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	Tucsonan, Ex-Minister, Admits to Sex with Teens By A.J. Flick Tucson Citizen May 21, 2008 http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/85848.php A 76-year-old Tucson man pleaded guilty in Pennsylvania to sexual acts with two teenage girls in 1980. Gerald Leroy Klever, a former associate pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Penn., pleaded no contest Friday in Delaware County Courthouse to the rape of a 16-year-old girl and guilty to involuntary deviant sexual intercourse with an 18-year-old girl, said Deputy District Attorney Sheldon Kovach. By agreement, Klever will be sentenced to 10 years' probation. The first year will be served on monitored house arrest at his home in the Catalina foothills, when he is formally sentenced July 29, Kovach said. By pleading no contest to the rape charge, Kovach said, Klever admitted that the state had enough evidence to convict him. Kovach said the offenses normally would carry mandatory jail time, but because of Klever's age and failing health, the state agreed to probation plus 1,000 hours of community service and restitution to one victim for $25,000 in counseling. One victim, who tried for years to get the church to investigate Klever, was comforted by Klever's admissions Friday, Kovach said. "She felt he was genuinely remorseful and that he said he knew his actions were unconscionable," Kovach said. Pennsylvania and Arizona have an interstate compact, so after Klever is sentenced, arrangements will be made to transfer him to be overseen by Pima County Adult Probation. Klever must register as a sex offender in both states. Kovach said Klever's church received complaints about him for years, but church officials refused to investigate. Not only did the church seem to have a protective mentality such as the Catholic Church's in abuse issues, Kovach said, but in those days, such sexual claims weren't often handled in the justice system. Kovach was sent to counseling around 1980 when the church received a complaint from parents about their child, Kovach said. About three years ago, the church's new pastor agreed to look into the matter and surveyed the congregation for any complaints against Klever, who left the Pennsylvania church in 1983 and left the ministry around 1988, Kovach said. A dozen alleged victims came forward, but only four would speak to law enforcement officers, Kovach said. Of those four, the statute of limitations had run out on alleged crimes against two of them. Had Klever not moved away - first to Maryland before settling in Tucson - he couldn't have been prosecuted for crimes against the other two victims, Kovach said. Because he moved, the statute of limitation froze on allegations between 1980 and 1983. "It's a quirk in the law," Kovach said. "Had he remained in Pennsylvania, he would not have been prosecuted on anything." Klever was in Pennsylvania for the court proceeding and could not be reached for comment. First Presbyterian's congregation posted a statement on the church's Web site expressing "great pain, heartbreak, and also a small sense of healing and justice." "When we began conversations with victims two years ago we had no clue that criminal charges would still be possible," the unsigned statement reads. "We humbly sought to let the truth be known, to support victims, and to try to facilitate healing. "To the credit of the character of these victims, their primary concern throughout all of our discussions has been to assure no additional individuals are currently or could be in the future victimized by Mr. Klever."
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