House Bill 1109 hiccuped in committee yesterday… then hiccuped again.
Rep. Tom Brunner (R-29/Nisland) has been shepherding HB 1109 through the Legislature. His intent is to “provide for parole eligibility and early final discharge for certain inmates” and clean up some Corrections statutes. Section 1 would create five criteria that would make an inmate eligible for “compassionate parole consideration”:
- Has a terminal illness;
- Is seriously ill and not likely to recover;
- Requires extensive medical care or significant chronic medical care;
- Is at least sixty-five years of age, has served at least ten consecutive years of the inmate’s sentence incarcerated, whose current sentences are for convictions of a Class 1 felony or below and whose medical care needs exceed the average need and cost of the inmate population; or
- Is at least seventy years of age and has served at least thirty consecutive years of the inmate’s sentence incarcerated and is not serving a capital punishment sentence;
Section 4 ensures that inmates aren’t dumped onto the county health care rolls; compassionate parole may only be granted if the inmate can cover his or her own medical costs or qualifies for Medicare, Medicaid, or some other health coverage that won’t cost the counties money.
No one testified against HB 1109 in House Judiciary, but yesterday in Senate Judiciary, Paul Bachand spoke up on behalf of the South Dakota State’s Attorneys Association to say our county prosecutors don’t like this bill. Bachand said (scroll to time 21:15 in the SDPB audio) he understands the concept of “medical clemency,” but he expressed concern that Section 11 makes lifers eligible for compassionate parole, meaning life sentences are no longer life sentences.
Rep. Brunner spoke Christianly of the terminally ill in our prisons as “the least of these” and said, “but by the grace of God, there we are also… there’s people who deserve a chance to go home and die in the presence of their family.” He also spoke of unburdening the state of these medical costs.
The committee leaned narrowly toward Bachand’s objection. On a 4–3 vote—Greenfield, Nelson, Netherton and Russell versus Kennedy, Langer, and Rusch—Senate Judiciary sent HB 1109 to the 41st day—i.e., death.
But later Thursday in the Senate, Senator Deb Peters invoked Joint Rule 7-7 to smoke HB 1109 out of committee. Evidently there remains interest in the Senate in letting some sick prisoners go home.
Now I have to wonder who might go home. How about former legislator turned sex offender Ted Klaudt? Recall that Klaudt was convicted of sexual offenses against his foster daughters in 2007. He was morbidly obese when he went into prison, and his condition, I hear, is no better now.
So could House Bill 1109 be the “Let Klaudt Out” bill? Maybe the smoke-out action on Monday or Tuesday will tell us.
How old is Klaudt?
Born April 9, 1958. Looks like about 60-59ish.
“… whose current sentences are for convictions of a Class 1 felony or below…”
Enlighten me please. Are there offenses greater than a Class 1 felony ? Just askin’ …
If someone is eligible for social security or medicaid, they should be covered by it if in jail or not. Repeat child molesters should be in prison for life or they will repeat and mess up more lives than just themselves. No reason to let him out if we want a sane society. If I remember correctly he was a foster parent and molested kids. Someone with that much responsibility should have a harsher sentence anyway.
Federal law prohibits payment of social security, medicare and VA health care to anyone incarcerated for 30 or 60 days or more depending upon the program. I don’t recall just when this law was passed but it was found people serving life sentences were receiving full Social Security or SS disability. The law applies to federal, state and county prisoners.
States and counties have been tried to get this law changed to allow medical care benefits to continue as the medical costs are eating a big hole in their jail budgets. The has been no action on modifying the law by congress.
The prisoner’s benefits can be restored upon release to parole or probation.
That disgusting, repulsive vermin Klaudt should stay in prison till he rots. No exceptions.
LET KLAUDT OUT! I know the rest of the story. I am very good friends with his wife. We grew up together.
Mrs. Volesky, are you just trying to stir the pot, as is your wont, or are you trying to prevent his wife from being investigated further and thrown in the Corson County jail?
Another ill-informed republican operative. Maybe check the 2 consenting young women’s ages.
