminal Appeals

and, no surprise, they're looking for ways

to uphold the conviction.

That is their world view.

[Keith] The Court of Criminal Appeals has complete

control over it and can-can issue a decision whenever.

They ultimately can remand it for something else th--

in other words, send it back here for some hearing

on some other issue.

So they could do that.

So something like an ineffective assistance of counsel

newly discovered evidence-- all that--

all that the Court of Criminal Appeals would ultimately

be deciding is you get to start over.

You go back to court and we're going to start all over.

An actual innocence claim is a little bit different.

An actual innocence claim, the Court of Appeals is

certifying that you are actually innocent,

and the case ends there.

And so--

Uh, that's very rare,

very rare.

Or, a horrible thing would be

a one-page order:

relief denied

on all grounds.

Which means he has to go back into prison.

For a defendant to be found actually innocent,

he has to prove by clear and convincing evidence

that-that he did not commit that offense.

And that is a pretty high standard of proof,

given that, at trial, the State had had to prove

beyond a reasonable doubt that he was guilty.

The CCA is the ultimate finder of fact.

That's what it will tell you.

It is the ultimate finder of fact.

Even when the State, the defendant and the trial judge

all agree about a particular resolution on habeas,

the Court of Criminal Appeals can ignore that and, um,

go the other way.

There are some terrible cases that do exist out there

where people were released on bond and then they lost

before the Court of Criminal Appeals.

And they had to walk those people back into prison.

And that is a scenario I do not even like to contemplate.

But until the court grants him relief,

exonerates him,

that is a scenario.

It exists.

We dealt with claims of actual innocence often enough,

but I think we only granted actual innocence claims--

my head is telling me three times.

I would say under five times.

It was a very, very rare occurrence.

Seven and a half.

I think if they find him innocent,

I don't think it will change my mind, no.

From the very beginning, I've just stood--

stayed with the kids.

I believe those kids.

I really don't think that they made it up.

I really don't think that they were confused.

I don't think they were coached.

I think this was a-a very traumatic, pivotal moment in

their lives where their innocence was stripped

and that they went and told their parents.

And I think the nightmare that happened after that was all

just unfortunate, about how the case was handled

and how it's gone forward.

But I think I will always stand with them

and that they were telling the truth.

It's three minutes to nine and it's a Wednesday

and every Wednesday the Court of Criminal Appeals

hands down, uh, its decisions at 9:00.

And we're waiting to see if Greg's, uh,

writ has been decided.

Uh, we've been doing this for like 20 times already,

almost 20 times.

And-and, uh, I haven't been on it yet.

It all comes down to refreshing a page at 9:00 a.m.

to see if I'm on it so I could be fully free.

[Jake Brydon] I didn't realize how heavy it was getting on me

until I started checking that dang Web site

to see that four years' work is going to come down to a

yes or no decision by nine people that we don't know.

And we have no idea how-how into social media they are

and if our--

and if our fighting has any effect on them at all.

We just don't know if what we're doing is in vain

or is this helping Greg?

Uh, God forbid that this be hurting Greg, you know.

And-and just so a lot of that mental anxiety I guess is-is

what I'd call it, just-- that has an accumulative effect on

you when you know somebody's life hangs in the balance,

for sure.

All right, here we go.

[Greg] Nine o'clock.

Let's do it.

And a whole bunch of denials.

He's not on it.

Dismissed.

I don't see it.

[scoffs]

Nothing.

Well,

no news is good news...

I guess.

[Greg] It means another week of doing the same thing.

So next Wednesday, pull up this page,

9:00 comes around...

we're going to see if I'm on it.

Probably ill-advised before flying is checking that website.

It ticks you off.

[traffic passing]

[Greg] As the weeks go by, knowing what I have going

in my life right now and kind of being out for a long time,

I've been doing things that I want to--

I want to pursue in my career.

And I-I simply just want to regain everything

that was taken from me, that was stripped from me.

And I can't get to it because I have this thing

hanging over my head.

It's never been as stressful than it is right now.

