Fort Worth oil exec sentenced to 10 years in prison in sex assault of adopted daughter

A Fort Worth crude petroleum production company executive who sexually assaulted his adopted daughter when she was a teenager was sentenced on Monday to 10 years in prison.

Charles Seely Jr. pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault of a child and two counts of prohibited sexual conduct. He was sentenced in 372nd District Court.

During a seven-year period Seely, 51, gave his daughter what he described as lessons on sex in their home in southwest Fort Worth’s Westcliff neighborhood, in a car outside a church, at an Acapulco vacation house and after hours in his downtown office.

In the first encounters, Seely entered his then-15-year-old daughter’s bedroom from an adjoining bathroom several times each week as she slept, she alleges in a lawsuit. He got into Valya Seely’s bed and touched her breasts, buttocks and vagina.

The account of their sexual contact is described in the lawsuit that Valya Seely filed in July 2018 in 153rd District Court. It is unresolved.

Charles Seely, the vice president of the Seely Oil Company, was between 42 and 48 during January 2012 to November 2018, the period the suit alleges the sexual abuse occurred. He and his wife brought Valya, now in her mid-20s, to Fort Worth from Russia.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram typically does not publish the name of a person who alleges they are a victim of a sex crime. In this case, an attorney representing Valya Seely in the civil case said that she agreed to be identified in reporting with the expectation that it would discourage other men considering untoward acts with their children.

The use of her name and the credibility of her account that is supported by it may “deter other fathers from sexually assaulting their daughters,” biological or adopted, the attorney has said.

When Valya Seely was 16 and 17, he twice recorded on video his sexual abuse of her that occurred in her bedroom and her younger brother’s bedroom, the suit alleges. He intended to view the video when she was not around.

Charles Seely confessed to relatives and employees of his family’s business, according to a warrant affidavit written to support his arrest.