GEORGETOWN, Texas -- The trial for a former Leander High School football player is underway. Greg Kelley, 18, is charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault and two counts of indecency with a child. The alleged victims are two 4-year-old boys.
Officers arrested Kelley in August, then a second boy came forward with similar claims of sexual assault. Police say it happened at an in-home day care where Kelley lived at the time. On the first day of testimony Tuesday, one of the alleged victim's mothers took the stand.
Dozens of his peers sat behind the former football star wearing red and blue ribbons for Leander's school colors.
"Sexual assault is not something anybody would take lightly, nor I," said the mother of the first alleged victim. KVUE is choosing not to reveal the mother's identity to protect the identity of the alleged victims.
She testified that when her son made the outcry, she started asking questions.
"I was very emotional, you know, you don't expect your 4-year-old to say something like that to you," she said. "So I kept, I know I asked him a little bit more. How many times did it happen? I asked where Mrs. Shama and Mrs. Rosa were. "
Police say it happened last summer when Kelley lived with a friend, whose family ran an in-home day care in Cedar Park.
His attorneys say he stayed there because his father had a stroke and his mother had a brain tumor, so he moved in with a friend to finish out his senior year.
"This was about a year ago. It was mid-July last year. That's an innocent statement by a 4-year-old," said prosecutor Sunday Austin.
In opening statements, prosecutors told the jury the first boy told his mother that Kelley exposed himself and made the boy touch him, even forcing him to perform oral sex.
"The child stays steadfast. He keeps the same events," Austin told the jury. "He never waivers as to who did this to him."
"False accusations are created by adults and carried by children," said defense attorney Patricia Cummings in her opening statement.
Cummings argued investigators led those statements.
"Investigators did everything they could to confirm that Greg had sexually abused this 4-year-old," she claimed.
Cummings also described Kelley as a leader with a promising future. It's one reason his friends and family are taking to social media with the hashtag #prayforGK, saying the allegations can't be true.
Kelley pleaded not guilty to all charges. This week, testimony is expected from the children who are now 5 years nold. They will be questioned in another room via closed circuit TV.
