How Could You? Hall of Shame-Richard and Cynthia Kelly UPDATED now Lawsuit

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Helena,Alabama, adoptive parents Richard and Cynthia Kelly “have been charged with aggravated child abuse – a Class B felony. Bond for each is set at $1 million.”

“A 14-year-old boy weighing around 55 pounds is fighting for his life after spending much of the past two years locked in the basement of his Alabama home.

Authorities in Shelby County said the child, who has not been named, is in critical condition at an undisclosed hospital, Al.com reports.

He weighs less than half of what a boy his age should weigh, according to authorities.”

“The couple is accused of denying food, nourishment and medical care to the boy, who was ‘subjected to forced isolation for extended periods of time,’ according to the arrest warrants.

Helena police began investigating on Sunday when they were notified of the boy’s arrival at the hospital.

Authorities said the boy’s parents took him to hospital when his condition deteriorated.

‘It’s the worst case of neglect that I have ever seen,’ police chief Pete Folmar said.

The couple have another adopted child, but at 19, she is legally an adult. She lives in the same home but is fine, according to Al.com.

The investigation is ongoing. ”
Boy, 14, weighing just 55lbs is in critical condition after being locked for two years in the basement of his Alabama home

[Daily Mail 11/15/16 by Khaleda Rahman]

““Doctors noted the child was severely, chronically malnourished, dehydrated, suffering from acute respiratory distress, shock, hypothermia, hypothyroid and that he was close to death. The child remains gravely ill at this time and faces a long and difficult recovery and an uncertain prognosis,” Helena police Chief Pete Folmar said.

The boy’s adoptive parents, Richard and Cynthia Kelly, were taken into custody Sunday and charged Monday with aggravated child abuse.

The boy was was not enrolled in Shelby County Schools, and authorities were told he was homeschooled.

Representatives with the Alabama Department of Human Resources said they have not received any reports on this child before.”

Shelby County teen ‘close to death’ after being isolated in basement[WVTM13 11/15/16 by Patrick Pierce]

REFORM Puzzle Piece

Update:“Richard and Cynthia Kelly, arrested in November in conjunction with the forced isolation of their 14-year-old son, appeared before a Shelby County judge Wednesday where attorneys argued for a lower bond according to Carol Robinson. Judge Daniel Crowson denied the request stating there was enough evidence to send the case to a grand jury for indictment consideration.

An investigation began when Helena police were notified by hospital staff through DHR of the teenager’s arrival at the hospital. His parents took him to the hospital when his condition worsened.

The couple is accused of denying food, nourishment and medical care, after being isolated for extended periods of time, according to arrest warrants. Police said the isolation was disciplinary in nature. Doctors said he was severely and chronically malnourished, dehydrated, suffering from acute respiratory distress, shock, hypothermia, hypothyroid and close to death. He weighed just 47 pounds when he entered the medical facility.

Two others were living in the house, but police said they will not be charged. The two other adults are 19 and 21, and one is the adopted daughter of Richard and Cynthia Kelly.

The 14-year-old adopted son has since been released from the hospital, and is in the care of a therapeutic foster home.

The Kelly’s lawyers claim the bond set is much too high, and is 30 times the legal maximum in this case.

“There are people bonded out in Shelby County on murder cases for less than that,” attorney Barry Alvis said, who represents Cynthia Kelly.”

Foster parents of teen found malnourished in a basement denied lower bond[Trussville Tribune 2/8/17 by Chris Yow]

Update 2:“A trial date was set on Tuesday for the Helena Couple accused of severely abusing their adopted teenager.

The trial of Richard and Cynthia Kelly was tentatively scheduled to begin April 8th in a Shelby County courtroom.

Helena Police say the Kelly’s forced their adopted teenager to spend 23 hours a day locked in a basement where he received only one meal a day. The teen was discovered by police in November 2016 weighing only 55 pounds. Helena Police Chief Pete Folmar called it at the time the worst case of neglect he has ever seen.

Court records show in December 2018 the couple invoked their 5th amendment rights in a child support lawsuit filed against them by the Shelby County Department of Human Resources. The department was seeking child support and medical bill payments from the couple for their adopted son.

The couple has been free on bond while awaiting trial. ”

Trial date set for Helena foster parents accused of starving adopted teen

“A Helena couple charged with aggravated family child abuse after allegedly torturing, willfully abusing and maltreating their 14-year-old adopted son will have a new jury trial date, according to an order filed in Shelby County Circuit Court.

