Perez trial witness says fear stopped her from telling about alleged abuse

Daniel Perez’s defense attorney kept asking a key witness in court Monday why she waited so long to tell police disturbing things about Perez.

Perez, 55, is on trial in Sedgwick County District Court, charged with first-degree murder and dozens of other crimes, including sex with girls. He is charged in the 2003 death of Patricia Hughes, 26, a wife and mother.

The witness began her answer to the defense attorney by saying that she was just a girl when she met Perez and that she had loved him. To her and others who lived with Perez in what has been described as a commune on a rural stretch of North Oliver, Perez was a “seer,” a man whose body was inhabited by angels, some good, some bad.

Perez was at the center of the “family” at the 20-acre compound, the woman testified, saying her mother viewed Perez as a “savior.”

Even Kechi police joined parties on the property – they had become Perez’s friends, according to testimony brought out by his defense attorney, Alice Osburn.

The woman, now 23, also testified that for years she was “terrified” to speak out about terrible things, including that Perez had sexually abused her. She feared him, she testified, in a voice that was firm but at times tinged with emotion.

Later, the woman testified, she realized that the years she had spent with Perez amounted to “a lie.”

Prosecutors say Perez manipulated the communal “family” who traveled from state to state with him in an elaborate scheme to collect life insurance benefits and feed his sexual appetite for children without coming under scrutiny.

The woman was an 11-year-old girl at the time that Hughes died at the pool on the North Oliver property in what was first thought to be an accidental drowning. She told District Attorney Marc Bennett she remembers that on the day Hughes died, she heard a slight scream. Perez came up to her. He was out of breath, and his arms were wet, she testified.

In other testimony Monday, an expert said Hughes’ injuries were consistent with someone gripping the top of her head.

But the small bruises were not consistent with her slipping and hitting her head hard enough to knock her unconscious before she drowned, said forensic pathologist Kris Sperry. The story told at the time of Hughes’ death, according to testimony, was that she fell while walking down steps into the pool, hit her head and went under.

Other testimony dealt with Perez’s relationships dating to the 1990s, including a child sex abuse case against him in south Texas and a case related to a fatal plane crash in South Dakota.

Another woman, now 29, testified that when she was 11, she visited Perez in south Texas. While her mother was away, she testified tearfully, he touched her inappropriately. He was her relative.

She was old enough to know that what he was doing was wrong, and it made her feel uncomfortable, she said. She told her mother. She learned later that charges were filed against him but that he fled Texas, she testified. The crimes against her happened in 1996, she said.

“And we’ve never heard from him again,” she said.

The last witness of the day, Cody Griffith, testified about a plane crash that killed his mother, Mona, and his younger sister.

In the mid- to late 1990s, Perez was their neighbor at an apartment complex in Corpus Christi, Texas. They knew Perez then as Lou Castro, an identity he reportedly assumed.

Eventually, the mother and her two children were living with Perez and a woman Griffith knew as Trish – the woman who would become known as Patricia Hughes, who died in the pool.

Eventually, Griffith’s mother and sister left Texas with Castro and ended up in South Dakota, while Griffith stayed with his father in Texas.

When Griffith was 14, a small plane carrying his mother and sister disappeared in 2001. After the plane was found and his mother and sister were dead, Griffith said he had a conversation with Perez, who told him that Griffith’s little sister was not supposed to be on the plane. Perez cried.

Later, Griffith testified, he went to a small office and signed papers with Perez and another man present.

“He just told me don’t tell my dad,” Griffith said.

To this day, Griffith said, he doesn’t know what he signed.

Perez also told him that if his sister had not been on the plane, he would have taken her with him, Griffith testified.

Sometime later, Griffith said he visited Perez and others living on the property outside Wichita. “They called it Angels Landing,” he said.

Griffith said he knew back then that a girl living there – now the 23-year-old key witness – slept in a bedroom with Perez.

Griffith said he thought it was odd but that at the time, he was a young person and didn’t think he was in a position to challenge it.

This story was originally published February 9, 2015 at 12:36 PM.