If you check the DOC Website Klaudt is up to 469 pounds…yikes
John-Looks like prison life has been good for him, gaining weight.
Maybe he should be sent to a Russian work camp to slim down.
The bill makes sense to me. Dollars and cents. Klaudt wouldn’t even be eligible for parole consideration for 5 years when he turns 65, and I just don’t see the parole board granting him parole under this provision anyway. He has been unrepentant, and his friends are feeding him this “it’s not your fault” BS – as you can see from Tara here. Klaudt is a sicko and will stay in the pen regardless of whether this bill passes. But it should pass to open the possibility for “consideration” of other worthy cases.
Bucko Bear—Yes! there are felonies worse than Class 1. Class A, B, and C felonies are our life-sentence crimes. Class A is the only felony eligible for the death penalty. See SDCL 22-6-1 for our nine felony classes, A–C, 1–6.
John—I’ll be darned! I didn’t know one could look up offenders and get that information. 5’10”, 469 pounds—Klaudt is three of me, all packed into the same height.
He’s in Springfield on four counts of second-degree rape and two counts of tampering with witnesses (I suppose he didn’t do that either, Tara?) until January 2062.
For those of you who want to check the data yourself, here’s the link to the DOC offender locator:
http://doc.sd.gov/adult/lookup/
It’s been 25 years since I worked in corrections in SoDak but I know then the parole board had absolutely no time for unremorseful perps. Child molesters are the most disgusting of the lot and when they refuse to take responsibility chances that they’ll reoffend are very high. That vicious felon should not see the light of day.
Klaudt isn’t really 5’10”. More like 5’8″ – like Jerry Blackwell.
He should have been out years ago. Consenting adults, no intercourse. The guy is harmless.
The man violated his duty to his foster daughters and tampered with witnesses. What compassion does such a man deserve?
Sam, in 2008, the press said Klaudt was 600 pounds. Prison has been slimming him down.
Why discriminate about his weight? Maybe look at it as a health issue. Ted has some major health problems. He did the crime, paid the fine, served his time. What more do you want? The guy was a real idiot, but these 2 girls didn’t have to participate. I think they wanted to make some fast cash. I think it all boils down to money. When he didn’t deliver, they blew the whistle.
How does one go about discriminating about someone’s weight?
Just read the comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DgBqYkcxZs&t=223s
Ted is a sexual predator that was found guilty as charged. He is also a republican and that makes his sexual abuse acceptable to Tara and the rest of that same gang of abusers. The fact that he is a 600 pounder does not have real issue to the case other than he could not run to fast or very far. Let him stay in the hoosegow and drop some weight while he is there, it would much improve his health that I am paying for.
Most sex offenders that I have known, have never spent 10 years in prison. Many sex offenders don’t go to jail, they just go to another parish.
Did you watch the video Jerry? Millions and millions of dollars involved.
Ted was a lawmaker, a man that held an elected position of trust. He failed the electorate, and he failed his family. He broke the law.
I think you should probably seek some different friends that are not sex offenders Tara. Here are the laws that your sex fiend buddy helped to pass in South Dakota for the innocent use of something for medical reasons https://www.mpp.org/states/south-dakota/ Nope, old Ted is in a safe place now, with 3 meals a day instead of 50, a roof over his head and free medical care all courtesy of me and the rest of the taxpayers. He abused children that matter, that trusted his sorry arse, so now he must continue to remain isolated from further abuse.
Jerry can you show me where I said I was a friend or a sex friend buddy of Ted? Thank you.
But then, after getting convicted of rape and abuse, what does Ol’ Ted do? Why he doubles down of course just like trump and the rest of your bunch Tara. So then, they have to give him some more tough love
“DEADWOOD – Ted Klaudt wiped tears away and apologized to his victims, the state Legislature and the taxpayers of South Dakota as he was sentenced Tuesday in Deadwood to 10 years on each of two counts of tampering with witnesses.
The sentences will be served at the same time. That brings his total sentence to 54 years behind bars.
Klaudt was sentenced last week in Pierre to 11 years on each of four Hughes County counts of second-degree rape.
Klaudt was convicted of those counts in November by a jury in Pierre.
