New foster father for famous sex-scandal children arrested

The small town of Mineola, Tex., was rocked three years ago when it was discovered that a former daycare building turned into a "swingers club" was being used as a front for compelling four children, from the age of five, to perform sex acts before a crowd.

The case was blown open when Child Protective Services (CPS) removed the children from their home after investigating charges of neglect and drug abuse and the new foster parents reported the kids saying they had danced before men and "everybody does nasty stuff in there."

Now John Cantrell, the father of the foster family who is also a key witness against the people charged in the sex scandal, has been arrested for allegedly committing lewd acts with children 18 years ago. He is waiting extradition to Solano County, Calif., where the complaints were filed, on $45,000 bond.

Photo courtesy KLTV-TV, Tyler, Tex.

Cantrell, who has cared for hundreds of children through the foster care system and has adopted 27, is being charged by two of his own daughters, who no longer live with the family. The statute of limitations has expired on one of the allegations, but the other is waiting a preliminary hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to proceed.

Cantrell's wife, Margie, maintains his innocence and claims her daughters were hurt and broken when they adopted them and are acting out of retaliation. "There are 25 of his 27 children that love him to death," Margie told KETK-TV in Tyler, Tex.

Margie told KLTV-TV in Tyler that the daughter whose charge against John is outstanding had repeatedly called CPS when she lived with the Cantrell family and that the charges were always unfounded.

"John is a precious man. He has a heart of gold," Margie told KLTV. "He and I have completely dedicated our lives to broken children and sometimes broken children stay broken and there is nothing you can do about it."

Victoria Cantell, another adopted daughter, also defended her dad. "They let me in with loving arms, and they always raised me in a godly, Christian way," she told KETK. "My dad's always been sweet and kind to everybody. All that stuff that they're saying, it can't be true."

Margie reports that many of the children who are now grown have been calling, asking to be in court to defend their father. The younger children, who sometimes call their dad Santa Claus (for he bears a resemblance to the jolly gift-giver), are sleeping on the living room floor, waiting for him to come back in the door.

Meanwhile, the case against the Mineola sex ring may be put on pause. Jury selection in the case of Patrick Kelly, charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child, tampering with physical evidence and engaging in organized crime for his role in the heinous sex scandal, is scheduled to begin today. Kelly's attorney has asked that the case be continued until charges against Cantrell can be fully investigated.

The case against Kelly and six other defendants alleges that four children, including two sisters, their brother, and their aunt, the oldest not yet a teenager and the youngest a mere toddler when abuses began, were trained by a team of adults to dress in costume and perform sex acts upon a stage.

In the late evenings, dozens of cars would come to The Mineola Swinger's Club, a one-story building with windowless front rooms, where the children were given the drug Vicodin – which the adults called "silly pills" – to help the children perform before the gathered audience of 50 to 100 spectators.

Kelly is the third of the seven defendants to go on trial. The first two, Jamie Pittman and Shauntel Mayo, have already been tried, their juries deliberating less than five minutes before handing down guilty verdicts. Both were sentenced to life in prison, and Kelly faces a similar sentence if convicted.

The scandal has been horrifying to local residents of Mineola, a town of 5,100 about 80 miles east of Dallas. "This really shook the town," one resident told the Associated Press. "This was horrible."

CPS case worker Kristi Hatchel testified in the second trial, "I've seen a lot and I never in my wildest dreams imagined this. They were preyed upon in probably one of the most heinous ways possible."

As for the children, they have demonstrated growth and healing after being removed from the stage and placed under the care of the Cantrells. "Though counseling and therapy sessions, these children are now finally feeling secure and safe," CPS spokesperson Shari Pulliam wrote in an e-mail.

That security, it would seem, is now jeopardized with their father in jail.

Margie Cantrell contends that the truth will come out in the end and that her husband will be found innocent. "We have mountains to climb," she told KLTV, "but John and I have been in this to help those children, and the children that we have, because of the tragic abuse that is out there and the tragic abuse that is happening to children and the brokenness of these children. That is where our efforts need to stay. That is what needs to be taken care of."