After that you go and you switch your hand placement

and go into curls,

to the eyeballs.

Good job, Melissa.

Somebody's calling me.

Keith is.

Keith's calling me right now.

Hello?

Hey, Keith.

What's going on, man?

[Keith] Hey, uh, look, uh, I just, uh--

Okay.

Wow. Really?

Uh, that's-- uh, that's-that's ter-- that's terrible, Keith.

All right, have a good day.

All right, bye.

Can you believe that?

Geez.

At first, I-I couldn't believe it was Johnathan.

And-and now...

A man considered an alternative suspect

in the sexual assault of a child case that landed

Greg Kelley in prison is facing new charges tonight,

an alleged sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl.

Uh, we have filed charges against Johnathan McCarty

for another sexual assault that came to our attention

through this investigation.

Right after Johnathan's name became public

and was in the newspaper and on television,

uh, really within a few days

we started to receive a number of tips.

Several young ladies came forward, uh, alleging that,

um, there was some form of-

of sexual assault that had occurred.

And we filed the one that occurred here

in Williamson County.

We believe that he's com-- he's committed a crime

and-and we intend to prove it.

Now, in a statement a short time ago

from McCarty's attorney, she said McCarty is innocent

of the allegation and that he also steadfastly maintains

he's innocent in the Greg Kelley case.

The investigation or-- let me s-- the lack

of investigation of McCarty in the beginning was bad enough.

But given the three-year time frame between when Greg Kelley

goes to prison and when this hearing is held in 2017,

one of the suspects who should have been investigated

in the first place is not in prison.

He's not in jail.

He's free the entire time and able to do whatever he wants.

Not only you put the wrong person in jail,

but you didn't put the one that deserved to be there

that might be still doing it.

Uh, Greg's life was-was hurt for four years.

But that little boy, that's something he's going to

have to live with the rest of his life,

and knowing that you may have put--

not only put the wrong person but you have allowed

this maybe to happen to somebody else?

Again, those are just things that I would have

a hard time sleeping with.

[Greg] I never even thought that I would see the

inside of a prison cell.

Sixteen years old, seventeen years old,

playing football and already having a scholarship

to go play football, and then something just terrible

happens to your life and your life just comes crashing down.

I never thought that that would happen to me.

You get put in that place, you know, like:

'Did everything I do wrong ever amount to this?'

Sometimes there's just answers out there that

we're just not meant to find.

All right?

[Rosa] Yes.

All right.

Let's eat, then.

All right Father God, thank you, Lord, for this food.

And I just thank you for keeping my mother strong

and increasing her faith, lifting her up, Father God.

In your son's name, Jesus, amen.

[Rosa] Amen.

Amen.

[Greg] It's going to be crazy because it's going to be

the first birthday that I've-I've had since I went,

you know, to prison.

[Rosa] Yeah.

So...

this-this should have never happened in the first place.

And now that you look at it from this side, um,

I just wonder where my life would have been

if I never went to prison, you know.

My hope was to go play for the NFL and, um,

that wasn't the plan for my life.

[Rosa] Yes.

[Greg] I could have quit and I could have--

went in there and I could have just, whatever, gave up.

[Rosa] Yeah.

And look where I'm at.

You know?

I'm here, eating dinner with you, you know.

I get to hop in my car and come see you, you know.

I get to work.

I get to live a life again, you know.

[Greg] Yeah, we survived.

And, you know, there was-- there was times, Mom,

where, you know, it's-- it wasn't very easy, you know.

Um, you know, when I-- when I would talk to you

and the family on the phone I would--

I would make sure to conduct myself in a way

that would give you guys a sense of peace,

thinking that I was safe, believing I was safe,

believing that-that-that there-- people in here

that were supporting me and this and that.

But the-the reality is, Mom, is that there were people in

there that hated me because of what I was in there for.

There was times in there where people would call me out,

you know, trying to see if I was tough or not.

There were times in there where, um,

I had to defend myself.

Uh, I did what I had to do and I just pretty much

just stopped the fight right there.

Um, I thank God, by God's grace, that I was--

I was never hurt badly, you know.