The former legislator appeared at his sentencing Tuesday carrying a Bible and wearing street clothes despite being in custody at Lawrence County Jail.”
Ted needs to stay and I will continue to help pay his upkeep and his healthcare. When he gets out, sometime in the next 44 years or so, maybe he will be better for it. Those are my thoughts and prayers.
For many years I worked in court administration and witnessed how the Klaudt case became known nationally because of the precedents it set for case law. Attorneys were able to document Klaudt’s fraud, treachery, malicious coercion, and demonstrate his intentions definitively. He pled guilty to the witness tampering in a deal to avoid another rape trial involving two more young women. His legal shenanigans to get release from prison have been denied and denounced on the state and federal levels, where they were termed “nonsensical.” In his trial, the testimony of other young women was admitted because it offered proof of his method and intentions. And there was a mass of emails and internet pages that detailed his heinous exploits. The extensive trial transcripts and supporting court documents justify his sentence. And if he were to be released, he could stand trial on additional charges that aren’t covered by the plea deal or the statute of limitations.
That is why I was stunned and dismayed to read someone dismissing the charges for which he was convicted and shaming the young women who were put in his foster care to provide a safe and healthy environment. The courts determined that he took advantage of the hopes of young women for improving their lives and they consented to what they were told were medical examinations, not lewd and perverted acts. The court showed that the penetration of the young women in those circumstances constituted rape, as it did in the recent case of the olympic gymnastics Sr. Nassar. Claiming that being friends with Klaudt’s spouse gives knowledge of the case not revealed in the remarkably extensive and precedent-setting court records is as nonsensical as Klaudt’s appeals. Klaudt was charged with stalking, two counts of witness tampering, two counts of sexual contact with persons under 16, eight counts of rape, molestation, intimidation, threat of no less than five victims under his care.she young women placed in the Klaudt foster care were betrayed. That’s how harmless Klaudt is. The women are still being betrayed in some of these comments.
Anybody that is too cowardly to state their name might want to look in a mirror. Are you his roommate Jerry? lol. I guess I will let God judge him whether he is a changed man. The rest of my bunch….who are you referring too Jerry?
Anne, did these young women have criminal records. Not sure, but my understanding is they came from the Department of Corrections. Correct me if I am wrong. Thank you.
My real name is Puddin’ N’ Tain (Ask Me Again, I’ll Tell You The Same). Nope, no roommate of mine. It is you who are so familiar with him though Tara. I guess you like your republicans kind of on the chubby side, eh? Is that for snuggling in the winter, when its cold or the shade in the summer?
God judged him in a court of law Tara. See, that is how it works. Doesn’t matter if you pack that good book around or not. God and the jury found his sorry arse guilty as charged and then turned right around and did it again for a twofer.
Apparently your God doesn’t forgive Mr. righteous. I hope God forgives me because I am a sinner just like Ted.
Tara V.
Some of them had been in juvenile detention, in some cases as a protective measure, but as juvenile records are sealed, their exact circumstances are not revealed so that juvenile histories will not detract from their chance to build positive lives in adulthood, I do not know if any were processed through the DOC, but the fact that they were in foster care indicates more that they were removed from harmful environments than that they had been detained for serious criminal offenses. The Klaudt case and the Mette case in Aberdeen are cited in the national justice system for the terrible injustice inflicted on children in the state’s care.
I am kind of short on the God side, so there is that. But as you seem to have more than enough to go around, go see Ted then and get all gaudy with him. I imagine that you see him on a weekly basis then, no? Ted must have some secrets on his fellow members of the cabal to want to spring him legislatively. Last time I saw such a kabuki dance was with Jackley, slow dancing with Joop doing the EB-5 tango.
Thank you Anne for your respectful answer.
Tara, if you’re going to leave a link, include some explanation so we know what we’re clicking on.
Given your keen interest in Klaudt’s case, Tara, are you able to confirm that HB 1109 is motivated by a desire to get Klaudt out of prison?
Even if the girls had a sordid past, does not give anyone the right to assault or molest them. The girls weren’t the ones on trial.
