So we're supposed to condemn an entire political party because of this
scumbag?

--
--
If the United States were the Imperialist conquering thugs most would have
you believe we are, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, the Philippines, etc.
wouldn't be sovereign nations, they would be US territories.

TSH
"Harry Hope" <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:28p4p3pjt7akkcfonrpf30cp0od0tbjc08@4ax.com...

From The Associated Press, 1/18/08:
http://www.startribune.com/nation/13895291.html

Ex-legislator in S. Dakota who raped foster daughters gets long prison
term

By CHET BROKAW , Associated Press


PIERRE, S.D. --

Former state Rep. Ted Klaudt has been sentenced to 44 years in prison
for raping two foster daughters by touching their breasts and genitals
in phony examinations he said would help them sell their reproductive
eggs.

Circuit Judge James W. Anderson of Pierre said Thursday that he
understood Klaudt, 49, had done many good things in his life but that
the former lawmaker appears to have no sympathy for his victims or to
understand that what he did was wrong.

Anderson sentenced Klaudt to 11 years on each of four second-degree
rape convictions with the sentences to be served consecutively.

The judge said Klaudt will be eligible for parole after serving half
that time; he could apply for parole in 22 years.

Klaudt's lawyer, Tim Rensch of Rapid City, said such a lengthy
sentence likely means Klaudt, who weighs more than 600 pounds and is
in poor health, will never make it out of prison alive.

"I think a man like that doesn't have that long to live," Rensch said
after the sentencing hearing. "I don't know what the future holds for
him, but he's not in good health."

Klaudt could have received up to 100 years for the convictions.

Klaudt spoke only briefly during the sentencing hearing.

"I'd like to publicly apologize to those girls for what I did to
them," Klaudt said, also apologizing to his wife and family, the
public and the members of the Legislature he served in from 1999-2006.

"I'm sorry," Klaudt said.

Rensch said Klaudt has not decided yet whether to appeal his
convictions to the state Supreme Court.

The defense attorney asked the judge to send Klaudt to prison for only
four years because a longer sentence would amount to a life sentence.

Klaudt could be rehabilitated and would never harm any other girls if
released from prison, he said.

But Assistant Attorney General Patricia DeVaney, who prosecuted
Klaudt, argued that he deserves a lengthy sentence because he violated
the trust of his foster daughters and has never admitted that what he
did was wrong.

"He's still in a stage of denial... In his mind apparently he believes
he was trying to help these girls," DeVaney told the judge.

"We have a sexual predator."

Rensch said Klaudt wound up in trouble because he started to look at
things on the Internet, including sex chat sites, he should not have
been viewing.

Klaudt's bulk does not excuse his actions, but helps explain his
reaction to improper things he saw on the Internet, the defense lawyer
said.

"His whole life he's been a big guy... When you're his size, you do
your best to fit in," Rensch said.

"He really hasn't been able to develop normally when we're talking
about sexual relationships or sexual desires."

The defense lawyer said Klaudt should get credit for helping stranded
travelers, giving a hand to poor people and serving on a church board.

"It shows that even though he was doing some of these bizarre, strange
and terrible things to the girls, there's a good side to Ted Klaudt,"
Rensch said.

But DeVaney said Klaudt's convictions cover only a small part of the
bad things he did.

The girls he hurt will likely have a tough time recovering, she said.

"Who knows whether they will be able to get their lives back on the
right track," DeVaney said.

Klaudt was convicted in November on four counts of second-degree rape
for incidents that occurred in Hughes County in his Pierre motel suite
during the 2005 and 2006 legislative sessions.

The former Republican lawmaker from the tiny town of Walker was
initially scheduled to be sentenced on the Hughes County convictions
on Jan. 4, but it was delayed after he was admitted to a hospital for
an undisclosed condition.

Rensch said Klaudt was receiving medical care for what might be a
heart problem, but his weight has prevented doctors from conducting
some tests.

After he was convicted in Hughes County, Klaudt pleaded guilty to two
counts of witness tampering to avoid a second trial on charges of
rapes that allegedly occurred in his home in Corson County.

Klaudt, a farmer and rancher, is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in
Deadwood on the Corson County charges. He could face up to 10 years in
prison on each of the convictions for witness tampering.

During the trial in Pierre, Klaudt's lawyer told jurors that even
though Klaudt was wrong to trick the girls into letting him touch
them, his actions did not amount to rape because the girls consented
in the belief that they could make money from donating their eggs to
infertile couples.

But prosecutors said Klaudt raped the girls because he coerced them
into the fake medical examinations and they did not consent to what
Klaudt was really doing.

The charges involved two former foster daughters who testified that
Klaudt touched their breasts and penetrated them with his fingers and
a vibrator while conducting what he said were examinations to
determine if they were healthy enough to donate their eggs.

He told them they could make $10,000 or more in the scheme.

During one of the legislative sessions, one of the girls served as a
legislative page - high school students who run errands for lawmakers.

The girls lived in Klaudt's home as part of a program that provides
foster care for young people who have no safe home to return to after
completing time in juvenile reform programs.

Klaudt served eight years in the House from 1999-2006 and left because
of term limits.

He ran for a Senate seat in 2006 but lost to the Democratic candidate.

____________________________________________________

Harry

So we're supposed to condemn an entire political party because of this
scumbag?

"Harry Hope" <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:28p4p3pjt7akkcfonrpf30cp0od0tbjc08@4ax.com...

From The Associated Press, 1/18/08:
http://www.startribune.com/nation/13895291.html