I was-- I was never stabbed.

I was never-- and that does happen to people in there

with my charge.

That's the reality of it.

[Greg] I don't want to ta-- I didn't-- I didn't want to

talk to my family about it... - But--

[Greg] ...because it's stuff that--

[Greg] Mm-hmm.

[Greg] Yeah.

[Greg] Yeah, I'm going to get another plate.

Okay? - Yes, Ma'am.

[kiss smack]

I'm going to get some of that dressing.

Improvements ahead for Cedar Park Police.

This comes one year after criticism about its handling

of the Greg Kelley sexual assault investigation.

In October, the City Council hired an outside company

to start reviewing the department's practices.

[female reporter] The consultants reviewed randomly

chosen cases, went on ride-alongs with officers,

and interviewed current and former employees.

City Council ordered the police review following

department criticism in the community.

I appreciate the opportunity

to come before you and share some thoughts

about what we learned during our assessment.

There are definitely areas where there are blind spots

and weaknesses and red flags for things that could be

done better at Cedar Park PD.

Now, again, these are generalizations based upon

looking at all 45 of those cases as a whole.

There were a number of those cases, to be quite candid,

that you could use as textbook examples of how to do

a criminal investigation.

They had these two super cops that reviewed everything

but the Greg Kelley case.

I don't think they mentioned Greg Kelley's name one time.

It's very clear to us that the Chief of Police

has huge internal and external support for what

he is trying to accomplish in terms of operational

improvements.

It's very clear that they're short-staffed there.

You've got one sergeant and seven detectives in there

that are handling approximately 1,600+ cases a year.

The question is: do they have the time to do the thorough

investigation they should and could be doing?

[Jake] We had a pretty good idea that it was going to be

a roundabout way to just kind of divert pressure.

And it turns out that that's exactly what it was.

We have, you know, open court testimony from multiple people

that this in-investigation was grossly incompetent.

To sit there and try to, in any way, justify that nonsense

was infuriating.

I've been part of this organization for 20 years.

And-and I don't think this statement will--

has changed in 20 years, that public safety is a priority

in our community.

And I think we take that role very seriously.

Um, I have-have confidence in Chief Mannix and-and his team

that they will be able to-to implement those

recommendations and the changes that are called for

and-and necessary.

And, Chief, I don't know if you have anything to

add to that, but I think you do.

[laughter]

[Sean] Indeed I do.

Thank you, City Manager, uh, Evans.

I appreciate opp-- appreciate the opportunity to share my,

uh, comments and thoughts with you tonight.

The one thing you never hear from me, uh, is excuses

because the good, the bad or the ugly, the buck st--

the buck stops here as it relates to the Cedar Park

Police Department.

Not only will the implementation of those, uh,

recommendations, uh, you know, help modernize and make us

a-a-a better department, but it'll make us an innovative,

uh, department.

We're-- we'll end up being a model to other agencies

for having made, uh, this investment.

I don't need a study to tell me what

the citizens that live here were telling me,

because I heard it from-- straight from their mouth.

At the end of the day, it's all about trust.

And one-one of the things I hope we can just do the

whole time we're working on any of this, not just the police,

is that we really learn how to do things that make us

trust each other more

and stop doing things that make us trust each other less.

That's one thing that will make this city even greater,

you know, is-is-is that trust.

I really appreciate everything everybody did on this.

And, uh, man, it was a really positive experience.

Thank you.

As they were sitting there joking with each other

and having a jolly old time, it was very clear that

they felt like the public was dumb enough to buy it.

The Cedar Park City Council is absolutely trying to

sweep this under the rug.

[Greg] I wish that they could just have a conviction

in their heart to know what they did to a high-school kid.

I believe it was totally incompetent and I-I know they

knew what they were doing.

But they simply didn't care.

And to-- still to this day, I-I believe they don't care.

No heads will roll.

No.

That's-that's the way it is.

You're not going to win.

You can't sue the police department and win.

You can't sue the prosecutors because they've got immunity.

You can't sue the judges.

They have even stronger immunity.