Richard Hobson Kelly and Cynthia Rogers Kelly, who both list an address in the …. in Helena, were originally set to stand trial on the abuse charges in front of Circuit Court Judge William Bostick beginning on April 8.

The case has since been removed from the trial docket after an order was filed on March 18 by Bostick, citing the court did not anticipate reaching the case for jury trial the week of April 8. The case now remains set for jury trial during the week of May 13.

The Kelly’s were arrested on Nov. 14, 2016 by the Helena Police Department and Shelby County Sheriff’s Office and charged with one count each of aggravated family child abuse.

According to their indictments filed in April 2017, the Kelly’s allegedly, “Did on or between November 1, 2014, to November 12, 2016, torture, willfully abuse, cruelly beat, or otherwise willfully maltreat said child over the period of two years to a closed off room in the basement with a locked door for 23 hours a day with limited to no access to social interaction; further, that was only allowed a box spring to sleep on; further, that was only fed one meal a day and that food and nourishment was withheld to the point that the victim was admitted on the date of Nov. 12, 2016, to the hospital suffering from extreme malnourishment, shock, hypothermia and dehydration to the point of near death and presented with abrasions on his knees, lips, ears and ankles, did such act which caused serious physical injury.”

At a press conference held at Helena City Hall on Nov. 15, 2016 Helena Police Chief Pete Folmar thanked the officers and investigators involved with the case and said, “For many of them, this is the most disturbing case that they have seen in their careers.”

After spending more than seven months in the Shelby County Jail, the Kelly’s were released on July 5, 2017 after Bostick granted an order to amend their bail from $1 million to $100,000 apiece.

Aggravated family child abuse is a Class B felony, and is punishable by up to 20 years in prison upon conviction, according to Alabama law.”

Jury trial rescheduled for Helena couple charged with aggravated child abuse

[Shelby County Reporter 3/26/19 by Graham Brooks]

Update 3:“The adoptive parents of a young Shelby County boy reportedly kept alone in a concrete basement for an average of 23 hours a day have pleaded guilty to reduced charges.

Richard and Cynthia Kelly, ages 60 and 50, entered guilty pleas on Monday, according to prosecutors and court records made public Tuesday. The couple was originally arrested in 2016 and held on $1 million each before eventually getting out of jail on bond in 2017.

Both were charged with aggravated child abuse of the then 14-year-old boy.

Jury selection was to begin on Monday, after multiple continuations of the trial, and instead they entered guilty pleas to child abuse. Aggravated child abuse is a Class B felony, and child abuse is a Class C felony.

Prosecutors suggest the maximum sentence for the couple – 10 years with two years and a day to – serve. Attorneys for the husband and wife made application for probation.

Shelby County Circuit Judge William H. Bostick ordered a pre-sentence investigation and set sentencing for Feb. 24, 2020.

The plight of the young teen came to light the weekend of Nov. 12, 2016 when the boy was taken to Children’s of Alabama. Helena Police Chief Pete Folmar later testified the then-14-year-old boy weighed 47 pounds when he arrived at the hospital.

He was described by doctors as severely and chronically malnourished, dehydrated, suffering from acute respiratory distress, shock, hypothermia, hypothyroid and close to death. Pictures taken at the hospital of the boy showed pressure sores on his legs. He was also placed on a ventilator for about a week to help him breathe.

His adoptive parents two days later were charged with aggravated child abuse and booked into the Shelby County Jail.

According to the arrest warrants for the parents, the couple was accused of denying food, nourishment and medical care to the boy, who was “subjected to forced isolation for extended period of time.” Authorities have said that “isolation” was disciplinary in nature. There were no signs, however, the boy was handcuffed, chained or restrained.

Neither Richard nor Cynthia Kelly, who had lived in Helena for about 20 years, showed any previous criminal record in Alabama. Richard Kelly worked in the computer technology field but had been unemployed for several weeks at the time of his arrest. Cynthia Kelly was a stay-at-home mother who home-schooled her adopted children.

In a 2017 hearing in the case, it was revealed that they received $500 a month from the state through DHR to help take care of their son. Adopted children may receive an adoption subsidy if they meet the special needs criteria. This is paid by the federal Department of Health and Human Services and distributed to the family by Alabama DHR.

The young teen, after being released from the hospital, was placed in a therapeutic foster home, where other family says he has done well. A therapeutic foster home caters to the physical, emotional and social needs of children with emotional challenges.

