Prosecutors Want to Use Former Pastor's Letter Admitting to Sex Abuse in Court

WLKY
December 28, 2015

http://www.wlky.com/news/former-minister-accused-of-sexually-abusing-girls-due-in-court/37155142

[with video]

Prosecutors said a Louisville pastor once wrote a letter admitting to sexually abusing children, and now they want to use that letter in court.

Allen Lehmann faces charges of sodomy and sexual abuse. The alleged incidents took place between 1993 and 2000.

The 76-year-old Lehmann was a substitute teacher in Valparaiso, Indiana, when the charges were filed last year. He was also a minister at an Assembly of God Church in Louisville.

Lehman's defense attorney said the letter doesn’t involve the cases in which he is charged, and that it can't be used as evidence against him.

Prosecutors said it shows how Lehman preyed on children.

"What this does do is give context to who the defendant is, and why we are here today," Courtney Straw said. "He wrote this himself, confessed to these other crimes, and ends the letter begging for the church to let him continue to minister because, 'Here, I confessed, I've absolved myself, I've told you just enough to try to keep my license.'"

Prosecutors said the letter, dated March 8, 2011, was handwritten by Lehmann.

The letter said "during the approximate time frame of 1970 to 1978, (he) sexually molested" the victims.

He also said "during the late winter of 1957, (he) sexually molested" another victim.

Lehmann is on trial for abuses police said occurred in the 1990s.

Lehmann's attorney never attacks the letter's authenticity but said his client has never been charged in any other sexual abuse case.

"You're talking, at best, 20 years, different states, different locations, maybe the defendant's house, different times and different allegations," Rob Eggert said.

He argues case law prohibits discussing other "bad acts" that could prejudice a jury.

"They want to show character, predisposition, he's bad, he molests children. Morally, I understand that, but legally, it's inadmissible. It's clear it's inadmissible," Eggert said.

It was after Lehmann wrote this letter that some victims came forward.

According to court records, Assembly of God officials also investigated him for allegations in the 1960s and 1980s.

A civil lawsuit filed against Lehmann also includes the Assembly of God churches in Kentucky and Illinois.

Investigators said his accusers were under the age of 12 when the attacks took place.

Lehman's is free on $100,000 bail. His jury trial is set for February.