So--

This is the recourse: get him exonerated.

And compensate him for the time we took away from him.

[dog barking]

These are cards that I couldn't change

that were dealt to me in my life.

I can't.

You know, like it-it happened.

So when something happens that you don't like,

what do you do then?

Do you sit around complaining and kick circles?

No, you don't do that.

Most people do that.

But I don't do that.

I choose not to do that.

I choose to take another road.

And I had to do that every day, waking up,

because I'm already waking up in a place that I don't want

to be in that is completely depressing.

Every day I wake up to these freaking bars.

And, um...

I just-- I just-- I had to ask myself:

why can't I just wake up and go play football?

But instead I had to see those bars.

And if it's not anything, it's those bars that remind you

that you're locked up every day.

And those thoughts decide to-to-to dwell in.

You know, I don't know where I'm going to be two or three

years from now in my life, you know.

I don't even know if I'm going to be exonerated yet.

So I'm kind of just acting on faith a little bit, you know.

I'm living every day,

day for day,

putting my trust in God

and fighting for what I believe in.

But as far as my freedom,

I don't have freedom.

You know?

I don't have the freedom to start long-term goals.

I don't have that, because I simply don't know where

I'm going to be in six months.

Mm-hmm.

Running?

No, not at all.

I, uh, I've always believed that home is where

my family's at.

And if I ever thought about running,

then that would mean that I'd be leaving my family,

all of my family.

If you run, it's kind of indicating that you're-you're

afraid and you fear that you have--

you're going to go back.

And I just continue to tell myself every day, you know:

we've come this far and I've got to continue to have faith

that this is all going to work out.

[crosstalk and cheers]

Ever since I got out of prison,

I was just longing for an opportunity.

I was waiting for something that I love, something that

I have a passion for, to present itself to me.

So it all started when my brother Aldo told me that,

"Hey, man, there's a guy named Jeremy Hills.

He trains the UT alumni guys and the NFL free agents.

And, uh, he would like to meet you."

My name is Jeremy Hills

and I'm the Director of Sports Performance here at ONNIT.

And, uh, for a living I get a chance to train with

some of the best athletes in the world,

um, professional athletes.

We-we really have a combined group that we bring all

throughout the NFL.

We've got the NFL, NBA, MLB,

just pro athletes all the way across.

And, uh, they come here and they trust us

to help them get better.

Two, two, one, one.

Greg's brother was telling me that, you know--

about his situation and about him before this whole

ordeal happened,

how he was a big-time high-school football player.

And, you know, everybody's always bragging on:

yeah, I got this nephew or I got this cousin or whatever.

But when I-- when I-- when I seen him I was like, well,

damn, he looks good.

You know what?

Come by the facility.

Let's-let's just see.

And, uh, then he asked me the question

if I wanted to ever play football again.

It's a question I've been waiting for for a long time.

You know, I've always had a dream of playing for

University of Texas.

I told him I would really hope and I would really appreciate

if I could run out on field as a Longhorn.

That is the plan.

I thought that was a-a bit bold, you know,

to say the least, like you can just walk on at UT.

I played at UT.

So, uh, I seen the talent that was kind of

expected to be there.

I haven't touched a field in four years,

you know.

And I have-- I haven't done anything that

had anything to do with football,

drills and training, in four years.

Like I'm over here, like nervous.

Like I don't want to make a fool of myself.

[crosstalk]

[low dramatic music]

[Greg] I pray about it.

I'm like: you know what?

I'm going to show up and just-just show them my heart.

I might not be the best one there but, uh,

these guys are not going to outwork me today.

So then I gave him the opportunity to back it up.

A couple of-- couple of NFL talent guys in there are

working and getting better.

And-and, shoot, I'll throw Greg right in the mix with them.

I-I'm-I'm not holding back.

It's like: you want to play at this level,

then you need to learn how to work, how they work.

It only takes maybe-maybe an hour, not even a day,

maybe an hour, before you realize:

oh, shit, I'm not ready for this.

[crosstalk]

Guys, let's go.

