I would like to share this story of adultery with the world. I was a first hand witness in this tragic tale in which two marriages were destroyed. I feel the world should know what happened so people can see that adultery is a serious thing, especially when it involves children, family, and good friends. The names and street names have been altered, but we do wish to say the name of the city. 

Its origins began in 1995 at the "United Forest" Tang Soo Do Academy in San Diego, Ca (off of Prince View Drive). It is the story of Benny Purrnel and Kelly Borry. Both of these individuals were the driving forces behind their divorces and made a lot of their children and friends lives very miserable. It is a sad story indeed. 

Both Benny Purrnel and Kelly Borry met each other in the spring of 1993. Kelly enrolled her son "Krissy", in the United Forest Tang Soo Do Academy. Benny was the instructor and owner of the studio. Both Benny and Kelly were married to other spouses at the time. Benny had just gotten married a year earlier to his pen pal sweetheart from Hong Kong - "Angie" and Kelly was married to Mr. Borry for about 10 years or so. As students come and go in what can sometimes be a fickle business in the martial arts, young Krissy seemed to last. As time went on, Kelly enrolled into the studio along with her daughters, Regan and Cindy. They were very active in participating with the studio in such things as promotional demonstrations and tournaments. 

As the fall of 1995 approached, things were changing for the folks at United Forest. Benny was moving the studio from its Mission George location down the street to Prince View Drive. The studio itself was a better facility with more room for its students, but had to be renovated with construction. This was a stressful time for both Benny and his wife Angie. Benny was also working as a security guard to make money for his rent while Angie was working two jobs and began attending nursing school. Benny had also brought his two (illegitimate) kids from Michigan to live with him – Benny Jr. and Benita. Angie was also stressed with her two jobs, going to school, and having to adjust to living with both kids, especially Benita who hated Angie for being Chinese and her father’s attention. Benny did have a lot of time on his hands while Angie was off trying to help this dysfunctional-non organic family. If you knew Benny, it looked like a dangerous situation because in the past, he was what you would call a “ladies man”. He felt destined to change and said he wanted to be a family man, but his urges were determined to get the best of him. 

Kelly also had her situation, but it did not seem as stressful. Her and Mr. Borry husband were raising three kids and looked extremely happy. Mr. Borry was an architect and Kelly was acting as a housewife. They both lived in a calm middle class community. Their family was not just involved in the martial arts, but they were also involved in their kids school. With Kelly, you have to assume that the family life was getting to her a bit. She and her husband were in their early thirties. 

Who knows how it exactly started, but the sparks began to fly between both Benny and Kelly. It was all of a sudden when both of these “love birds” were hooking up in a very secretive manner. The first thing you would notice is when they were displaying their flirting in public. Kelly was not around her husband a lot, but Angie was around Benny at United Forest and quickly began to pick on how these two were developing special connections. So did a few other people that were allies of Angie. Some of those allies began to follow Benny around the city when he wasn’t with Angie. According to the allies, Benny and Kelly were spotted at the Magellan Park making out. About a week or so later, they were spotted at the Target in Grossmont Center holding hands as if they were both boyfriend and girlfriend. Angie than began to notice how Benny would take off in the middle of the night. The clinching moment in which war was going to be declared was when Angie noticed Benny’s pager go off. She quickly noticed it was Kelly’s number around 2 or 3 in the morning. Angie saw this occurrence go on for a few days. The minute Angie called Kelly’s number back and called her a “whore”, the cat was out of the bag. 

Accusations and assumptions were then taking place. It was a pretty obvious situation though. Benny and Kelly were having an affair. They denied everything that was thrown at their plate. Angie knew by her sixth sense that both “love birds” were lying. She then called up Benny’s father figure and mentor, Lawrence Hallison to investigate and see what was going on with Benny, especially since Angie was becoming like a daughter to him. Lawrence then called Benny and asked him if he was cheating on his wife. Benny denied it. Lawrence as a surrogate father felt he should take Benny’s word for it. At the same time, Mr. Borry got word this his wife was cheating on him and his suspicions began. To ease tensions, Lawrence and Benny went over to the Borry house and explained to Mr. Borry that Benny was not cheating on his wife and that he was not disrespecting his home. The longer the lies were getting, the bigger the explosion was going to be. 

The patterns spilled into early February 1996. The flirting was getting more intense and even more public with both Benny and Kelly. All the students at United Forest were being first hand witnesses to the destruction of these two marriages, especially the kids. It even got to a point where Angie was loosing her cool because she couldn’t take the lies and deception that everyone was seeing in living color. To think that she left everything in Hong Kong to marry Benny from a relationship through being pen pals in a magazine and now she gets cheated on, wouldn’t you be angry? 

As March of 1996 rolls around, both Angie and Mr. Borry left their spouses. And things were about to get worse than they already were. With Angie leaving, over half the income was gone from the Purrnel household, leaving Benny in some serious debt. Kelly was left the house, the dog, and obviously – her kids. She did not have a college education and she was a part-time nanny, but it wouldn’t pay for the mortgage, the phone, nor the cable bills. This situation also divided United Forest in two camps – the Pro Angie side and the Pro Benny side. In a month or so, all the pro-Angie supporters left the studio for good looking down on Benny as an adulterer and as a poor role model for his martial arts students. Kelly was seen as a jezebel, a home wrecker, and as a pathetic mother to her three kids. Just looking at the disappoint on Lawrence Hallison’s face, you knew that Benny lost a lot of credibility and he knew it. 

