New Orleans Jury Deciding Wiccan Priest's Child Pornography Case
By Ken Daley
A New Orleans jury has begun deliberations in the trial of Kenneth "Kenny" Klein, the nationally known Wiccan priest and folk music performer from the Garden District facing 20 counts of possessing and distributing child pornography. Jurors retired to decide the case at 5:38 p.m. Klein, 62, is charged 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. The three-day trial has been remarkable for its gut-wrenching nature. It marked the first time in the eight-plus years of District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro's tenure that illicit images of children engaging in sexual activity have been shown to a trier of fact in Orleans Parish, be it a judge or a jury. Security was tight. Discs containing the contraband videos were hand-carried to and from the courthouse by a DA's office investigator in a locked case, and after conclusion of the trial were placed into court custody under seal. The panel of nine women and three men deciding the case appeared agonized Wednesday, as excerpts from each of the 20 videos Louisiana State Police investigators said were recovered from Klein's computer were played over the course of about 35 minutes inside the darkened, silent courtroom of Criminal District Judge Byron C. Williams. Tears welled in the eyes of several jurors, while others clutched their chests tightly. Some ultimately closed or averted their eyes after viewing just a few seconds of each new exhibit. Assistant district attorney Zack Popovich, prosecuting the case with co-counsel Arthur Mitchell, thanked jurors in his closing argument for what they endured. "I know it wasn't easy," Popovich said. "Nobody should have to look at that, but we have elements of our case we have to prove. You had to sit through that, because that's what this man, this child predator, had on his computer and was actively sharing on the internet." Mitchell was more blunt about Klein, who prosecutors said refused to discuss a potential plea offer that would have averted his trial. "Kenneth Klein is sick, Kenneth Klein is twisted," Mitchell told the jury. "It is disturbing what was downloaded onto this man's computer." Defense attorney Bradley Phillips acknowledged the videos constituted child pornography and that they were found on his client's laptop. But he argued that the state failed to prove that his client knew the files were there, and suggested Klein was framed by an embittered ex-wife jealous of Klein's musical success who hacked into his computer remotely from out of state. "I could say anybody hacked his computer, but that wouldn't be reasonable," Phillips said. "We identified a possible alternative suspect that they didn't want you to know about. Somebody else out there could have committed this crime. ... It's not open and shut. It's not that simple." State Police trooper Christopher Treadaway said it was, testifying Wednesday that the internet protocol address registered to Klein was noticed by undercover investigators popping up several times in early 2014 searching for "PTHC" videos, an acronym for "pre-teen hardcore." Klein was arrested at his apartment in the 2800 block of Carondelet Street on March 25, 2014. State trooper Sgt. Joseph Patout said Klein initially made a statement claiming that he downloaded the videos as research for a free-lance article on child pornography that he planned to write and submit to the Huffington Post online news blog. That explanation, which still would violate state law, was not utilized by Klein's defense, but Phillips questioned its veracity because it had not been electronically recorded. Prosecutors also presented two recorded jailhouse phone calls that Klein made to his 31-year-old fiancee Lauren Devoe, a former Tulane University librarian, who asked why he was arrested. Klein replied, "For having underage pornography on my computer, which you warned me about. ... I feel ashamed because I love you and I screwed things up." In a second call, Devoe informs Klein of the allegations against him and Klein says, "I was downloading a bunch of stuff and some of it apparently had teens in it." Klein's defense focused on the theory that the illegal videos were placed on his computer remotely, likely by or at the behest of Klein's former wife Dr. Tzipora Katz, a former high priestess who co-founded the Blue Star tradition of Wicca that Klein discovered and joined during the 1980s in New York. The couple left New York in 1988, starting a four-year odyssey in which they performed music at Pagan festivals and Renaissance fairs around the country while primarily living out of a van. The couple split in 1992, and only afterward, Phillips said, did Katz begin making claims that Klein had abused her and two children sometimes in his care. Katz, called as the first witness for the defense on Thursday, refuted Phillips' timeline. "He was abusive long before we hit the road," Katz said. "I was told by Mr. Klein, repeatedly, that I was fat, stupid and ugly. I later learned that this is consistent with survivors of domestic violence." Katz said Klein was handcuffed once in Florida until she told police she didn't want to press charges for domestic battery. She also said Klein was investigated for child abuse allegations in Pennsylvania in 1992, but that a district attorney decided not to bring the case to trial. "That does not mitigate the fact that (the child) was abused," Katz said. No documentation was provided for those investigations, nor for another by a child services agency in Plano, Texas, that Katz said stalled when they fled across state lines to Oklahoma. "This is how Tzipora Katz does things," Phillips said in his closing. "She twists and she manipulates." Phillips questioned Katz at length about the open sexuality of the coven she established in her youth, the communal household the couple shared with other Wiccans, a BDSM relationship she had with a previous husband, and past employment that included work as a phone-sex operator and performer in New York peep shows. "Yes, there was open sexuality that I participated in," Katz said. "Not my finest years. ... Mr. Klein was not earning income and we had to pay the bills." Katz said Klein, for a time, found work as a substitute teacher. "But he was let go," she said, "and I don't know the reason he was let go." Katz testified that after her marriage to Klein ended, she dropped out of the Pagan community for nearly two decades and earned undergraduate, master's and doctorate degrees in digital communications and education. She told Phillips she was employed for a time as a software instructor, but that her training expertise was limited to the Microsoft Office and Adobe suites. Phillips pressed Katz on whether she knew any "white hat hackers," computer experts often hired by the government or corporations to infiltrate network systems in search of security flaws. "I do know people who have that label in their profession," Katz said. "I have friends that work in software, and friends who sell Tupperware, and friends who crochet sweaters for a living." Prosecutors recalled as a rebuttal witness Lisa Maher, a special agent from the Louisiana Department of Justice, who performed the forensic preview on Klein's computer on behalf of the state Attorney General's office that discovered the video files. Maher again told jurors she found no evidence of remote hacking, viruses or malware on Klein's computer that would account for the videos found on his computer.
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