All right, guys, ready?

Three, two, one, here we go!

[treadmill noise]

[low inspirational music]

[Jeremy] And it punched him in the stomach the first time.

The very first time he showed up I could tell

it was different.

Then he showed up the next day.

Then he showed up early the third day.

He's been early every day since.

And now here he is.

You look at them, you look at him:

you tell me the difference.

[low inspirational music]

[trainer] Let's go.

One more, one more.

Let's go, let's go.

Here we go.

Nice work.

[Greg] Watch out, it's coming down.

[MJ] Yes, sir.

Good work.

I think he's right on track, I mean,

especially with his story.

Uh, you see him today, you know.

He's keeping up with everybody, lifting the same weight as I am.

And I'm a tight end and he's a DB, so that's very, very

impressive on his end.

That just tells me I need to pick it up a notch.

[Greg] You know, this opportunity is literally an

opportunity of a lifetime for me right now.

I'm not getting younger.

I'm 23 years old.

I have to take advantage of every little thing that I get.

And I have to literally work my butt off again

to get what I love.

Right now for him to realistically have a chance

to walk onto UT, I mean first he'd have--

he will have to be fully exonerated.

And then once that process is done, then he'll have to be

able to be admitted to the university

and then get the opportunity to go try out

for the walk-on squad.

I think everything outside of trying out

for the walk-on squad, that's the tough part.

When it comes to him actually getting to those tryouts,

I'm betting all my money on it.

[Greg] Now I'm just waiting to get exonerated

so I can just put these wheels into motion.

I would really be grateful for anything,

that I could just play the f-- game of football again.

[soft dramatic music]

After this first happened to me, you kind of just lose

trust in the judicial system.

And you lose trust in law enforcement.

And it's like you ask this question again like:

can this happen again?

You know?

Like is there something going on behind the scenes that

I don't know about and my family and my supporters

and my fighters don't know about?

Is it political?

You know?

And somebody's-- somebody had their hand in this, you know?

And that's what I fear the most, is that if somebody

has their hand in this and somebody does something

totally unethical that I go back because of that.

[Shawn] Before Greg Kelley was released from jail,

uh, Ranger Mitchell did have,

um-- he requested some search warrants.

So it was only after the search warrants became public

that I saw the allegations.

I was blindsided, as we all were,

uh, when the ranger filed that search warrant.

It made a big splash in the news.

[male reporter] New evidence is emerging, broadening the

lens around Greg Kelley.

[female reporter] Now we are learning new information

from the Texas Ranger's investigation that keeps...

[male reporter] The search warrants paint a darker

picture of Kelley, revealing evidence taken from his

cell phone and his computer.

[Keith] The search warrant affidavit is a 180 from what

this ranger, uh, testified to.

I would be scared to death to think that

I could be-- end up in the same position with no evidence

whatsoever and no investigation done

and be convicted of something that I may or may not have done.

[Keith] He's practically exonerating Greg.

And then just two weeks later, this guy is a secret monster.

It was just very shocking.

[male reporter] Greg Kelley, according to the warrant,

spent hours alone with children at the daycare

where he lived.

[female reporter] Rangers say Kelley's pattern of viewing

pornography became suspicious.

[male reporter] He engaged in what the warrants called

high-risk sexual behavior by meeting other people through

a website that connects adults looking for sexual activity.

I, along with everybody else,

took a big step back and-and thought:

wow, maybe we really didn't know him after all.

My God.

We were done with the writ hearing.

We had all the information we needed to, um,

figure out the answers on the defendant's writ.

And I think what Ranger Mitchell was doing as a

secondary investigation was trying to go back

and see if he could solve the crime.

[Keith] And what this ranger did was he first tried

to get the judge to sign the search warrant

based on this affidavit.

She said, "You need to run it by Shawn,"

which he hadn't.

So he finds Shawn and downplays it with him.

The way it was presented to me was that these

were just sort of routine run-of-the-mill search warrants,

that he was, uh, looking for information regarding,

you know, Greg's phone, Johnathan's phone.

