Former Minister Acquitted of Trying to Strangle Wife

A former minister arrested in Los Angeles last year was acquitted in San Antonio on Friday on charges that he tried to strangle his wife six years ago.

A jury deliberated the charges against Walker Railey, 46, for three days before finding him not guilty of the attempted strangulation that has left his wife, Margaret (Peggy) Railey, in a vegetative state.

“I’ll probably sleep tonight, and I’m grateful for that,” Railey said after the verdict was announced. “I feel great. I also feel sad because Peggy is where she is. It’s a sad day for me.”

Railey, a Methodist pastor, was one of the best-known clergymen and an emerging civic leader in the Dallas area in the months before Peggy Railey, 43, was attacked.

By his account, he found his comatose wife in the garage of their home in the Dallas suburb of Richardson on the night of April 27, 1987, after he returned from studying at the Southern Methodist University library. He showed police some threatening letters that he said he and his wife had been sent anonymously.

But almost from the outset, he was a suspect.

Ten days after the attack, Railey attempted suicide and surrendered his ministerial credentials.

Then it came to light that he was having an affair with Lucy Papillon, the daughter of a Methodist bishop.

Railey divorced his wife, gave up custody of their children, Ryan, 10, and Megan, 7, and moved to Southern California, where he continued to see Papillon. Railey did a number of odd jobs before accepting a position as executive director of the Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles.

In a lawsuit filed by his mother-in-law, Billie Jo Nicolai, Railey was accused of “intentionally, knowingly, maliciously and brutally” attempting to kill his wife. Railey did not contest the suit, and eventually was ordered to pay Nicolai $18 million.

Then, last Aug. 25, Los Angeles police arrested Railey. Dallas County Assistant Dist. Atty. Cecil Emerson said his office had decided, after five years, to press charges against the former minister because of a re-evaluation of evidence.

The trail began March 23 in San Antonio. It was moved there because of extensive pretrial publicity. Hammering away at the affair with Papillon, prosecutors called dozens of witnesses in an attempt to prove circumstantially that it was Railey who had attacked his wife.

Turning to the threatening letters, the prosecution contended that they were produced on a typewriter at Railey’s church. An FBI agent said a DNA test showed that traces of saliva found on the envelopes were consistent with Railey’s genetic makeup.

But Papillon took the stand to say that her former lover was incapable of violence.

And Railey maintained, as he has from the outset, that he is innocent. “I did not strangle my wife,” he told the jury. “I do not know who strangled my wife.”

And in the end, Railey was the one whom the jury believed.

Asked after the verdict about his plans, Railey said he did not know. “I don’t even know what I’m going to do tonight,” he said.