• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
MENUMENU
MENUMENU
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • FlaglerLive Board of Directors
    • Comment Policy
    • Mission Statement
    • Our Values
    • Privacy Policy
  • Live Calendar
  • Submit Obituary
  • Submit an Event
  • Support FlaglerLive
  • Advertise on FlaglerLive (386) 503-3808
  • Search Results

FlaglerLive

No Bull, no Fluff, No Smudges

MENUMENU
  • Flagler
    • Flagler County Commission
    • Beverly Beach
    • Economic Development Council
    • Flagler History
    • Mondex/Daytona North
    • The Hammock
    • Tourist Development Council
  • Palm Coast
    • Palm Coast City Council
    • Palm Coast Crime
  • Bunnell
    • Bunnell City Commission
    • Bunnell Crime
  • Flagler Beach
    • Flagler Beach City Commission
    • Flagler Beach Crime
  • Cops/Courts
    • Circuit & County Court
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • Federal Courts
    • Flagler 911
    • Fire House
    • Flagler County Sheriff
    • Flagler Jail Bookings
    • Traffic Accidents
  • Rights & Liberties
    • Fourth Amendment
    • First Amendment
    • Privacy
    • Second Amendment
    • Seventh Amendment
    • Sixth Amendment
    • Sunshine Law
    • Third Amendment
    • Religion & Beliefs
    • Human Rights
    • Immigration
    • Labor Rights
    • 14th Amendment
    • Civil Rights
  • Schools
    • Adult Education
    • Belle Terre Elementary
    • Buddy Taylor Middle
    • Bunnell Elementary
    • Charter Schools
    • Daytona State College
    • Flagler County School Board
    • Flagler Palm Coast High School
    • Higher Education
    • Imagine School
    • Indian Trails Middle
    • Matanzas High School
    • Old Kings Elementary
    • Rymfire Elementary
    • Stetson University
    • Wadsworth Elementary
    • University of Florida/Florida State
  • Economy
    • Jobs & Unemployment
    • Business & Economy
    • Development & Sprawl
    • Leisure & Tourism
    • Local Business
    • Local Media
    • Real Estate & Development
    • Taxes
  • Commentary
    • The Conversation
    • Pierre Tristam
    • Diane Roberts
    • Guest Columns
    • Byblos
    • Editor's Blog
  • Culture
    • African American Cultural Society
    • Arts in Palm Coast & Flagler
    • Books
    • City Repertory Theatre
    • Flagler Auditorium
    • Flagler Playhouse
    • Flagler Youth Orchestra
    • Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
    • Palm Coast Arts Foundation
    • Special Events
  • Elections 2024
    • Amendments and Referendums
    • Presidential Election
    • Campaign Finance
    • City Elections
    • Congressional
    • Constitutionals
    • Courts
    • Governor
    • Polls
    • Voting Rights
  • Florida
    • Federal Politics
    • Florida History
    • Florida Legislature
    • Florida Legislature
    • Ron DeSantis
  • Health & Society
    • Flagler County Health Department
    • Ask the Doctor Column
    • Health Care
    • Health Care Business
    • Covid-19
    • Children and Families
    • Medicaid and Medicare
    • Mental Health
    • Poverty
    • Violence
  • All Else
    • Daily Briefing
    • Americana
    • Obituaries
    • News Briefs
    • Weather and Climate
    • Wildlife

As Trial Is Set for Man on Charges of Raping His Granddaughter, Judge Asks: “You Want To Put Her Through That?’

December 13, 2024 | FlaglerLive | 10 Comments

Michael Jennelle in court Monday. (© FlaglerLive)
Michael Jennelle in court Monday. (© FlaglerLive)

Michael Wayne Jennelle is a 53-year-old Palm Coast resident. He’s been at the county jail for the last year and a half. Earlier this week Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols set his trial on charges of raping and molesting a child for Jan. 13, absent a plea. No plea appears forthcoming.

Jennelle faces a capital felony, three life felonies and a second degree felony, all related to the alleged abuse of a girl–his granddaughter, whom he adopted as his daughter–from the time she was 7 to when she was about 10. The prosecution is not seeking the death penalty. The alleged crimes predate the enactment of a new but unconstitutional law enacted in Florida 14 months ago that reinstates the death penalty for individuals convicted of the rape of children younger than 12. If convicted, Jennelle would be immediately sentenced to life in prison. The judge would have no discretion.




There is no DNA evidence, no witnesses, no corroborating evidence. The case will rely almost entirely on the child’s testimony, including two, one-hour long video-recorded interviews with Dwayne Sturgill, a licensed therapist, when the child was around 10. (She is now 12.) She described to him the innumerable times Jennelle had abused her in different ways to pleasure himself, saying several times that she’d lost count of the number or times this or that kind of abuse had happened.