Now, does it make you feel better for attacking the victims? Do you feel more like a man for having done that?
Sorry Cory. The video at about 2:00 mentioned Klaudt. It was about Lawyer Daniel Sheehan talking about Indian foster children. My understanding on HB 1109 would be to save SD millions be letting old and sick or terminal convicts out that have been prisoners for years. I don’t believe it was just about Klaudt.
Sorry Cory. The video at about 2:00 mentioned Klaudt. It was about Lawyer Daniel Sheehan talking about Indian foster children. My understanding on HB 1109 would be to save SD millions be letting old and sick or terminal convicts out that have been prisoners for years. I don’t believe it was just about Klaudt. Maybe someone like Stace knows
Mike, I was talking about legal age of consent. But say want you want, and bring feelings into it. I was looking at it from a point of law. Read the case. I guess I am looking at it from the defense side.
Take the prisoners out of confinement? They have been convicted of violent crime and or abuse. Why should nursing homes have to take care of them on Medicaid while endangering the workers there? These caretakers could be wherever Medicaid would have sent this outlaws, even small town nursing homes that have limited resources for some of these dangerous men.
Let them end their miserable days in the prisons they put their victims in.
You guys are so ridiculous. lol. It would be very interesting to know these operatives really are. Such cowards.
Mr. jerry, maybe if they make Mrs. Volesky sign a paper and make her more reasonable and saner husband, Ron, sign as a co-signer too, they could let Mr. Klaudt out and he could live at the Voleskys’ home. They would pay for all his care. This seems reasonable.
Ted Klaudt is the last person that would scare me. I don’t think he would be living off the Government, because he does have family. I have been to trials where sex offenders were sentenced to many less years than Ted Klaudt.
Mr. Klaudt is, literally, living off the government, because he molested part of his family.
When they let him out, it will only be to live in your house, Mrs. Volesky, because you are not scared. But rest assured, Ron is going to have to do two things. First, he will have to blog about it here that it is OK that Ted comes to live at your house, and secondly, the government will probably make Ron sign some things on your behalf.
Then, Ted can have your guestroom. No children allowed.
I support Grudnick’s comment. If that disgusting bit of human filth must be released, he can be Tara’s roommate.
Twisting my comments again. Oh well.
You do realize Tara that your boy Ted was convicted and then convicted again. That shows his disregard for the rule of law. Mr. grudznick is correct, Tara, you do need to bring Mr. Tara up to speed on things for your behalf, you know, like sanity.
Brunner’s list shows that if you are at least 75 and have been in the slammer for 10 years, you get out of jail free. It is obvious that Mr. Brunner is clueless on what Medicare does as that kicks in when you are 65 for the healthcare coverage. What Medicare does not cover is nursing home care, that is what the smoke screen is all about. Stick those old felons in nursing homes that will take bed space from Mr. Brunner’s own neighbors up there in Nisland, and Newell for starters. Of course, Mr. Brunner is against all kinds of taxes and stuff like that, until they have to be raised to cover nursing home coverage that he tried to stick his constituents with so the rapists can go free.
How would you like to have your grandma in the same nursing home as the convicted rapists, or any of the other convicted felons?
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12203114 Pointing out a what really happens in SD that people don’t about. It’s easy diverting the issue when rapes and sex trafficking are an epidemic in SD.https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12203114
I don’t see the cowards coming out and putting their name to this? South Dakota Sex Abuse Scandal: A Peek Inside the Church’s Drawers
By Stephanie Woodard
440
2011-04-17-chapmanpages300.jpgThe letters are casual, even chatty, from officials of St. Francis Mission, on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, in South Dakota, to Catholic Church superiors. The mission ran one of many boarding schools to which Native American parents were required to send their children from the late 1800s until the 1970s, when most of the institutions were closed down or transferred to tribal control.
“All goes along quietly out here,” one priest wrote in 1968, with “good religious and lay faculty” at the mission. There are troublesome staffers, though, including “Chappy,” who is “fooling around with little girls — he had them down the basement of our building in the dark, where we found a pair of panties torn.” Later that year, Brother Francis Chapman was still abusing children, though by 1970, he was “a new man,” the reports say. In 1973, Chappy again “has difficulty with little girls.”
