By BILL HAISTEN & CARY ASPINWALL World Staff Writers on Jul 14, 2013, at 2:24 AM??Updated on 7/14/13 at 7:23 AM
Brett Webber has had 18 years inside prison walls to consider his crimes.In 1995, the former Bishop Kelley High School basketball coach was sent to prison on 25 felony counts of molesting and sexually assaulting seven students in his counseling office, classroom and home over a period of four years.
This week, the Pardon and Parole Board will review Webber's record to determine whether he'll move to the next part of the parole process for violent offenders - a personal appearance before the board in September. He's been turned down twice before.
If the fact that he remains unrepentant, refuses to admit guilt and has had no sex-offender treatment means staying in prison the rest of his life, then so be it, he says.
This was not his fault, he maintains.
"I'm not going to admit to something I didn't do," he said.
The lowest point
Webber's 1995 trial drew wide public interest. Webber's late father was a well-known TV personality in Tulsa.A prosecutor asked one of the teen victims why he thought the charges were "a big deal."
"It is a big deal because he's a person that I trusted and he broke my trust with him by confronting me, putting his hand in my pants, inviting me to his house, telling me he's having dreams about me. That is a big deal," the teen said.
The victims had eerily similar stories that ended in different ways: Webber would approach each in a manner of "horseplay" or "wrestling." At some point, he attempted to peek down their boxers or slide his hand in their underwear, they said.
Some of the students immediately rebuffed these advances and told adults or older siblings shortly after, leading to Webber's firing from Bishop Kelley.
Others didn't tell, and the abuse escalated from there. At least two testified he forced them to engage in oral sodomy, and one of the allegations involved rape.
The first two teens to testify against Webber were Eagle Scouts with active parents who contacted school officials as soon as they heard their boys' stories.
Other victims who emerged were troubled teens with an unstable home life or history of drug use. Some went to prestigious universities while one ended up in prison.
The Tulsa World contacted several of the victims, now in their late 30s, from Webber's trial. None responded to interview requests. The World does not publish the names of sex-crime victims.
Brother David Poos was the principal at Bishop Kelley when the crimes occurred. Now principal of a Catholic high school in St. Louis, he recalled Webber's case as "the lowest point" in the school's history.
It started when a father of a student requested a meeting with Poos, saying: "You've got a teacher who can't keep his hands to himself." When Poos heard it was Webber, he was shocked.
"We thought, 'There's no way. This is an outstanding young man. He's an upstanding citizen,' " Poos said. "He was highly, highly regarded by everyone - the faculty, the staff, the administration. The kids loved him."
But the boys' stories had disturbing details, and a common pattern emerged.
Webber would get them alone, in a locker room, empty gym, his office or car. He would grab at their waistband and attempt to peek down their underwear, saying "I just want to see what you've got in there," according to trial records.
One of the teens, who had lived with Webber and his wife for a while because of family problems, testified that Webber raped him and performed oral sex on him on numerous occasions.
Webber was fired a few days after school officials learned of the allegations.
Life in prison
In July 1995, a 33-year-old Webber was sentenced to three life terms plus 385 years in prison.The sentence eventually was reduced by the Court of Criminal Appeals to one life sentence for attempted rape plus 20 years for sodomy, molestation and sexual battery counts.
He's 51 now, but Webber's stance has not wavered. During a recent interview with the World at the Lexington Correctional Center, Webber maintained his innocence and said he was never alone with any of the alleged victims.
He engaged in horseplay and wedgies on occasion, nothing more, he said.
"Nobody has asked me for my opinion or my side of the story in 18 years. Nobody has ever attempted to," Webber said.
"When I was fired from Bishop Kelley, I requested a hearing with the Catholic Diocese. At that time, the (allegations) their investigators had found was based totally on horseplay (like) wedgies. And then once you get to the preliminary hearing, it gets a little more detailed and graphic, so it's building. And then finally in the trial - full-blown rape, sodomy, whatever. It all built."
The stories seemed to worsen and grow more consistent as the case moved toward jury trial, he said.
It was Webber's wife of nearly 27 years, Deana, who encouraged him to talk to the World for this story, he said.
"The only reason I agreed to do this (interview) was because my wife and I prayed about it and decided that we would like for our side to be heard. It never has been before. Everybody has always speculated. Nobody has ever come to us directly," he said.
Deana Webber lives in Oklahoma City now. She visits her husband in prison every Sunday and on holidays and they talk on the phone as often as possible, they said.
During the trial, the couple said Brett Webber could not possibly have been alone with any of the boys outside of school because the couple did everything together, every day - even showering.
Webber's father was former KJRH channel 2 news anchor Jerry Webber, who died of stomach cancer in 1998.
Fans of Jerry Webber and friends of the family wrote letters to the trial judge, Ned Turnbull, on Brett Webber's behalf, protesting his conviction.
"I certainly do not know the intimate details of the case, but I am absolutely convinced that the eyes are indeed the windows to the soul and the eyes I have seen belonging to Brett Webber are not the eyes of a monster," says one letter filed before the 1995 court sentencing.
Rivalries and faith
Brett Webber said he was the target of a conspiracy orchestrated initially by Poos, the former principal."He basically (conducted) a witch hunt to get me," Webber said. "Made phone calls to basically the whole basketball team ... It's the truth. He was very jealous of me. Everybody knew it. It wasn't a secret."
