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TapeBy FRANK KLIMKO Staff Writer'f Daniel, sons playing inVedrm entered in trialLIBERTY — “Oh, you have a nice heinie. Oh, you have a nice heinie. You wanna feel a nice heinie?” said the slain Price Daniel Jr. to his two sons in a tape recording entered in the Vickie Daniel child custody trial.The tape was made secretly by Mrs. Daniel to confirm her suspicions of inappropriate sexual behavior on the part of Daniel toward his 10-year-old and three-year-old sons. Made in the master bedroom late last year, the often-garbled recording was many times punctuated by the sounds of laughter from the boys.Attorneys opposing Mrs. Daniel contend the recording is of a harmless session between a father teasing two sons who are putting ontheir pajamas and getting ready for bed.“You better watch out,” Daniel said to the boys. “You’re gonna show your heinie.”“Oh, nooo,” the boys responded, giggling with laughter.“You boys go get dressed. Watch out, Franklin is going to bend over and show his heinie,” Daniel said with the boys breaking out into screeches of laughter and shouting ‘oh no.’Later on the tape the sounds of Daniel joking about “toots”, and “gowilla poot,” are heard.The tape ends with Daniel telling the boys to go to bed and go to sleep, with the boys giggling in response.J.C. Zeke Zbranek, attorney for parties opposing Mrs. Daniel, was not expected to resthis case today because former Texas Gov. Price Daniel Sr. had been called to the courtroom just before press time.Gov. Price Daniel, Sr., within days following his son’s Jan. 19 shooting death, contacted long-time Austin friends concerning custody of Vickie Daniel’s two youngest sons, a psychiatrist testified Thursday.Gov. Daniel had two personal meetings with Austin psychiatrist Dr. Richard Coons concerning the child-custody question involving Mrs. Daniel, Coons said. Gov. Daniel was referred to Coons by a pair of state district judges in Austin, the doctor said.As the child-custody trial neared its fourth week of testimony, Coons was the second psychiatrist to testify that Daniel had mentalproblems that made her an unfit mother. Jean Daniel Murph, Daniel’s 38-year-old sister, has filed for custody of Mrs. Daniel’s two sons, Franklin, 3, and Marion Price, 1.Coons acknowledged the initial meeting, in the week of Daniel’s death, provided information adverse to Mrs. Daniel. Coons said Daniel family members had come to him to seek advice on whether to pursue the children’s custody. He advised them to follow it, he said.“Vickie was a husband beater with a violent temper at times,” Coons’ notes from his January meeting with Gov. Daniel showed. The former governor told Coons the family had “paid the bond” for Mrs. Daniel as the “Christian thing to do,” and she at times acted flighty.Attorneys for Mrs. Daniel have privatelycontended throughout the trial Gov. Daniel was the “prime orchestrator” behind the child custody lawsuit filed by his daughter.Mrs. Murph admitted Coons’ diagnosis was to add to Dr. Kenneth Wetcher’s diagnosis. Wetcher said Mrs. Daniel could present a danger to her children in times of stress.Despite the meeting initiated by Gov. Daniel, Mrs. Murph contends she^and her husband, with an accrued income of around $30,000 a year, are taking bank loans to pay for the court proceedings. All of Coons’ testimony Thursday was based on a series of hypothetical or assumed facts already before the jury.Coons’ testimony alone cost about $3,000, according to figures he presented from the witness stand.
Newspaper Details
Port Arthur News
Port Arthur, Texas, US
Fri, Apr 10, 1981
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Jared T.
NA, NA 29 May 2023
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