Some documents are more discreet than explicit. In 1967, two nuns at St. Paul’s Indian Mission, on the Yankton Sioux Reservation, also in South Dakota, had excessive “interest in” and “dealings with” older male students, says a report to Church higher-ups. (St. Paul’s, pictured below, was renamed Marty Indian School when the tribe took it over in 1975; 2008 graduation tipis are shown in the foreground.) Another nun has “too close a circle of friends, especially two boys.”
What ex-students describe as rampant sexual abuse in South Dakota’s half-dozen boarding schools occurred against a backdrop of extreme violence. “I’ll never forget my sister’s screams as the nuns beat her with a shovel after a pair of scissors went missing,” said Mary Jane Wanna Drum, 64, who attended a Catholic institution in Sisseton, South Dakota, for the children of her tribe, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate.
Izzy Zephier, 62, a Yankton Sioux tribal member, recalled a Sunday-evening ritual at St. Paul’s Indian Mission. “Those who’d tried to run away were stripped, lined up, and given 40 lashes each with a thick rubber strap,” he said.
Zephier described a prison-like daily routine. “We were marched along barbed-wire-lined sidewalks from locked dorms to locked classrooms and back again; in grade school, we went outdoors within a barbed-wire-topped pen.” The church building at St. Paul’s had its own crown of thorns in those days; it, too, was surrounded by a barbed-wire fence, lest worshippers made a run for it. 2011-04-16-TipisChurch300HP.jpg
Rather than offering the children protection, the Church typically demanded secrecy, with clergy telling youngsters they’d be punished or go to hell if they told anyone what had happened to them, said several former students, male and female. The Church appears to have kept close track of these activities, though. “Every bishop has two sets of files — the public ones and the secret ones chronicling the abuse,” said Joelle Casteix, western regional director of Chicago-headquartered support group Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests (SNAP). “The Church knows what happened when, and it all comes out in court.”
South Dakota’s Hail Mary Play
Starting in 2003, Native Americans in South Dakota, including Zephier and Drum, began filing lawsuits against the Catholic Dioceses of Sioux Falls and Rapid City, as well as the religious orders that ran the schools. The Native plaintiffs came forward in small groups, then ever-larger ones, claiming rape, sodomy, and molestation by priests, nuns, and others. By mid-2010, the number of plaintiffs topped 100, including six who said they were victims of Brother Francis Chapman, who is now deceased. More than 65 other pedophile clerics and Church employees were named, including the late Father Francis Suttmiller, accused by Zephier and more than a dozen other men and women who were St. Paul’s students.
The lawsuits resulted in the disclosure of Church documents (now public court documents, including those quoted above) that detail the abuse and describe transfers of predators, not all of whom are dead. After complaints about one brother surfaced in South Dakota, he was off to Washington, D.C., where he was convicted of sodomizing young boys there, his recent court testimony shows. Another priest who’s still with us, Father Bruce MacArthur, was transferred out of South Dakota, only to embark on a multi-state, multi-parish spree of sexual assaults of children and the disabled, for which he was convicted and imprisoned in the 1970s and again in 2008.
In March, a South Dakota court dismissed 18 of the Native American lawsuits. The judge’s opinion cited a 2010 South Dakota law limiting civil actions for childhood sexual abuse after the victim turns 40. The Native plaintiffs are older than that, and one of their lawyers, Gregory A. Yates, of Rapid City, South Dakota, and Los Angeles, charged that their cases had been targeted by the legislature. He asked the judge to reconsider his unusual retroactive ruling (applying a new statute to pre-existing cases).
On April 1, the judge refused to do so. The Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls, a defendant in the dismissed suits, did not respond to phone calls requesting a comment. Teresa Kettelkamp, who heads the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops child protection division, said the Church offers healing to sexual-abuse victims, but that civil and criminal matters are in an entirely different sphere.