And so it was presented to me in a-- in a way that

made it seem like it was very innocuous.

He says, "Oh, ok-- you just want to do some more searches?

Sure.

That's fine with me."

And so she-- he goes back and she gets--

and lends the judge the impression that he's

down with all of it.

So she's like, "Okay."

So she signs it.

I found out from the media the next day, um,

that Ranger Mitchell had filed some search warrants that

had a lot of information in it.

By making those kinds of details public

and by putting it forward in an affidavit,

you're-you're trying to sway public opinion

one way or the other.

And I was disappointed that-that we chose the--

we-- the-the ranger chose to, um--

the timing of-of the search warrant.

Certainly, we had that information earlier.

He could have requested that search warrant earlier,

before the hearing.

[Keith] "My belief is based on the following facts."

And-and he'd list what he claims are facts.

"I, Cody Mitchell, hereafter referred to as the Affiant,

a peace officer employed by the Texas Department

of Public Safety, Texas Rangers Division,

do solemnly swear that I have reason to believe

and do believe that electronic customer data

held in storage by Adult Friend Finder

constitutes evidence of the offense of aggravated

sexual assault of a child."

Adult Friend Finder.

Well, I investigated.

I went to Adult Friend Finder [laughs].

I checked using the ranger's own handles that he says here.

The third one is Greg, G-R-E-G,

R as in Raymond,

Kelley, K-E-L-L-E-Y,

and the number 3.

So Greg R--

Yes sir.

I had them go through their database for all four.

They reported back to me both verbally and in writing

they have no such records.

He was not ever a member of Adult Friend Finder.

[Greg] I remember one time, man, where he started

talking about my phone history.

And he started talking about Adult Friend Finder to me.

And I was like, "Man, I've never been on that website.

I've never been on that website.

I've never used it."

He starts getting very, very angry like-like--

because he's not-- he-he's not--

he's not getting out of me what he wants.

And he says, "You know what, Greg?"

And then he told me this, and I've told you this before.

He said, "You know, the higher you can get, Greg,

the harder you're going to fall."

That's what he said.

And I'm like: what does that even mean?

You know?

What are you trying to imply?

That's-- to me it's like all this is going in my favor,

the truth is finally coming out,

he's not liking it,

he's trying to ride the fence,

and it seems like the higher I'm getting,

he's going to find something to smash me into the ground.

[male reporter] According to the warrant,

there is discussion that Greg Kelley in fact had a

photograph of himself with this young boy,

this four-year-old boy that he was later convicted

of-of sexually molesting.

There is a photo.

The only selfie is the one with him and Gaebri

and not CV1.

It's a different child.

[Greg] Who initiated the selfie?

So it was just like-- and take a picture all of us.

And I remember Parker is just smiling just huge.

Yeah.

[Greg] Yeah.

It's the only one I can think of.

It's the only one.

Why would I take a picture with a kid?

[Keith] "The Affiant believes to a high degree of probability

that during the 2013 to 2014 time period,

Kelley was displaying undeniable indicators

of being a sexually motivated high-risk threat

and was in need of help and guidance

to understand his feelings and control his urges."

I assure you no cop has ever written a paragraph

like this to get a search warrant.

Dr. Freud here has appeared:

Greg looked at porn sites--

probably a child molester.

Well, there-there are millions of American males

who are not child molesters but they've looked at naked women.

I think that was whenever-- that was--

that was during the polygraph.

That was the polygraph day.

[crosstalk]

[officer] Y'all need anything?

Do you need to go to the bathroom or anything?

[Cody] No, I'm fine right now.

Yeah, I've passed every question but one.

Yeah, if I stuck my-my penis in the kid's mouth.

There was, um, based on the report from-from

Ranger Mitchell, uh, there was a polygraph given where there

was some deception indicated.

It does complicate things, because I think in the court

of public opinion, polygraphs carry a lot of weight.

Polygraphs are not really used in prosecution

to discover the truth.

They're-they're a tool, an investigative tool,

that's used to see if you can get, um, someone in an

interview to change their story

or give you more details of their story.

