‘Nothing In This Story Played Out The Way You Thought It Would’: Pat Kondelis On Showtime Sports Docu-Series ‘Outcry’
(CBS Local)– Need a new docu-series to dive into?
Showtime Sports has you covered with the premiere episode of its five part docu-series “Outcry” dropping on Sunday, July 5 at 10pm EST/PST. The five part series from director Pat Kondelis examines the story of former Texas high school football player Greg Kelley and his controversial conviction for child molestation. It took the director three years to put this together and Kondelis says this was the most difficult project he’s ever worked on.
“Everything was a challenge in putting this together,” said Kondelis in an interview with CBS Local’s DJ Sixsmith. “When we jumped into this, it was an ongoing legal case. We had no idea where this was going to go. We had no idea how long this was going to go and what the conclusion would be. We had zero control over any element of the story. It was kind of jumping in blind and hoping something happens. What’s unique about the story is everything was surprising. Nothing in this story played out the way you thought it was going to play out.”
FULL INTERVIEW:
This whole story began in 2013 when Kelley was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a 4-year-old boy. The Leander, Texas football player received a 25-year prison sentence without parole. Kondelis interviews several key people involved with the case including Kelley, who he first met and interviewed in a Texas state prison.
“Greg being the football star and where he was, he had four scholarship offers to play college football,” said Kondelis. “He’s about to go into his senior year when this accusation is made. That’s amazing in itself and unique in itself. This guy who is well known and well liked and was a kind of football star in a small town is accused of doing so unbelievable, when the momentum he has at that moment is crazy. He has everything going for him and then this accusation destroys everything.”
“I didn’t follow the story when it came out. I was impressed with the way Greg Kelley handled himself and I asked him some very difficult questions,” said Kondelis. “The first time we were meeting was in prison and he doesn’t know anything about me and I have a camera crew there. I was impressed with how honestly he answered questions. I was impressed with everyone that gave us access because they had to answer very difficult questions.”
The first episode of the series will be available for free on Sunday and the series will run every Sunday night through Sunday, August 2. Throughout this whole saga, Kelley maintained his innocence. The former high school football star eventually received a new trial and in 2019 his conviction was overturned.
“It’s a unique time in history because people may look at an accusation differently and what does that mean,” said Kondelis. “This is a serious accusation: super aggregated assault of a child in Texas. There has to be evidence there to corroborate that and that’s where this case gets tricky. There were so many times during the story that you thought you knew what was going on and thought you knew what was going to happen, only to be proven wrong. This is something that is so emotional and affected so many people in such a profound way. We wanted people to come away at the end with clarity and truth about what happened.”