Kelly and Benny continued their relationship well into 1996. Both still had their kids around. Benny’s kids were already teenagers and living in the ghettos of Benson Harbor, Michigan, they were used to instability in their home. Kelly’s kids on the other hand were the type of children you’d consider “All-American” with a suburban lifestyle used to living that “Brady Bunch-Leave It to Beaver” life. For their father to leave the house was devastating to them even though he spent the weekends with them and gave them money. Kelly’s kids were extremely angry at Benny for what he did and they hated every single one of his guts with a passion. I remember one time when Benny picked up little Cindy and she bit him on his cheek similar to how Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield on the ear. And lets not forget Krissy and Regan feelings. Krissy was about 12 and Regan was about 8. As you would watch some of the United Forest kids interact with each other, it was evident that Krissy and Regan were beginning to be traumatized with the current situation, especially when Benny spent his nights at Kelly’s place. And the interesting thing was that both Benny and Kelly kept denying their relationship. 

Benny’s deceitfulness kept growing faster by the minute. With half his income gone with Angie, he had to borrow money from his students. From direct conversations, I know that there were three students who let Benny borrow a lot of money to help keep United Forest going. As a tactic, he cried to those students to seem like he was licking the curb. The students out of loyalty let Benny borrow money and with upcoming tournaments in San Bernadino and the World Championships in Las Vegas, it was business as usual for United Forest.  

Benny soon began to let go that Angie left him. Although he was still having his intimate relationship with Kelly, Benny’s player side was beginning to come out of him again. Benny sure knows how to pick them because he wanted to cheat with another married student in his studio. Her name was Esperanza Felix. She had three kids and had her marital problems with Mr. Felix. Now, Esperanza flirted a little with Benny as a favor to one of Angie’s friends to see how low he would be willing to go. Benny was so confident he could have a second relationship with Esperanza that he was asking her to move in with him and to leave her husband and to bring the three kids. If that isn’t scandalous, who knows what is? 

A lot of the situation came to light in August of 1996 when one of Angie’s allies in the studio whose family was still training there (in neutrality of course) was angry that Benny was still with Kelly the jezebel and still trying to pick up on Esperanza. It was then that Benny chose to protect his reputation and credibility over his friends and the truth. Those who opposed Benny and his adulterous ways were shunned and exiled out of United Forest. Benny had no consideration, even for those who considered him good friends. The minute his top student, Cuahtemoc Sosa opposed Benny’s poor behavior and professional credibility, it created a big demise for him, taking away his loyalty, instructor privileges, respect, etc. away. The sad part is the Sosa family helped to build the United Forest which was there for seven years. 

There are more tragic parts to the story, but they are only aftereffects of adultery. In 1997, the divorce between Benny and Angie became legal. As for, Kelly, her divorce date is unknown, but it became a reality. It is a story where the action of adultery created lies and it destroyed two marriages, a lot of friendships, and people’s hard work of martial arts studio was thrown down the drain. Benny’s son ran away from home at the age of 17 back in 1998. His daughter Benita went back to live with her mother who was going through a drug addiction problem in 1996. Regan, Krissy, and Cindy are all doing okay today, but their unstable family life changed their perceptions forever. In 1996, Lawrence Hallison died at the age of 77 from natural causes. It is tragic because him and Benny never spoke again and Lawrence’s heart was broken from Benny’s lies. Benny has lived internally with the guilt. Benny also faced some law suits from his old students and lost in small claims court. How sad indeed.

 

Below is poem that explains the situation. 

Once upon a time
in the 6-1-9
existed 2 people
by the names of Ben & Kelly
Who were united by their sense of lust & adventure  

both Ben & Kelly came from the depths of marriage
Ben married to his pen pal honey
while Kelly was shacked up with her high school sweetheart
producing 3 daughters with the hair of gold  

You would think that both Ben & Kelly would be happy
with their current matrimonies
but to them it only seemed like plain baloney 

Now back in the day, Ben was a jigalo
with that big'ol afro
and that Jim Kelly Flow (The guy from Enter The Dragon)
so Ben knew how to sweep the ladies off their feet
his jigalo mentality must have revived
when he got an adultry jones for Shell  

And Kelly being bored out of her suburban mind
desired that mandingo of a Ben
catching a Jungle fever of a 120 degrees
soon, both love birds began to flirt
and flirt led to smooch
which then turned to petting
and you know the rest  

What's funny is that they thought
they could keep it on down low
but instead they got caught like Marion Berry
smokin' the crack pipe  

Soon, Ben's Hong Kong girlie left knowing love
wouldn't bring him back from his sexcapade
while Kelly's hubby took off
like the Browns from Cleveland  

You would think Ben & Kelly would try to save
their marriages
but no
they kept on the affair  

& all of Ken & Kelly's friends knew they were
bumpin' & grindin'
and the love birds denied it
Kelly's kids grew grotesque of what was happening
especially since Ben seemed like Joe Jackson to them  

& as Ben & Kelly kept doin' it, & doin'it, & doin' it wrong
they still denied it
only pushing away their friends  

For Ben, it seemed as days, months, & years had passed
He was losing his wife,money,friends,dignity,
credibility, and self-respect
while Kelly lost her respect as a mother,
friend, and gained a reputation as a jezebel, whore,
homewrecker, unfit mother, financial screw up, etc....

So the moral of the story
if you stick the spoon in the pudding
make sure there's not another spoon in the bowl
A mistake which you never let end will blow up
in your face & destroy everything you have
 

By World B. Free