Said Zephier, whose suit was thrown out: “The statute and the judge’s decision are insulting. They say the justice system does not protect Native people and does not care that terrible things happened to Native children.” Commenting on the section of Pope Benedict’s letter to the Church in Ireland, in which the pope favorably compared sex-abuse injuries to Christ’s wounds, Zephier asked, “Did Christ’s wounds include sodomy?”
SNAP director David G. Clohessy observed that South Dakota’s new law swims against the tide of childhood-sexual-abuse prosecutions: “Most states are making it easier to expose predators. South Dakota is the only one making it harder.”
Attorney Steven Smith, of Chamberlain, South Dakota, defended the 2010 law, which he wrote and submitted it as a “constituent bill.” He said plaintiffs are unfairly “trying to grab the brass ring, seeing someone else grab the brass ring, thinking that’s your ticket out of squalor.”
Smith’s client Congregation of Priests of the Sacred Heart is the defendant in a dozen boarding-school cases, including one involving the convicted sodomite. When speaking to the legislature in support of his bill, Smith described childhood-related cases as hard for the Church to defend against because “few people can remember what happened or didn’t happen.”
When asked about repentance on the part of the Church, Smith responded, “We aren’t going to throw money [sic] just because of this purported healing process the Church has to go through.”
Rolling Back the Stone
Native parents faced severe penalties, including jail time, if they did not send their children to the boarding schools. However, Zephier said, as a young teen he came upon an unexpected escape route: “School had just let out for the day, and I realized I’d forgotten a couple of books. I ran back into the building, where I found that a priest had a girl on the floor. She was fighting and screaming, ‘let me go.’ When the priest saw me, he got up and backhanded me hard. I hit him back and yelled to the girl, ‘run, get out of here!’ I hit the priest five times and knocked him down. The girl took off. The next day, I was expelled.”
He and other ex-students reported reaffirming their traditional spirituality upon leaving school. Drum participates in traditional ceremonies but has not entirely rejected Christianity. “I still walk with the Lord,” she said, “but I cannot even shake hands with a priest.”
Photograph by Stephanie Woodard. Read survivors’ stories here, here, and here.
Stephanie Woodard
Writer, stephaniewoodard.blogspot.com
I think this guy was out in 3 years. The Judge even allowed past prior acts. These were non-consenting children. http://www.postbulletin.com/ex-area-principal-gets-years-on-sex-charges/article_9f806f11-9777-5b3e-95f1-f676aae73c3b.html
sohttps://lastrealindians.com/recounting-of-sexual-torture-by-priests-and-nuns-spurs-s-d-bill/me people go to prison, and some people get re-elected to office
Aren’t you a little surprised there are hundreds of sex offenders in SD that are now out of jail? Might want to start working on that.
http://madvilletimes.com/2014/01/taliaferro-schwab-case-shows-the-ugly-politics-of-south-dakota-foster-care/ I rest my case. You guys are a joke. Cory put the lame stream media to shame.
We can only hope that you have finished the case… of whatever you were drinking. Ya got a little slobbery there Tara. In all of those cases you were blathering about, not one of them showed jury tampering like your boy Ted Klaudt was convicted of, on top of his other conviction, rape. It would seem that the ones who are on some sort of supervised release, accepted the facts of their convictions and did their time. Ted Klaudt was to full of himself to admit his wrongdoing. So much so, that he got a double sentence for jury tampering. Your boy is just another legislator who thinks they are above the law regarding many things, sexual abuse is one of them. For his fellow legislators to try to spring him from the hoosegow, shows their disdain for the rules of law.
Mr. Brunner should be asked by his neighbors why he would give nursing home space, in their local nursing homes, for convicted rapists and other prisoners, to share rooms with their loved ones.
The citation of the Mette case reminds that there were people in the Brown County State’s Attorney office who were never brought to account. The DCI and other law enforcement agencies have been exposed for their villainy, most recently in the $1 million lawsuit won by Ms. Kaiser. But other actors in the false charges from the State’s Attorney office, although dismissed by the court, have never been called into account for the malicious prosecution they perpetrated against Taliaferro and Schwab.
