San Diego
A jury was seated Wednesday to hear the trial of fundamentalist Betty Lou Batey, who is charged with taking her son from her ex-husband, a homosexual, and concealing the boy for 19 months.
Opening statements and testimony will begin at 9:30 a.m. today before San Diego Superior Court Judge Douglas Woodworth.
The figure in the middle of the controversy, Brian Batey, now 16, is expected to testify, as is his father, Frank Batey, 42.
Woodworth allowed Betty Batey’s attorneys to present the unusual “defense of necessity,” in which she claims that she took her son in an emergency to keep him from being exposed to the gay life style of his father.
Brian was taken from his father, who had won legal custody, in 1982 and he currently lives with Frank Batey and Batey’s male lover in Palm Springs.
Potential jurors were quizzed about their attitudes toward homosexuals and Pentacostals. Betty Batey, 42, is a member of the Pentacostal church.
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