Do I get angry when I talk about it?

Yes, I do, because I have to keep on talking.

I have to explain, when all I want to do is get on a

mountain, shout that I'm-- I didn't do it.

[Cody] Yeah.

You know?

That's not enough.

You know?

Um...

yeah.

[Cody] I want to say that's where [unintelligible].

It just makes me angry, man, when-when, uh,

when I get told-- when I get told--

when I get asked over and over again if I did this,

I don't want to answer anymore.

I'm sick and tired of it.

I've got to do it, though.

[Keith] He was there for hours.

I don't really remember how-how long,

but it was a long time.

Ranger, I'm-I'm angry.

I'm-I'm tired.

I'm cold.

I mean I didn't eat.

I don't-- I don't know what the--

what the explanation is here.

[Cody] I know.

And I don't-- I don't know why this is happening to me.

I texted the ranger: "Shut this down now,"

you know.

It-it was an in-your-face message.

And he wasn't.

And so I got a hold of the Sheriff and they shut it down.

And I'm very glad I did.

I'm sorry Greg had to go through that.

[Shawn] And then, uh, you know, Keith Hampton,

the defense lawyer for-for Greg Kelley,

has his own polygraph done.

Greg passed my polygraph.

My guy taught the guy, the ranger had administered it.

Polygraphs are not admissible in a court of law,

um, in-in any-- in any jurisdiction I'm aware of

in Texas, for sure.

And there's a reason they're not admissible.

Y-you really don't expect

a-a ranger to go to this length

of completely false assertions.

So, um, I don't know.

That's a better question for the-- whether there's

false or misleading information in that, um, affidavit

is a better question for the Texas Rangers.

[Greg] It feels like I'm-I'm just being accused all over

again and they're not trying to prove anything.

So I have no idea what his motive is,

and it freaks me out.

Because I know one thing:

Chris Dailey was never even like that.

Chris Dailey was either against me or for me.

And this dude was full-on against me.

Right?

And you know what?

I can come to terms with that,

because I know why he's doing it.

I don't know why the Texas Ranger's doing this.

I don't.

Some investigators, the way that they attack

an investigation is to treat each suspect

as the target of the investigation.

It may be an investigative technique that Ranger Mitchell's

looking at doing in terms of:

okay, let me treat him like he is the primary suspect

and let's see what happens.

So, I'm not really being in Cody's mind,

in the Texas Ranger's mind,

that may have been what he was trying to do.

After all of this,

I go back to get Greg

a-a-and-and walk him out of that jail.

And then Greg comes out, and I look over.

In a black truck is this ranger with this big smile

on his face.

And I just went: this is-- what are-- for--

what are you doing here was my feeling, pretty hostile.

And there he is, big grin on his face, and waves at me.

What the ranger did--

this was a drive-by character assassination of Greg Kelley.

The judge found Greg to be credible.

She found him to be innocent.

She read that entire search warrant affidavit.

And, uh, so it meant nothing to the judge.

It meant nothing to the DA's Office.

And it meant nothing to me.

It does mean something to Greg because there will always

be a doubt with somebody out there.

The ranger has had a y-- we're at a year and a half.

I don't think we're ever going to see a report

from this ranger.

He-- nothing?

A year and a half?

No.

[Greg] Ideally, I need this as soon as possible

because football's hanging on a thread right now.

And, um, I can't do the things that I've been training

my butt off for unless [laughs],

this happens.

Um, I kind of feel like I'm really anchored down.

But I need this to happen within the next two months,

you know, three months.

[Keith] Greg Kelley's case,

the journey of his case,

has been unique and unprecedented at every stage.

No one would have anticipated the various events

that have already occurred in this case.

My worry as I sit here right now is the dark scenario

of another opportunity to make another go at Greg Kelley.

The idea that this could all be swept away, uh,

from him because of the forces that are allied against him

at the Court of Criminal Appeals is unthinkable.

But I have to think about it:

how could we be defeated?

How could this all be taken away from him?

And I hate to say it, but it is in fact possible.

♪ dramatic music ♪

♪