By Peggy Wright
Daily Record

A woman who spent three of her teenage years at the Devereux-Deerhaven residential school for wayward girls testified Friday that night attendant Keith Walter Seery hugged, kissed and groped her body while asking her if she would ever tell anyone.

"I said ‘No, I won’t,’" the woman testified in Superior Court, Morristown. She said she told him "no" when he asked, "Not even a whisper to your friends?" 

The first of four women who have accused the 35-year-old, twice-married Seery of taking sexual advantage of them when they were teenagers was called by assistant Morris County Prosecutor Maggie Calderwood. Three of the accusers knew Seery when he worked between November 1996 and February 1997 at the now closed-Devereux school in Chester Township for females with behavioral and emotional problems. The facility closed its doors in August 2000 because of problems with supervision and the arrests of three male workers, including Seery, on sexual assault charges.

A fourth accuser contends that she knew Seery between 1993 and 1996, when he was employed as a substitute teacher in Mount Olive and a lifeguard for the township’s municipal beach.

Friday’s witness was 17 years old when she met Seery at Devereux in 1996. Late one night, she said, she helped him with laundry and he extended his arms for a hug when they were finished. She said they hugged and French-kissed and that Seery fondled her breasts until she broke away.

"I felt nervous and I felt excited. I hadn’t been touched by a man or a boy in a very long time. I felt nervous because I knew it was wrong," she testified in a strong, firm voice.

She said she left to speak to a staff member, but then sought out Seery again in the laundry room. She said he told her, "You’re going to get me into a lot of trouble," but that he stood between her legs as she sat on a table, and then gestured for her to follow him down a hallway where he resumed kissing and fondling her. She said she touched his genitals over his pants but stopped him from putting his hand down her pants.

Seery gave a taped confession to sexual misconduct with the Devereux accusers. But defense lawyer Robert Cherry said the admission was coerced by a detective who promised Seery he would get custody of his son in the divorce battle he was going through, and that he would be treated leniently if he confessed.

The trial continues Tuesday before Superior Court Judge John J. Harper.
 
 

Peggy Wright can be reached at pwright@morristo.gannett.com or (973) 267-1142.