Sunday, October 19, 2014

Probable cause affidavit in Baxter Springs sex case

(Warning: If you are offended by details being furnished in this kind of case- stop reading. I have written before that the Joplin Globe slanted its story on the case against former teacher/coach Scott Madden by starting its article by writing about how the relationship between a 45-year-old and a 15-year-old started innocently. The problem is the use of that particular word. Other passages in the Globe story also made it sound more like an excerpt from a romance novel than a crime story. This is the document from which Globe reporter Jeff Lehr wrote his story.)

I, officer Richard Comer, state that the following incidents occurred within the Incorporated City Limits of Baxter Springs, Cherokee County, Kansas. Furthermore, I state that these incidents are within the investigative jurisdiction of the District Court of Cherokee County, Kansas.

On February, 27, 2014, I was assigned to investigate allegations of aggravated indecent liberties of a child. On March 4, 2014, I met with B. B. (stepfather) and S. B. (natural mother) along with their daughter A. P. (DOB 1998) at the Children's Advocacy Center in Pittsburg for a forensic interview. Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) Special Agent Bethany Brooks assisted in the investigation. S. A. Brooks conducted the interview of A. P.


During the interview, when asked if A. P. knew why she was there, A.P. said she started talking to Scott Madden and Mr. Madden got her pregnant. A.P. stated that she and Mr. Madden started text messaging by phone at first, but then the relationship became physical. A. P. said she knew Mr. Madden because she grew up with Mr. Madden's children.

A. P. said she and Mr. Madden began texting each other just talking about baseball. A. P. said Mr. Madden was helping her with her hitting. A. P. said she and Mr. Madden would talk about college sports because she likes Kansas University sports and Mr. Madden likes Oklahoma university sports. A. P. said she and Mr. Madden talked at the Hit Zone, as well. Mr. Madden runs the Hit Zone. The Hit Zone is a place designed to help kids playing baseball or softball become better at hitting or pitching.

A. P. said she and Mr. Madden made a bet on an Oklahoma and Kansas game and she lost. A. P. said she kept asking Mr. Madden what she owed him for losing the bet, but Mr. Madden would not giver her an answer. A. P. said one day Mr. Madden told her he liked her. A. P. said she told Mr. Madden she liked him as well.

A. P. said a couple of families went to Destin, Florida , for spring break in March 2013. A. P. said while the families rented a house and while out by the pool with Mr. Madden that was the first time the two kissed.

A. P. said she and Mr. Madden downloaded an application on their phones called kik. The application is designed for private messaging between parties. The application requires the user to create a username and a password to remain private. A. P. said Mr. Madden started using the application so his wife Stacey Madden would not see the text messages on the phone bill and would not get suspicious.

A. P. said in the middle of May 2013, she started walking from her house and Mr. Madden picked her up, took her to his parents' house in Baxter Springs. A. P. said she and Mr. Madden walked through the garage, went upstairs to his room. A. P. said once upstairs in Mr. Madden's room, A. P. said no one was at home at Mr. Madden's parents' home.

A. P. said while in Mr. Madden's room he laid A. P. down on his bed, started kissing A. P. and then it happened. A. P. described the house as being on the golf course. A. P. described the room as having brown sheets but could not see anything else because the lights weren't on and the room was dark. A.P. was asked if Mr. Madden was aware of her age because she was best friends with Mr. Madden's daughter C.M. A. P. said she was wearing a hoodie and sweat pants that day because it wasn't too hot outside, but it was cool enough for sweats and a hoodie.

A. P. said Mr. Madden took her upstairs, laid her down, and started kissing her. A. P. said Mr. Madden started reaching up her skirt to feel her stomach. A. P. said Mr. Madden pulled her pants down. A. P. said she kept her legs closed because she didn't know what was going on, but she enjoyed it. A. P. said Mr. Madden pulled his pants down, put a condom on, climbed on top of A. P., climbed on top of A. P. A. P. said Mr. Madden stopped before putting his penis inside of her, asked A. P. "if it was okay, she didn't have to do this." A. P. said she told Mr. Madden "it was fine."

A. P. said she was at the address approximately 30 minutes. A. P. was asked if Mr. Madden made her touch him. A. P. said not the first time but she touched him a couple of times after the first time.

A. P. said after she and Mr. Madden finished having sex he took her outside to a swing set in the yard where the two of them sat together. A. P. said Mr. Madden asked A. P. how the sex was. A. P. said since it was her first time having sex she had had no idea what sex was supposed to feel like.

A.P. said in September 2013, she went over to Mr. Madden's parents' house to eat dinner. A. P. said Mrs. Madden left to go to Joplin along with Mr. Madden's oldest daughter. A. P. said Mr. Madden's parents went upstairs to lie down. A. P. said she and Mr. Madden's other children, C. M. and L. M., were watching a movie. A. P. said C. M. and L. M. fell asleep. A. P. said Mr. Madden told her to go watch television with him and the two went in the living room. A. P. said Mr. Madden came and sat down beside her. A. P. said Mr. Madden started kissing her. A. P. said Mr. Madden pulled his pants down, while A. P. pulled her pants down. A. P. said she climbed on top of Mr. Madden  A. P. said Mr. Madden did not use a condom.

