Child porn trial opens for New Orleans Wiccan priest

By Ken Daley
Times-Picayune
April 5, 2017

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2017/04/child_porn_trial_opens_for_new.html

Kenneth Klein, 62, was arrested in March 2014 at his home on Carondelet Street, where Louisiana State Police agents said they seized a computer containing a trove of 20 pornographic videos featuring minor children engaging in explicit sexual activity.

A New Orleans man who is a nationally known Wiccan high priest, musician and author suggested through his attorney Wednesday (April 5) that a bitter ex-wife is responsible for the trove of child pornography videos found on his computer three years ago by Louisiana State Police.

In opening arguments in the child porn case of Kenneth "Kenny" Klein, defense attorney Bradley Phillips told jurors his client's ex-wife was a software expert and Wiccan high priestess, who with Klein established the nature-worshipping Blue Star tradition of Wicca. Phillips said Klein and Dr. Tzipora Katz, who in the 1980s performed folk music at Pagan festivals and Renaissance fairs under the moniker Kenny and Tzipora, divorced in 1992. Allegations that Klein had sexually molested children and shared child pornography began after their divorce, Phillips said.

"You can't imagine the hell that this woman has put Kenny Klein through for the last 30 years," Phillips told the jury. "And remember, computers are not some Fort Knox. They're not impenetrable."

He added: "We're not contesting that these were found on the computer belonging to Kenny Klein. It will horrify you, but you will learn it also horrifies Mr. Klein."

Orleans Parish assistant district attorneys Zack Popovich and Arthur Mitchell told the panel of nine women and three men the explanation for Klein's March 2014 arrest is far simpler: That Klein has a predilection for pornography involving children and was caught through an undercover investigation with 20 illicit video files on his laptop computer that had been made available for sharing in a peer-to-peer network.

Prosecutors said they plan to bring two adult witnesses who will testify that Klein molested them when they were young children two decades ago in another state. Klein has not been charged with molestation in this case. Popovich said testimony will show Klein "continues to encourage and participate in the exploitation of children by possessing and sharing child pornography."

Klein, 62, is charged in a 20-count bill of information with one count of pornography involving a juvenile under the age 13, and 19 counts of possession with intent to distribute pornography involving juveniles under the age 17. He faces 10 to 40 years in prison if convicted of the first count, and 5 to 20 years on each of the other 19 counts.

Klein was arrested at his apartment in the 2800 block of Carondelet Street, near the Garden District, on March 25, 2014. Agents of the Louisiana State Police Special Victims Unit, who said they tracked online activities linked to Klein's internet protocol address, executed a search warrant at his residence and seized a Toshiba laptop computer that contained 20 videos showing minor children engaged in sexually explicit activities, authorities said.

State Police investigator Christopher Treadaway testified that the IP address registered to Klein was noticed by police popping up several times searching for "PTHC" videos, an acroynm for "pre-teen hardcore."

A second computer and external thumb drive seized at the scene contained no child pornography, Treadaway testified, but the illicit files on the Toshiba were found manually moved and deeply hidden inside a file tree.

"In that Toshiba, there was a folder that had a significant amount of child pornography on it," Treadaway testified. "It was buried under several files. There was a User folder, then a folder named K, then a folder named Documents, then a folder named Fairies, then a folder named Titles, and then a folder named Basic. And when you opened that Basic folder, that's when you could see the child pornography. The location that it was in was different from where it normally would have arrived from the file-sharing program."

According to court documents related to his arrest, Klein admitted that the computer was his and that he had used the laptop to download and share the child pornography via the peer-to-peer networks monitored by law enforcement.

According to the documents, Klein initially told investigators he had an addiction to pornography, but later offered an explanation that he had downloaded the videos as "research" for an article on child pornography that he planned to write.

Prosecutors said no such article ever was written by Klein, he never shared such plans with anyone, and that state law prohibits the possession and distribution of such files in any instance.

Treadaway testified that investigators found no evidence indicating Klein's laptop had been hacked or tampered with, and said no one ever called in a tip saying Klein was engaging in child pornography.

Before the jury was brought in, Phillips complained to Criminal District Court Judge Byron C. Williams that state prosecutors were concealing the whereabouts of Klein's ex-wife, who he said was in New Orleans but no longer was being called to testify in the state's case-in-chief.

Williams told Phillips it was his responsibility to find and serve a subpoena to Katz if he wanted Katz as a defense witness. But the judge agreed that the state's tactics appeared to amount to "gamesmanship" and an agreement soon was brokered by which District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro's office agreed to make Katz available for a defense subpoena.

The trial in Williams' court is expected to conclude Thursday.