Investigative Journalism

Britten Follett talks to students at Gaylord.
PHOTO: Matthew Shaffer

The book “Who Killed Kelsey?” written by Britten Follett and Cherokee Ballard is an investigative report about the abuse of a two-year-old girl and neglect of those working her case.

Follett and Ballard were TV reporters at the time of Kelsey Briggs murder and were covering the case for their respective stations.

The two former reporters recently met with OU students in the Gaylord College. The talk was centered on their careers in investigative journalism and specifically the Kelsey Briggs case.

The two reporters’ incentive for writing the book and digging deeper into the case was to hold everyone involved in the case accountable, mainly judges and the Department of Human Services caseworkers.

“When you try to hold a state agency accountable you get a lot of doors slammed in your face, you get a lot of no comments and you don’t get phone calls returned” Ballard said.  “It was so important, I think, to us as journalists but also to newsrooms around the state. When they would continue to get calls about dead children and DHS involvement and another case I really think that DHS perhaps one day will either be revamped or reorganized.

The two reporters do believe that something was brought to justice following all of their reporting. Ballard noted that the reporting over Kelsey’s case did hold the judge accountable and that she was to blame for him not being re-elected.

“He blames the coverage and me specifically for him losing that seat,” Ballard said.

The book and case led to the passage of “Kelsey’s Law,” which changed the way judges are held accountable in child-abuse cases and also gave the state and DHS the ability to hire more caseworkers.

“I think both of us are one hundred percent responsible for putting Raye Dawn in prison. I do not believe that the district attorney would have ever filed charges against the mom had we not been doing the stories asking why she wasn’t charged,” Follett said.

Ballard and Follett want to hold others accountable in the hopes that it will change the positions of judge and caseworker in the future.

“You’re getting the word out, you are getting the story out there to the point where perhaps it could help save another child’s life,” said Ballard

Cherokee Ballard answers questions from prospective
journalists at Gaylord. PHOTO : Matthew Shaffer.

Both women have moved on from the broadcast journalism field. Ballard held a job at the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s office but is now the communications manager at the Oklahoma Natural Gas Company. Follett has moved on to her family’s company, Follett International, to be the marketing manager.