“She did a very good job of speaking clearly and explaining the things that occurred to her,” Sturgill said in court. She did not merely adopt what Sturgill would ask: in such interviewers, therapists are trained not to ask leading questions, leaving it as open as possible for the child to fill in blanks. “In both interviews, I did very little talking. She did a very good job of expressing her thoughts and communicating what she wanted to communicate with me,” he said, with diagrams and a doll helping.

“She’s extremely descriptive about acts that the defendant did to her, actually saw the defendant doing to himself,” Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark told the judge, though the judge already knew that: she’d watched the interviews. “Even a dog was involved. I mean, it was extremely descriptive.” (The child described how when Jennelle would ejaculate on the ground, he’d make his dog lap it up.)




As Nichols judge was ruling on a series of pre-trial motions, including granting the state’s motion to play both video interviews to the jury and allow the defense to depose the child, who is expected to testify, she termed the interviews quite compelling.” The judge looked at Jennelle at the defendant’s table. “I’m assuming that you love your granddaughter. Is that a fair assumption?” the judge asked Jennelle.

“Very much,” Jennell replied.

“And although you didn’t see the interview, these interviews and these depositions are incredibly emotional and trying for children,” the judge said. “You want to put her through that?”

“I didn’t do it. So yes,” Jennelle answered without hesitating.

So trial will proceed.

The girl has a younger brother, now 9. They are the biological children of Jennelle’s daughter. Michael Jennelle and his wife V.J. were married in November 2015, just months after the child’s birth. It’s not exactly clear when they took custody of the two children, or became their caretakers, though at one point Michael Jennelle pursued his daughter for child support and won. He and his wife separated in February 2017, though they adopted the two children in March 2022. In November 2022, they both filed for divorce from each other–she allegedly in Virginia, he in Palm Coast.




“It is in the best interest of the minor children that both parties have shared parental responsibility with the father having a majority of the time sharing and mother having frequent and reasonable visitation,” Michael Jennell’s petition read.

According to a motion by the prosecution, the Department of Children and Families on Nov. 30, 2022 got an anonymous tip that the girl was being sexually abused by Jennelle. At the time the girl had been living with Jennelle, whom she called Poppy, at the Pine Lakes Apartments in Palm Coast. A DCF investigator went to that apartment and interviewed the child. She denied it. (The child had also told Sturgill in the video interviews that she was scared of her Poppy, that he at times bribed her with money to keep her quiet, and that he threatened her, in case she revealed anything, by telling her that it would all be her fault anyway–all tactics common to child abusers.)

DCF dropped it.

The very next day–according to Michael Jennelle in court papers–V.J. forcibly removed both children from an elementary school in Palm Coast after “causing a major campus disruption,” then “secreted them to the state of Virginia without the father’s consent and is refusing to allow the father to have contact with the children.”

Three months later, V.J. called authorities in Tazewell, Va., and in Flagler County to report the alleged abuse her adoptive daughter had been suffering at Michael’s hand.




The defense signaled in court papers what its strategy would be: that the child is lying, and that the accusations may have been motivated by the divorce. The defense claimed in a motion that “during the adoption process, the child [] met with and spoke to staff members of the Community Partnership for Children (known as case workers) and discussed her current living situations and any issues she was dealing with, and was attending counseling at the same time with the CPC for previous issues related to her birth parents.” In the adoption case file, there are “notes from the case workers that deal with the credibility of [the girl] and her truthfulness.”

Then-Judge Terence Perkins ordered the case file released to the attorneys.

In a he-said-she-said case, not to mention a case of this gravity with accusations hanging on the child’s word, the defense has no choice but to argue that the alleged victim is lying. He faces similar charges in Virginia.

Support FlaglerLive's End of Year Fundraiser
Thank you readers for getting us to--and past--our year-end fund-raising goal yet again. It’s a bracing way to mark our 15th year at FlaglerLive. Our donors are just a fraction of the 25,000 readers who seek us out for the best-reported, most timely, trustworthy, and independent local news site anywhere, without paywall. FlaglerLive is free. Fighting misinformation and keeping democracy in the sunshine 365/7/24 isn’t free. Take a brief moment, become a champion of fearless, enlightening journalism. Any amount helps. We’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit news organization. Donations are tax deductible.  
You may donate openly or anonymously.
We like Zeffy (no fees), but if you prefer to use PayPal, click here.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Disgusted in Flagler County says

    December 13, 2024 at 7:28 pm

    The child is NOT LYING!!!

    Loading...
    7
  2. Atwp says

    December 14, 2024 at 9:33 am

    Don’t think she is lying. He is white, sentence will be light, just saying.