Done wasting my time with these cowards who protect the establishment. The good Professor Newquist hit the nail on the head. I respect people that have nothing to hide. You impostors have no relevancy. You guys probably work for the Republican brass. Nice.
There are enough staff sexual predators in nursing homes without having to house them.
The fact that other offenders have gotten off easy does not mean any other rapists of foster children should get off easy.
I don’t think I got my answer, Tara. Do you know if anyone promoting this bill is motivated by a desire to spring Klaudt? Is Klaudt’s family pushing this bill?
10 years is not exactly easy. Are the foster girls fathers in prison for molesting them? Klaudt’s family just found out about it. I suppose Rep. Tom Brunner would be the guy to ask. It’s his bill. I am all for castration for sex offenders so when they are released from prison, they won’t become repeat offenders.
Hope to give you that answer Cory. Called the capital, and couldn’t leave a message. Then, I called Rep. Brunner and left a message. Hopefully he will return my phone call. Thanks.
Because other sex offenders have gotten off easy does not mean Klaudt should too. That’s not justice. I prefer severe punishment for all of them.
You can’t treat all cases the same. Most children are not of consenting age. So if 2 teenagers have sex, boyfriend, girlfriend, but the girl is 16 and her boyfriend is 17, should he go to prison for 10 years because the parents don’t like their daughters boyfriend?
Klaudt was the foster father of these girls and 30+ years older than they were. This isn’t a case of boyfriend/girlfriend a year or two apart.
Kind of like the age difference of Trump and his wife? Remember Anna Nicole Smith. I don’t discriminate against age. When you are infatuated with someone it doesn’t matter what age you are as long as you are a consenting adult. Remember Senator Strom Thurman? He couldn’t keep his hands off me when he came to Huron College campaigning for Jim Abdnor. I was not traumatized. Maybe because one of my degrees is in Gerontology. I am not defending ted klaudt. What do all his Republican friends that served with him have to say ? Wasn’t he on GOAC and Appropriations?
Trumps wives were not minors. Kualdt’s victims were, and even if they had been over 18 the circumstances involved would have been enough to obtain a rape conviction, the fact they were minors was an aggravating factor.
I don’t think they were minors Nick. Maybe I am wrong. But 17 and 19 are consensual when it comes to sex. Maybe I am wrong. Loretta Lynn was 13. She ended up marrying her rapist. Did you watch “Coal Miners Daughter ” ?
I believe many HS girls are engaging in sex before they are consenting adults. Should we imprison their sexual partners for life?
Ms. Hubbel and her pal the Goodwin fellow from my district say “yes”, Mrs. Volesky. We should also imprison Mr. Klaudt for life. I wish they didn’t give him a fat feather tick and fancy food and instead fed that fat bossturd a water mixture mixed with dog poop and an unlimited supply of lime pop tarts.
The Republican cowardly operative is at it again.
True that Mr. grudznick, true that.
Maybe Tara could share the lime pop tarts, I can see it now…
I don’t think so.
Ted Klaudt’s a victim! Ted Klaudt’s a victim! Those underage girls were so attracted to his 600 lb frame that they talked him into playing doctor with them. He resisted, but his will was overborne by the seductresses. They should have been the ones in jail. Teddy is a great family man/great husband/great foster parent/law-abiding citizen. They’re starving him in prison. It’s cruel and unusual punishment to give him so little food that he’s lost almost 1/4 of his body weight. He’s not for the ACLU, but where’s the ACLU when he needs them?
Come and listen to a story ’bout a man named Ted
Poor derriere barely kept his fat self fed
Then one day he was looking to get rude,
Found his foster daughter and tried to get her in the mood
(Sell your eggs, let’s get the speculum)
Well the first thing you know old Ted says it’s not fair
Kin folk said Ted get your trial away from there
Judge said Springfield is the place you oughta be
So they loaded up the truck and Ted moved to Cell Block E
(Trustee that ain’t, no swimming pools, no movie stars)
Well now it’s time to say goodbye to Ted and all his kin
They would like to thank you folks for kindly dropping in
You’re all invited back again to this locality
To have a heaping helping of their victim mentality
(Whackadoos, that’s what they call ’em now,
Insane folks. Y’all come back now, ya hear?)