The police in the earlier hearing testifed that Richard Kelly took his adopted son, referred to in court only as “EK,” to Shelby Baptist Medical Center that November Sunday morning, saying he had been ill for about a week. Within hours of their arrival, the boy was airlifted to Children’s of Alabama, where doctors told investigators “EK” would have likely been dead within three more hours.

The boy’s body temperature upon arrival at Children’s was 86 degrees. “The doctor said that was not a sufficient body temperature to sustain life,” Folmar testified.

The chief also testified to the conditions in which “EK” was kept. The basement room had concrete floors, a box-spring, blanket and pillow as well as a hanging strip of fly paper and an Algebra textbook. The teen’s clothing was kept in a plastic, three-drawer unit which contained a few shirts, pants and diapers.

There were locks on the outside of the doors, Folmar testified, and a video surveillance camera that had one time been trained on the box-springs and used to keep an eye on the teen, and his older brother who also had been previously locked in the basement, according to testimony.

Though the camera was no longer functional, Folmar said, but Richard Kelly told the chief they made “EK” think it still worked and that they were watching his behavior. Folmar testified that the boy was fed once a day and fed food other than what the rest of the family was eating.

Cynthia Kelly told police “EK” had behavior issues and had threatened to harm the family. The parents said they kept him locked in the basement so that he wouldn’t break things throughout the house or damage their belongings. “If I didn’t do that,” she told the chief, “he would get out and break things.”

She also told investigators they monitored his food intake because otherwise he would over-eat. Folmar testified that Cynthia Kelly told them that when “EK” was allowed out of the basement, his presence with the rest of the family agitated her Labrador retriever and it would “turn the house into a circus.”

The chief said he asked Cynthia Kelly if she had sought professional help in dealing with “EK”‘s behavioral issues and she indicated to him that “no one believed them.” “I’ll be honest with you,” she told the chief, “We just got tired of it.”

The teen’s biological brother, Eddie Carter, spoke extensively with AL.com shortly after the couple’s arrest. He says he suffered the same neglect, abuse and despair at the hands of Richard and Cynthia Kelly. He said he was kept in the basement for weeks and months at a time.

“You’re down there and nobody knows you’re down there except the people in the house,” Carter told AL.com. “It’s up to those people to make sure everything’s going to be all right and it’s not all right and you’re kinda lost. You sit in the corner and weigh out what means the most. It was horrible. Horrific.

“It gets to that point where you’re like an animal,” Carter said. “You feel like an animal.””

Shelby County couple pleads guilty in horrific abuse case of adoptive son kept in basement

[Al.com 12/10/19 by Carol Robinson]

Update 4:“An Alabama teen is suing his adopted parents, who both pleaded guilty to felony child abuse earlier this month.

The lawsuit was filed on the boy’s behalf by the boy’s older brother, Eddie Carter, who lives in Arizona, WBRC reported. The lawsuit filed against Richard and Cynthia Kelly seeks compensatory damage. The Kellys will be sentenced in February. Prosecutors are seeking 10 years plus time served, while the defense seeks probation, WBRC reported.

The Kellys are accused of locking the boy, then 14, in a basement room for 23 hours per day and feeding him only once a day. When discovered by authorities, the boy was said to be just hours from death, weighing 47 pounds and registering a body temperature of 85 degrees, WBRC reported.

Attorney Roger Appell told WBRC that the boy is in foster care, where he continues to recover from the traumatic experience.”

Adopted son sues parents accused of locking him in basement for 23 hours per day

[Kiro 7 12/27/19 by Joy Johnston]

Update 5:“The sentencing date for a Helena couple who pleaded guilty to aggravated child abuse has been set for June 4.

Richard and Cynthia Kelly pleaded guilty back in December 2019 to holding their 14-year-old adopted son in a basement and starving him.

The Kellys were arrested in November 2016 after their son was admitted to the hospital. The Helena Police Department reported the child weighed 55 pounds and was kept in isolation for an extended period of time. Investigators also said the child was suffering from shock and hypothermia.

The sentencing hearing for the Kellys had been scheduled for February of this year before the coronavirus pandemic forced courts to stop hearing cases. ”

Sentencing hearing set for Helena couple charged with aggravated child abuse
[CBS42 5/25/2020 by Phil Pinarski]

Update 6: “Richard and Cynthia Kelly, the Helena foster parents who plead guilty in December to abusing their starving son by keeping him locked in a basement room were sentenced to ten years in prison but will only have to serve two years as part of a previously arranged plea deal.