Why would Poos have been jealous?
"Because of my popularity," Webber said.
Webber was voted teacher of the year twice during the period in which the teens testified the abuse occurred. Webber also suggests religion could have been a factor.
"My wife and I are very strong, conservative Southern Baptists," he said, "and I was at a Catholic school (Bishop Kelley)."
His 18 years in prison have only strengthened his faith, he said.
"Basically, you realize that when everything around you has been stripped from you, that God is more than enough. I have seen over and over and over again how he has protected me and led me," he said.
Webber has declined to enter the prison's sex-offender treatment program, which would require him to admit guilt. He knows his chances of being paroled may be greatly diminished unless he agrees to treatment and expresses contrition.
"I'll accept it because I'm not going to admit to something I didn't do, just to get out," he said. "I don't know. Maybe that's stupid."
If the Parole Board were to vote in Webber's favor this time, he would be paroled only from his current life sentence to begin serving his remaining sentences - so Webber would likely have to wait many years for a chance to get out of prison.
He said he spends his time listening to Christian radio and baseball games, jogging and helping other inmates learn to read and earn their GEDs through Lexington's literacy program.
The victims
Poos says he is "flabbergasted" by Webber's contention there was jealousy or a conspiracy."That is the furthest thing from the truth," Poos said. "Yes, these young men were related in the sense that they were all students at Bishop Kelley, but there was no witch hunt. All of these young men came to me individually. I didn't go out after anyone. ... I didn't go to the basketball team. The only folks who were contacted were the victims who came to me."
Eric Stall, one of the prosecutors at Webber's trial, recalled him as "a manipulative individual," but said he didn't take joy in prosecuting him.
"I think a lot of people thought very highly of Jerry Webber," Stall said. "I hated for a family to go through this, but by the same token, I hated for a lot of victims' families to go through what they went through - and for the kids to go through what they went through."
Additional young men coming forward to report incidents as a case evolves is not unusual in molestation trials, he said.
Stall and Poos said they believe there might have been additional victims who never came forward.
Prosecutors asked one victim on the stand why he didn't tell anyone what happened to him when he was 13.
"I was embarrassed and ashamed," the teen testified. "I just didn't feel comfortable about what happened. And part of it was, I didn't know if anybody would believe me since he was so respected."
Deana Webber stands by her husband
In July 1995, the Tulsa World's coverage of the Brett Webber sentencing ended with these two paragraphs:Deana Webber, outside the courtroom, said after nine years of marriage she will follow her husband, even if that means relocating to the town where he is staying in prison.
"We're inseparable," said Deana Webber, convinced of her husband's innocence. "I know the lies will eventually come out."
Today, Deana Webber lives and works in Oklahoma City - about a half-hour north of her husband's prison cell at the Lexington Correctional Center - and the Webbers are still married.
Their 27th anniversary is in August. For 18 of those 27 years, Brett Webber has been incarcerated, convicted of molesting teen boys during the early '90s.
"People tried to explain to us that, 'You'll never walk out again if you go through with the trial,' " said Deana Webber, now 47. "At the same time, we knew what we knew. We believed what we believed."
Deana Webber said her husband's conviction was a shock.
"We never dreamed first of all that he would be convicted. And then after he was convicted, we just knew we would straighten it all out after a year or so."
Still, Deana Webber said she will stand by her husband "even if you tell me that it's until death."
"You should see my closet," she added. "From top to bottom, it is filled with letters. That's how close we are. We write every day."
Deana Webber played basketball at Jenks High School and for one season (1984-85) at Oral Roberts University. She then was known by her maiden name - Deana Calvert.
Now 47, Deana Webber visits her husband every Sunday and on holidays. They have no children.
The six-hour visitation period "goes by real fast," Deana Webber says. The Webbers are allowed to be outside, confined to "a tiny little yard that you can walk around," she says. Otherwise, their time together is spent in a room that resembles a school cafeteria.
The Webbers speak by telephone nearly every day, Deana Webber says, and the cost is "almost $3 a call for 15 minutes."
She pays additional money each month so her husband may purchase food in the prison canteen.
"It is extremely expensive to have somebody in prison," she said.
Brett Webber maintains his innocence of the crimes for which he was convicted, and Deana Webber is unwavering in her belief that he did not commit any crimes.
"It's not a blind belief, though. It's an I-went-through-it belief," she said.
"We lived an up-and-down roller coaster for years. It is very hard. It is miserable in this situation. But at some point, you come to terms and you come to peace with it or you won't survive."
During her husband's trial, Deana Webber testified that some of the alleged incidents could not have happened because she and Brett would have been together at that time.
"They said it was too good to be true, but you have to understand that to see Brett - because he was so busy - I went to everything," Deana Webber said last week.
"We did camps together. I went to practices. We were married nine years before this happened, and I had never gone to the grocery store or got my hair cut without him. Ever."
She said she's hopeful that he will one day be released from prison, despite the life sentence he's serving.
"I live just accepting everything, but I truly believe that one day this will be over. Now, do I think it's going to happen through parole? No. ... We have a faith and a belief that God has told us that we're going to get out."
- BILL HAISTEN, World Sports Writer
Bill Haisten 918-581-8397
bill.haisten@tulsaworld.com
Cary Aspinwall 918-581-8477
cary.aspinwall@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Maintaining innocence
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