Rorschach, that is some impressive lyricism. I’m going to nominate you for a Grammy. Well done!
Nick is right to call foul on Tara’s use of the word “consenting.” Hogwash. We do not recognize consent when we are talking about a father-daughter relationship. That’s just incest. A foster parent takes on the same position of authority and trust, and that position must not be violated. “Hey, daughter, I’ll give you money if you let me touch your genitalia”—making such a statement is clearly immoral and probably illegal. Actually carrying out that statement is definitely illegal, regardless of what the daughter says. There is no excuse for a father or foster father to do what Klaudt did. Even the defense conceded that Klaudt performed these vile actions; the best he could argue was Tara’s “consent” argument. The jury rightly said, “Hogwash!” and now we wash that hog in prison.
And don’t forget: Klaudt raped these girls in a motel room in Pierre during the 2005 and 2006 Sessions, and one of the girls was a page during one of those Sessions.
Ms Volesky, if you are looking for sympathy for yer dear old Ted, may I suggest the dictionary between s*** and syphilis? :)
Not looking for sympathy……just having some interesting discussion. I am still waiting for that call from Rep. Tom Brunner.
Nick, was Lorretta Lynn a minor…..was Soon-Yi Previn Woody Allen’s now wife a minor? Was Jerry Lee lewis cousin a minor? I could name dozens more that did not go to prison. Could extortion come into play since money was involved.
Good grief, Tara: the man lied to his foster daughters and played doctor with them for his sexual gratification. Why speak in defense of such behavior?
Loretta got married legal like (was not raped). Soon-Yi got married too (was not raped). Jerry Lee must have gone to a family funeral to pick up chicks and found his cousin and then married her, legal like (not raped. Even Ted Nugent, Vietnam Medal of Honor Winner…oops, I mean Vietnam era drug addicted, crapped his pants, draft dodger, “In 1978, Nugent began a relationship with seventeen-year-old Hawaii native Pele Massa. Due to the age difference, they could not marry so Nugent joined Massa’s parents in signing documents to make himself her legal guardian,” so there ya go, even a drug addict does not rape an adopted minor. It does however, make him a perfect spokesperson for the NRA.
Your big boy Ted was convicted twice Tara, twice. Mr. grudzick is correcto mundo on what he said earlier. Enjoy your shared lime pop tart, hell, even invite Mr. Brunner for a sit down there at the facilities. You can have a money game of Three player Pinochle to get to know one another even better. Mr. Brunner is probably gonna need that to send out flyers to his constituents telling them that he really did not mean to open the door for convicted rapists and other felons to overrun their nursing home facilities. So toss him a bone and let him win.
I am not speaking in defense of Ted’s behavior, I am speaking in favor of the bill. I would be more concerned about our former Governor granting clemency to a criminal who than murdered his former girlfriend. SD needs reform in many departments.
Yep, you are though Tara, you are speaking in defense of one Ted Klaudt. Something else, I am sure that Mr. Brunner will show his chops for law and order by supporting of the sentence of death that has been affirmed in South Dakota by its legislators. How can sentencing be done if the goal posts are changed in lowering the bar if you are sick now or old, you still did the crime and if you cannot do the time, don’t do the crime. Why bother with the court’s if they cannot provide the sentence? This age deal does not meet the smell test of being 75 years old or sick so you get out of the jail and then go to an unsupervised nursing home, how can that be?
If Mr. Brunner and who ever put him up to this, is so concerned about the expense, then how would putting them in Belle Fourche be any cheaper than having them remain in custody where they are? If they go to Belle Fourche, what security will be installed to keep the rest of the residents safe? Who would pay for that added security?
Reform costs money. Elizabeth May showed where several millions of dollars could come from with our favoring one business over another. Legislators do not want to hear solutions when they can posture on crap like this.
I understand your concern Jerry. I am strictly speaking from a legal point of view, not moral or emotional. The legal age of consent in SD is 16. The 17 and 19 year old from what I read testified that they consented. Either way, it’s pretty sick and creepy. Rep. Brunner still has not called.