Editor’s note: The following report contains explicit descriptions of sexual acts against children.
More than 10 years after the incidents are alleged to have occurred and three years after an indictment was handed down, a former Palmer Home for Children house parent still awaits trial for sexually abusing two sisters on their eighth birthdays.
Trial was set for Wednesday before Circuit Court Judge Jim Kitchens for Seth Copes, 42, who with his wife, Kara, arrived at the children’s home from Michigan as house parents in 2006, according to Palmer Home officials. The sisters, along with an older sister, lived in the Palmer Home cottage where the Copeses served as house parents.
Lowndes County District Attorney Scott Colom said it is unlikely the case will go to trial Wednesday, however, noting his office is still awaiting evidence being processed by the state attorney general’s office. It is likely the case will be continued until the regular November court session. It will be the eighth continuance of the trial, originally scheduled for May 19, 2014.
The indictment states the acts happened in May 2006, but the victims did not come forward until seven years later. Copes was 32 at the time of the alleged incidents.
Another female Palmer Home resident allegedly witnessed the acts against the sisters and has provided a statement, according to a source close to the case who declined to be identified due to the ongoing investigation. That witness’ statement was not a part of the case file The Dispatch reviewed Monday.
After the criminal investigation was completed, the evidence was presented to a Lowndes County Grand Jury in August 2013. The grand jury found sufficient grounds for two charges of sexual battery against Seth Copes when it reconvened on Oct. 25, 2013.
Count one of the indictment states the grand jury found evidence that Copes “did unlawfully, willfully and feloniously, engage in sexual penetration” of one of the sisters by “inserting his penis into her mouth.”
Count two states Copes “did unlawfully, willfully and feloniously, engage in sexual penetration” of the other sister by “inserting his finger into her vagina.”
An arrest warrant was issued for Copes on Dec. 6, 2013. Two months later, Copes was arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and returned to Lowndes County. He pleaded not guilty to the charges on Feb. 10, 2014, and Circuit Court Judge Lee Howard set Copes’ bond at $40,000. Copes has been out on bond since mid-2014.
Kara Copes has not been charged. According to Seth Copes’ Facebook page, the couple now lives in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
Allegations of several abuses
Although the indictment details a single act against each sister, an aunt and a grandmother — both of whom agreed to speak to The Dispatch under the condition that none of the family members’ names would be used — allege both girls were molested by Copes on other occasions.
“The (sisters) told us that this happened over a period of days, weeks,” the grandmother said. “He would come into their room and molest them. It wasn’t until another girl, who lived across the hall, said she had been molested, too, and told (Kara) about it, that it stopped. There was a big blow-out and (Seth Copes) got mad and went out and slammed the door. The girls said (Seth Copes) never bothered them again after that. Then (Kara Copes) got on to the (sisters). I think that scared them. I believe that’s why they never told anybody about it. And I think they didn’t believe anybody would believe them if they did say something.”
“The girls had had a pretty tough time growing up. There was a lot of drug abuse and finally, their grandmother — my step-mother — took in the (sisters) and their older (sibling) when the (sisters) were 6,” the aunt said. “When we were around the girls, we always wondered if maybe they hadn’t been molested by someone, maybe a babysitter, when they were just little. It was just a feeling.”
The sisters were visiting their aunt in south Mississippi in July 2013 when they first came forward, according to the aunt.
The aunt said she was in the pool with one of the (sisters) that Fourth of July weekend, when she raised the question.
“I said to her, ‘I always felt like maybe you were molested when you just little, and I want to know the name of the guy or the girl who molested you. Was it a babysitter?’ She just looked down and said, ‘I wasn’t molested by a babysitter. It was Mr. Seth.’ … I couldn’t believe it at first.”
The aunt went to the other sister and asked her if she had been molested by Copes, too.
“At first she didn’t want to say anything,” the aunt said. “She finally admitted it to me, but didn’t want to talk about it much. But I said, ‘If this happened to you, do you want (Copes) to do that to the other girls, too?’ That’s when she really broke down and told me everything.”
The aunt called the grandmother, the girls’ legal guardian, at her home in Arkansas and told her the story.
“When she called us, we immediately left for Mississippi that afternoon,” the grandmother confirmed. “The first thing the next morning, we called the counselor at Palmer Home, Meg Ballard, and told her what happened. She put the vice president on the phone and after I told him what happened, they immediately went to the president Drake Bassett.
“The Copeses were at Disney World with some of the kids at the time and Mr. Bassett immediately took another person from Palmer Home, went to Orlando and brought (Seth and Kara Copes) home the next morning.”
Bassett confirmed Palmer Home retrieved the Copeses from Orlando, adding it is the home’s standard practice to immediately separate involved parties from the children once allegations are made.
‘The scope of the issue was limited’
Bassett, who arrived at Palmer Home as president and CEO in March 2012, said he began an internal investigation immediately after the family notified him of the allegations.
“We started that same day,” Bassett said, noting the Copeses were moved out of the cottage where they had been house parents to 11 girls, ages 5 to 15, after they were brought back from Orlando. “We began our internal investigation and we also notified the Department of Human Services and the sheriff’s department. We continued to work closely with the district attorney’s office, the DHS and the sheriff’s department.”
Bassett said both Seth and Kara Copes were terminated soon after they were informed of the allegations for causes unrelated to the girls’ claims.
Bassett said one of the priorities of his internal investigation was to interview any child who had had contact with the Copes to determine if they had ever been molested.
That internal investigation, along with what he learned of the criminal investigation, satisfied Bassett that no other children had been abused.
“The results are sealed to me at this point, but to the best of my knowledge, no other children were affected,” Bassett said. “We’re satisfied that the scope of the issue was limited.”
Although he was not at Palmer Home at the time the Copeses were hired, Bassett said the facility has continued to amend its screening and hiring practices since his arrival.
“I can’t speak in full about the changes that happened in our processes before I came here, but I can tell you that since that time, a number of processes have been adopted or amended, based on best practices,” he said. “The organization does everything it can in the certification of employees, and we feel very comfortable in our staff and very confident that they have all been thoroughly vetted and continue to be monitored and evaluated throughout their stay here.”
Copes’ attorney, Patrick Rand of Richland, did not return a call seeking comment Monday.
If convicted, Copes faces 20 years to life in prison.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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