July 5, 2013<\/p>\n
\u201cRALEIGH \u2013 During a hearing at the state Court of Appeals, Chief Judge Gerald Arnold repeatedly asked a state prosecutor about the fairness of testimony by (Bob) Kelly’s former attorney in Edenton. Arnold said the attorney had, in effect, testified that he believed in Kelly’s innocence until he learned his child had been abused.<\/p>\n
\u201c \u2018How can you argue that it was not extremely prejudicial?\u2019 the judge asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cAssociate Attorney General Ellen Scouten argued that Chris Bean did not divulge confidential information and did not violate an attorney-client relationship with Kelly. She said Bean testified as a parent and a crime victim.<\/p>\n
\u201cArnold said Bean, now a district court judge, had gone beyond describing what he had seen and witnessed as a parent.<\/p>\n
\u201c \u2018This boils down to the most fundamental questions of fairness,\u2019 Arnold said. \u2018When you have an attorney testifying that \u201cI was Mr. Kelly’s attorney and I believed in him very strongly until I learned the truth, that is to say that he’s guilty, and then I was shattered.\u201d How can there be more prejudicial, stronger evidence put before a jury than to have a former attorney, the defendant’s attorney say that?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cScouten said that because the defense had contended that accusers in Edenton were hysterical people on a witch hunt it was fair to allow the state to show the type of people involved.<\/p>\n
\u201c \u2018Mr. Bean and his wife were reputable, respected thoughtful, educated people \u2013 not the type of people that would be swept up by community hysteria,\u2019 she said.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2013 From \u201cAppeal of 2 defendants in Little Rascals case draws a crowd\u201d\u00a0in the News & Observer (Jan. 10, 1995)<\/em><\/p>\n Given this line of questioning, it came as no great surprise when four months later the Court of Appeals overturned the convictions of both Kelly and Dawn Wilson.<\/p>\n Bean\u2019s unfettered opinionating was only one of three major defects cited by the court, the others being the withholding of exculpatory evidence by prosecutors and the testimony of parents as expert witnesses.<\/p>\n