A. P. said she and Mr. Madden had sex twice in the house at (address omitted) and four to five times at Mr. Madden's new house at 519 E. 17th Street in Baxter Springs In a follow-up interview of A. P. conducted by S. A. Brooks, A. P. disclosed that she and Mr. Madden had sexual intercourse in her home in Baxter Springs, Kansas. A. P. also disclosed having sexual intercourse with Mr .Madden at (address not included) building located at (not included) Baxter Springs.

(The next paragraph included a description of sexual acts performed on A. P. and Madden using their hands.)

A. P. said that Mr. Madden used a towel that was on the floor to clean off with. A. P. described the towel as being really old and bleached. A. Pl said the towel was a big towel used after getting out of the shower. A. P. said Mr. Madden told her he loved her. A. P. said she told Mr. Madden she loved him as well.

A. P. said before Thanksgiving, she and Mr. Madden went to his house and walked through the back door and the kitchen and dining room into the living room. (The remainder of the paragraph features details of the sex act, and A. P.'s answers to questions about other kinds of different sex acts that Madden performed on her.)

A. P. said Mr. Madden began asking how she was doing after they finished having sex. A. P. said Mr. Madden was concerned about her possibly suffering a concussion in a Powder Puff football game played at the Baxter Springs High School. Officer Comer checked later with a Corey Perry, who is a coach at the Baxter High School.  Mr. Perry told Officer Comer he remembered A. P. getting hurt in the game. Mr. Perry told Officer Comer the game was played on September 25, 2013. Officer Comer talked with Assistant Principal Roger Reynolds about the concussion. Mr. Reynolds did a records check and found that A. P. had a scheduled doctor's appointment on September 26, 2013.

(The next several paragraphs described another sexual encounter between Madden and A. P. at Madden's home while his family was away. It was also revealed that Madden did not use protection after their first sexual encounter.)

A. P. said she thought she was pregnant that very day. A. P. said she told her natural father, M. P. A. P. said she told Mr. Madden she might be pregnant. A. P. said Mr. Madden told her she had better get a pregnancy test just in case. A. P. said she told her mother S. B. the next night. A. P. and S. B. went and bought a pregnancy test, which showed positive for being pregnant.

A. P. said she told Mr. Madden about being pregnant. A. P. said Mr. Madden "freaked out," A. P. said, having the mindset Mr. Madden would get in trouble. A. P. said she had three hundred dollars saved up and Mr. Madden gave her another $100. A. P. said Mr. Madden told her through kik he placed $100 in her mailbox outside. A. P. said she and her mother went to Kansas City to have an abortion. A. P. said she learned she was too far along in the pregnancy to have an abortion. A. P. said she is 23 weeks along so the pregnancy had to happen in September.

A. P. said that on the way home from Kansas City she told Mr Madden she was too far along in the pregnancy. A. P. said that Mr. Madden thought she was joking with him. A. P. said she told Mr. Madden she was not joking around with him. She was too far along in the pregnancy to have an abortion.

A. P. said she told Mr. Madden she and her mother were going to get 3D pictures of the baby to determine the sex of the unborn child. A. P. said Mr. Madden told her to make up a story so she wouildn't have to tell her parents he was the father of the child. A. P. said Mr. Madden told her to tell her parents she went to a party with a few of her friends and slept with a random stranger. A. P. said she told her mother and stepfather the story Mr. Madden made up, but neither believed the story.

On March 4, 2014, Officer Comer met A. P's stepfather B. B. at the Baxter Police Department. B. B. told Officer Comer he went online and began examining phone records from their account. B. B. brought with him printouts of text messages between the numbers of A. P. and Mr. Madden. B. B. showed Officer Comer the printout and there were over 2,000 text messages sent between (the numbers).

On March 6, 2014,  Officer Comer met with B. B. at the Baxter Police Department. B. B. told Officer Comer while cleaning out A. P.'s room, they came across adult sex toys which they know that A. P. is not old enough to buy, an unopened condom, an opened pregnancy test, earrings, two handwritten notes, and a receipt dated from February 17, 2014, at the Baxter Springs Wal-Mart. Officer Comer went to the Baxter Wal-Mart and talked with Manager Roger Wormington and Chris Cullison about the receipt. Mr. Wormington was able to pull up the security tape by the receipt, by the date, time, and the register used. Officer Comer watched a male known as Larry Scott Madden place a box on the register to check out. Mr. Madden then pulls out his wallet and pays for the item with cash. Mr. Madden walks through the store foyer and out to his red SUV sitting in the parking lot.

Officer Comer received phone records from AT&T on Mr. Madden's and A. P.'s phones. Officer Comer went through the DVD provided by AT&T. (The records showed more than 3,000 text messages from Madden's phone to A. P.'s and more then $3,000 from her phone to his, as well as more than 30 calls from him and more than 30 calls from her.)

A. P. has now given birth to J. P. (DOB 2014). Officer Comer applied for, and was granted, search warrants to obtain two mouth swabs from A. P. and her minor child J. P. Officer Comer met with S. B. A. P. and J. P. at the Baxter Springs Police Department where Officer Comer presented S. B. a copy of the search warrant. Officer Comer then took two mouth swabs from A. P. and then took two mouth swabs from J. P. Officer Comer placed the swabs into evidence.

The mouth swabs from Mr. Madden, A. P. and J. P. were sent to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation Laboratory for examination. On September 8, 2014, Officer Comer received the DNA comparison back from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation Laboratory stating the probability of Mr. Madden being A. P's child J. P.'s father is 99.999 percent.

Joplin Globe Editor still doesn't get it about Baxter Springs sex story

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