Tuesday, March 02, 1999
Jury out in minister's sex-abuse retrial
Who's telling truth: father or daughter?
BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — Afterfive days of testimony, a Butler County Common Pleas Court jury began deliberating the sex-abuse retrial of a Middletown minister Monday.
The five men and seven women are trying to decide whether to believe Dawn Bell, 21, and family members who allege that her father, the Rev. Darrell S. Bell, molested her from the time she was 10 until she turned 18 and moved away to attend Bowling Green State University.
They deliberated for about four hours Monday before breaking for the evening. Deliberations will resume this morning.
A jury in October acquitted the minister on one charge, but couldn't decide13 other charges against him. Judge H.J. Bressler ruled that testimony didn't support two rape charges, leaving the minister to face 11 charges.
The Rev. Mr. Bell, 44, is accused of three counts of rape, three counts of felonious sexual penetration and five counts of sexual battery. He faces decades in prison if con victed.
In a case that has divided the Bell family, the minister's two sons, his two brothers and two sisters-in-law testified against him. Three of those witnesses talked about telephone conversations in August 1997, when the Rev. Mr. Bell's wife, Jewel, allegedly admitted she had long suspected the abuse, that she believed “demons” or an “illness” influenced her husband's actions, and that he needed counseling.
In one such conversation, the minister's sister-in-law, Reva Bell of Chapel Hill, N.C., said Jewel Bell told her, “She always had that feeling, that Dawn was "the other woman' in the house ... she had that eerie feeling, but she could never put her finger on it.” Reva Bell's husband and the minister's oldest brother, Archellus Bell II, testified that Jewel Bell “talked about the help (her husband) needed” and said “there was a devil present within him.”
Another sister-in-law, Daphne Bell of Columbus, Ohio, said Jewel Bell told her that the Rev. Mr. Bell had been molested while he was a child and that "the entire family is demon-possessed.”
Jewel Bell denied making any of those statements.
“This case is full of reason able doubt,” argued defense lawyer Robert Bostick of Dayton. Mr. Bostick argued that his client's ex-wife, Rosalyn Canty of North Carolina, orchestrated a conspiracy against the Rev. Mr. Bell to break up his marriage and to escape from a $10,000 child support debt she owed him.
“The true victim in this case is Darrell Bell,” Mr. Bostick said. “View this case on the evidence — or lack thereof,” he told the jury. “Put an end to this false accusation.”
In her closing arguments, Assistant Prosecutor Patricia Downing said Dawn Bell is the victim and “Dawn Bell deserves her justice. She is the only victim — as well as the Bell family now ... find the defendant guilty.”
Ms. Downing criticized the defense theory of the case as “ridiculous,” noting it would have been virtually impossible for Ms. Canty to orchestrate consistent statements of so many witnesses who live far apart and would have nothing to gain from the accusations.
Dawn Bell's consistent statements to everyone from family members to police show she was telling the truth, Ms. Downing said. “It's easy to keep your story straight when you're tell ing the truth — and that's what Dawn Bell did.”
The failure of Dawn's father to protest his innocence to any of the witnesses betrays his guilt, Ms. Downing said.
“Such an accusation begs a response from an innocent person,” Ms. Downing said, recounting several instances where witnesses said the Rev. Mr. Bell responded to the allegations by sobbing or shrugging his shoulders.
Ms. Downing said she felt the Rev. Mr. Bell made no protestations for a good reason: “He did it. He knows he did it.”
In contrast, Mr. Bostick argued there is no physical evidence — only the word of Dawn Bell and those to whom she spoke.
“Dawn Bell told all of these people. What does that prove?” Mr. Bostick said.
He pointed out his client's excellent reputation in the community, noting the parade of character witnesses who testified on his behalf, none of whom ever suspected any immoral conduct.
Ms. Downing, however, argued, “The public Darrell Bell is quite different from the Darrell Bell at home.”
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