The verdict was handed down Thursday evening following six-hours of testimony. The sentencing hearing saw the family members back together in the same room again nearly four years to the day the Kelly’s son was admitted to Shelby Baptist Medical Center severely malnourished and nearly dead according to doctors.

Helena Police Department Detective Sean Boczar began the hearing by testifying how for roughly two years until their arrest in November 2016, the Kelly’s kept their 14-year-old adopted son locked in a room in the basement nearly 23-hours a day.

Pictures presented in the hearing revealed the prison-like living conditions. The bare room featured locks, a camera, alarm system and a lone box spring where the boy slept. Boczar burst into tears when asked about the dark stained curtains covering the closed window. The detective said the curtains were the only thing the boy had to dry his hands.

The victim, who is now 18-years-old testified, at the sentencing hearing. ABC 33/40 News is not reporting the victim’s name. The boy claimed the abuse at the hands of the Kelly’s began after the couple gave up custody of his older biological brother whom they had also adopted.

“I cried every night praying for Jesus to end it all,” he testified.

The victim said vacations and trips to restaurants were a welcome break from the physical and mental abuse he claimed he endured beginning at seven-years-old.

“I lived the story of Cinderella with no happy ending,”

The story of horrors came to light four years ago when Richard Kelly brought the boy to Shelby County Baptist Medical Center weighing only 55 pounds. “You just struggle to wrap your head around it,” said Helena Police Chief Pete Folmar at the time. The 20-year law enforcement veteran who is now retired called it then one of the worst cases of neglect he had ever seen.

Dr. Melissa Peters, Medical Director of Physical Abuse Services at Children’s of Alabama’s CHIPS Center testified the boy had a body temperature only in the high 80’s when he was admitted, significantly lower than the standard temperature of 98.6 degrees.

“It was exceedingly severe and frankly on the verge of death…his body was failing in all the essentials ways to keep him alive,” Peters said.

Pictures showed the boy in his hospital bed with scrapes and lesions on his knees. Peters testified the lesions were consistent with pressure injuries. The boy testified his parents had strapped him to a chair at times with cables.

Richard and Cynthia Kelly both took the stand and denied ever physically abusing their son. The two admitted the boy and his older brother, whom they adopted through Lifeline Children’s Services, had been difficult to raise.

The couple said the boy became even more difficult to handle after the Kelly’s gave up custody of his older brother. The Kelly’s claimed their youngest son destroyed his possessions which is why police found his room bare.

“You just want to say, ‘I’m sorry this happened,'” said Richard Kelly before breaking into tears on the stand.

The Kelly’s had another child Tamara Kelly who they adopted when she was two months old and were also watching another young man who had been abandoned by his parents. Prosecutors said the living conditions for these two children were significantly different. Kelly was active in cheerleading and family pictures of the girl were present across the house. The girl also denied seeing her brother abused and supported her parent’s claim her brother was not well-behaved and destroyed his belonging.

Assistant Shelby County District Attorney Daniel McBrayer noted how police investigators found presents to the two children and family dog but none for the

“They sought out to have these children and then appeared to not want them once they had them. It’s incredibly frustrating that this is the way this ended.”

Judge Bill Bostick sentenced the couple to a ten-year split sentence with two years to serve. The sentence was the maximum allowed as part of a plea agreement made by prosecutors in December which allowed the couple to plead down from Aggravated Child Abuse to Child Abuse. The victim testified he had told prosecutors at the time he did not want to testify or see his parents in prison.

The victim’s views had clearly changed by Thursday’s hearing. Defense attorney’s openly questioned whether a civil suit filed against the Kelly’s by the boy’s older brother had swayed his desire to see his parents in prison.

“You’ve come to the right place,” said Bostic, directly addressing the boy’s desire from the bench before handing down his sentence.

The judge made clear he wished he could have handed down a significantly harsher sentence of 20 years to life in prison if he was able.

“I do accept —– had problems but parents are supposed to treat problems not ignore them,” Bostick said.

The Kelly’s were immediately taken into custody to begin their two-year sentence. The couple will serve three years probation following their release and are permanently barred from ever serving as foster parents or from adopting a child. The couple will each also have to pay a $10,000 fine and court costs.

“We hope that this brings him some solace,” said McBrayer about the 18-year-old boy who ultimately testified. “We hope that going forward that people listen when he makes a complain of things that happen and that the world cares about him even when he was forgotten.””

Starved teen locked in Helena basement gives horrifying testimony at parent’s sentencing
[ABC 3340 11/12/2020 by Stephen Quinn]