‘Tummy massage,’ chocolate cake: Cliff Kirkland sent texts to alleged victims for years
For years, Cliff Kirkland exchanged text messages with the young girls he’s accused of molesting, often sending repeated messages when the victims would not respond.
In some, the ex-city of Biloxi official told an alleged victim he would always be there for her.
In others, he expressed disappointment or sadness when he hadn’t heard from them on special occasions.
“I was a little disappointed I didn’t hear from you all day on my birthday,” Kirkland wrote in a text in 2019 to one of the alleged molestation victims.
When the girl didn’t respond, Kirkland wrote back, “Where is my chocolate cake?”
In another message to a victim, he wrote, “If you need a tummy massage later, the blue house is open.”
On Monday, assistant district attorneys Alison Baker and George Huffman called several witnesses to testify against Kirkland at his ongoing trial on nine counts of touching a child for lustful purposes. He’s accused of molesting three minor girls at different times between 2013 and 2017 at his blue home on Thomas Street in Biloxi.
Kirkland, 69, has denied any wrongdoing. If he is convicted, each charge against Kirkland carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
Victim confides in MS Coast cheer coach
According to witnesses, including Biloxi police investigator Steven Kelly, Kirkland often bought gifts like clothes or food for the alleged victims or took them to ball games or to get ice cream or go swimming as part of the alleged grooming process.
The girls, Kelly said, felt like he paid for everything they did and bought them gifts because he felt guilty about allegedly molesting them.
Kelly and others, including former cheer coach Tiffany Johnson, testified in court on Monday before the prosecution rested their case. The first of the three victims to talk about the alleged molestation had confided in Johnson.
Johnson confirmed the girl had shared the allegations of abuse with her in December 2019 and that she shared the information with the girl’s parents and then Biloxi police.
Johnson, now a third-year medical school student, said she was mandated by the state to report such allegations of wrongdoing to authorities when she was alerted of the alleged sex crimes. She said she is still in touch with the victim today.
The girl, she said, has visited her several times since she left for medical school.
Shortly after Johnson reported the allegations, Biloxi police began investigating.
The first victim also identified two other girls who were allegedly molested by Kirkland. She had told the other two victims she was going to come forward about the abuse before police began investigating.
All three girls underwent forensic interviews about the alleged crimes at the Child Advocacy Center in Gulfport.
Kelly said he listened to the girls sharing what had happened to them during the interviews through a television monitor in another room.
The girls claimed the molestation took place on a multi-colored couch bed in a makeshift apartment Kirkland lived in upstairs at the home. The girls said he fondled them, and sometimes they woke up with Kirkland naked and lying next to them.
In addition, the victims said he sometimes walked around naked in a white robe that he didn’t tie up.
On Monday, prosecutors showed pictures of Kirkland’s home and the couch where the alleged crimes occurred. In the bathroom that the girls said didn’t lock hung Kirkland’s white robe.
All three girls testified at the trial.
Kirkland’s relatives, including two children, lived downstairs at the home.
The girls said they went there to visit the other children who lived there.
Kirkland’s attorney, Keith Pisarich, questions why the girls waited so long to come forward with the allegations.
Kirkland was also heard saying during a break that none of the girls cried a single tear during their forensic interviews with authorities, suggesting the allegations against him are false.
Text messages with song lyrics, massages
In some of the texts Kelly found on cellphones that belonged to Kirkland and the victim, Kirkland often writes to find out if one of the alleged victims, in particular, wanted to come to his home or go places.
He started texting the girl more and more with no response in the months leading up to his December 2019 arrest.
In one of the texts, Kirkland asked a victim if she wanted to go to a football game at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.
When she didn’t respond, he sent another text.
“I’m getting pretty old and my memory isn’t what it used to be, but I can still remember when you used to answer my calls or texts,” he wrote.
When she didn’t respond, he wrote back again.
“It’s OK,” he said, “if you don’t want to spend time with me anymore. It’s OK. I’m still here if you need me.”
In another message in late 2019, Kirkland wrote, “When you get off work tonight, you can come (to) spend the night and come take care of me.”
The alleged victim didn’t respond.
However, in one exchange in November 2019, one of the alleged victims did respond, though only briefly.
In it, Kirkland wrote, “Who loves you?”
The girl wrote back, saying “God.”
Kirkland asked the girl to tell him who else loved her, but she didn’t answer.
He wrote back again, saying, “Everyone,” and “still the guy in the blue house.”
In some of the last text messages Kirkland sent before his arrest, Kirkland recited some of the lyrics from the song “Someone you Loved” by Lewis Capaldi:
“I let my guard down
“And then you pulled the rug.
“I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved.”
He added a picture of the girl at a younger age eating a hamburger and sent it to her as well.
The message that really stood out, prosecutors said, was the one Kirkland sent offering a stomach massage to one of the victims.
When the girl didn’t respond, Kirkland sent another message, the police investigators said.
“What time are you coming over?” he asked anyway. “What time do I need to pick you up?”
His text was never answered by the victim.
Testimony in the case resumes Tuesday.
This story was originally published May 17, 2022 at 7:30 AM.
