Wrongfully convicted Greg Kelley forms nonprofit to help others receive justice

Greg Kelley, who was exonerated after being wrongfully convicted of assaulting a child, still has nightmares that he is behind bars. But the former Leander High School football star said he dreamed of something different almost three months ago.

"I was running in a marathon ," he said of the dream, " and had a shirt on that said I was exonerated and running for the wrongfully convicted."

Now he's doing just that.

Kelley, 28, has started competing in ultramarathons to help raise money for a nonprofit he started called the Vindication Foundation . He said he raised $1,500 for the foundation through its website and social media in his first race April 27.

The foundation has three board members: father-in-law David Anderson, a retired Leander teacher and a motivational speaker; Denise Seiler, a family friend who is on the board of the Leander Chamber of Commerce; and family friend Kim Heikkinen.

"This foundation, which helps individuals who were falsely accused fight for justice, was something I was eager to be part of, and my hope is that the time I choose to personally spend with this organization will help many more people get the justice they deserve," Seiler said.

Kelley said the foundation will provide awareness and education about the justice system by holding conferences and reaching out to people on social media through its website, Facebook page and Instagram . He said he will speak at the conferences about his experience as well as invite judges, law enforcement officers, lawyers and people he knows who have been exonerated to speak.

He wants his foundation to be able to educate people about being called to serve as jurors, including what district attorneys and defense lawyers will tell them.

"I want to get them so equipped that when they sit in the jury chair, they won't lose an hour of sleep wondering if they got to the right verdict," he said.

The foundation also will raise money to help lawyers defend people who are wrongfully convicted and can't afford to pay for a new investigation, Kelley said.

"I know I'm not the only person who got falsely accused and wrongfully convicted and incarcerated," he said.

More: Exonerated Greg Kelley buys mom a home in Liberty Hill to repay her for support

The nonprofit will work with lawyers, including Kelley's own post-conviction lawyer, Keith Hampton, to identify the cases it will support, they said.

Hampton said he has had cases in which he can't help people fight their convictions because they can't afford to hire DNA experts or investigators to find new evidence.

"In post-convictions, it's all about checking out and reinvestigating the case," he said.

Kelley was wrongfully convicted in 2014 when a Williamson County jury found him guilty of super aggravated sexual assault of a child after a 4-year-old boy claimed in 2013 that Kelley had molested him at a day care in Cedar Park.

Kelley was staying at the day care site with a friend. He refused to accept a plea deal and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Kelley was released from jail on bond in 2017 after a judge said a flawed Cedar Park police investigation violated his rights to due process.

More: Greg Kelley conviction overturned by state’s highest criminal court

In 2019, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Kelley's conviction. Kelley’s legal team and a Texas Ranger had said in a 2017 hearing that it was possible that one of three people assaulted the boy.

Kelley won a $500,000 settlement from Cedar Park in 2022 after he filed a lawsuit against the city , a former Cedar Park police chief and the lead investigator in the case in 2020. Claims in the lawsuit included that police never investigated other suspects.

Since Kelley has been exonerated, he has played a season of football for Eastern Michigan University; done a modeling gig for Hari Mari boots, a Texas company; and had his story featured on the Emmy Award-winning Showtime series “Outcry."

More: Cedar Park police investigator resigns after new complaint filed in Greg Kelley case

He also has bought a home for his mother; married his high school sweetheart, Gaebri Anderson; and started a business that makes targets for ax throwing. He said his business, Tomahawk Targets ATX, has three employees and is doing so well that he has time to train for the ultramarathons to raise money for his foundation.

Ultramarathons are races longer than the traditional marathon distance of 26.2 miles. Kelley said when he started training for them about three months ago, he could barely run a mile without stopping. But he kept training , he said, and now is able to run 10 to 16 miles per day.

"The same endurance I had to muster up in prison," he said, "I now use in ultramarathons to go and fight for others."

He said he will be launching a campaign on his Instagram account in which he pledges to run 1 meter for every dollar donated. There are 1,609 meters in a mile.

He just finished his first ultramarathon, the Austin Falls Ultra at McKinney Falls State Park on April 27, when he ran 31 miles.

"It was an amazing, painful, yet accomplishing experience," he said. "I'm already scheduling my next one in June, a 50-miler."

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Wrongfully convicted Greg Kelley forms nonprofit to help others receive justice