    Loading...
    1
  3. FlaglerLive says

    December 14, 2024 at 5:37 pm

    Based on our history of covering these cases, Atwp’s judgment is unlikely.

    Loading...
    2
  4. Nicki says

    December 15, 2024 at 9:02 am

    Scum bag.

    Loading...
    4
  5. Joe D says

    December 15, 2024 at 11:26 am

    In my experience as a Master’s prepared Clinical Nurse Specialist, with 10 years experience as a Child and Family Therapist, it is HIGHLY unlikely the child is lying (not withstanding the defendant’s right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty). The details from the child’s testimony were too graphic, and the interviews were done by a skilled child abuse therapist in such a way as not to
    LEAD the victim. The child used “child like” terms to describe the abuse. Interviewers can tell if the child has been “coached” by a vindictive adult or family member, by the words the child uses to describe the abuse.

    The defendant and his attorney are hoping that the child “falls apart” on the stand, or simply REFUSES to testify (that has happened in some of my cases), and the attorney hopes that he can “catch” the child in ONE LIE…and challenge all her other statements as false. It’s the attorney’s job to cast “reasonable doubt.” One reason I could never be a neutral attorney…just “doing my job,” would rob me of sleep at night…even though EVERYONE deserves a “fair” trial.

    The sickening thought, is for every case of sexual abuse that comes to light, there are hundreds, who are suffering lifelong mental and physical consequences from abuse that is NEVER DISCUSSED.

    Loading...
    9
  6. Skibum says

    December 15, 2024 at 5:09 pm

    The judge, asking an accused child molesting grandfather if he really wants to put the child through the trauma of a trial. And of course, the child molester doesn’t care about further traumatizing his granddaughter by putting her on the witness stand at trial because if he had ANY protective concerns at all for her instead of his own sexual desires, he never would have molested her in the first place. I’ll be happy when he is locked up in prison for his remaining days. Convicted child molesters do not have an easy existence around other felons, who perceive their own felonies as being ok but treat those who use children for sex like the scum of the earth.

    Loading...
    2
  7. Ms.FattyCakes says

    December 30, 2024 at 6:07 pm

    Knowing about this situation first hand, the child is in fact being coached by a narcissist. An abusive woman who has abused many children. Me included. She uses fear to get her way

    Loading...
    0
  8. Ms.FattyCakes says

    December 30, 2024 at 6:08 pm

    And the “therapist” is not qualified.

    Loading...
  9. Myinnocentself says

    March 2, 2025 at 12:01 am

    If she was so abusive you should have reported it while it was going on. Just because you are fighting for his innocence you do not bash other people. This is not his first rodeo girl. According to his background check he has been doing it since young adulthood. I feel like you have Stockholm syndrome. Do you know what that is? They do not let unqualified therapists give forensic interviews. Why are you defending a child molester?

    Loading...
    2
  10. Myinnocentself says

    March 2, 2025 at 12:07 am

    Let us hope it will just punishment.

    Loading...
    1

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Conner Bosch law attorneys lawyers offices palm coast flagler county
  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents

Primary Sidebar

  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents

Recent Comments

  • Jack on Bunnell Mayor in Stunning Maneuver Revives 8,000-Home Development Commission Killed 2 Weeks Ago
  • Larry on Still on Warpath, Palm Coast Mayor Files Records Requests Targeting City Manager’s Communications 
  • Aunt Deena on Contrary to Viral Posts, Head Injury to 13-Year-Old Boy in Palm Coast’s R-Section Attributed to a Fall
  • Sherry on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, June 24, 2025
  • Sherry on This Will Not End Well
  • Me on Still on Warpath, Palm Coast Mayor Files Records Requests Targeting City Manager’s Communications 
  • Pogo on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, June 24, 2025
  • The dude on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, June 24, 2025
  • Skibum on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Tuesday, June 24, 2025
  • Mothersworry on Leaseholder Issues Letter of Intent to Buy Ocean Palm Golf Club, But Without Accountable Milestones City Expected
  • Roman on Smartphones vs. ICE
  • Deborah Coffey on 60 Missing Florida Children in ‘Critical Danger’ Rescued in Largest U.S. Operation
  • Pierre Tristam on This Will Not End Well
  • Notthatsherry on Still on Warpath, Palm Coast Mayor Files Records Requests Targeting City Manager’s Communications 
  • Critical Eye on Still on Warpath, Palm Coast Mayor Files Records Requests Targeting City Manager’s Communications 
  • don miller on Leaseholder Issues Letter of Intent to Buy Ocean Palm Golf Club, But Without Accountable Milestones City Expected

Log in

%d