Former legislator pleads not guilty
Ted Klaudt faces multiple counts of sex crimes
Joe Kafka
The Associated Press
PIERRE -- A former South Dakota lawmaker charged with rape and other sex crimes against two girls in foster care pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Hughes County Circuit Court.
Ted Klaudt of Walker was earlier indicted on four counts of second-degree rape alleged to have occurred in Pierre when he was in the Legislature. At least one of the allegations involved a girl when she was a page during a lawmaking session.
Klaudt faces similar charges in Corson County and will be arraigned on those counts July 20 in Sturgis.
Each rape count carries a maximum punishment of 25 years in prison.
The teenage girls told law officers that Klaudt touched their breasts and penetrated their vaginas during exams for a scheme in which he said they could make money by selling their reproductive eggs.
Circuit Judge James W. Anderson set Oct. 30 as the start of Klaudt's trial in Hughes County. The trial is expected to last at least a week.
Three of the Hughes County rape charges involve one girl, and the crimes are alleged to have taken place between January 2005 and January 2006. The fourth count involves a second girl for an alleged offense in February 2006.
The two were among a number of girls sent to foster care in Klaudt's home under a program that provides foster care for young people who have no safe home to return to after completing programs in South Dakota's juvenile corrections facilities.
Klaudt has been free on bond since his mid-May arrest.
On Wednesday, Anderson ordered the former lawmaker to provide the prosecution with proof within five days that he has canceled his Internet service. It has been alleged that Klaudt used fictitious e-mails to convince the girls they could benefit financially by donating their eggs.
A Corson County grand jury also has indicted Klaudt on four counts of second-degree rape, two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, one count of sexual contact with a child younger than 16, two counts of witness tampering and one count of stalking.
Klaudt, 49, a Republican, served in the state House from 1999-2006. He was vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee in his final two years and chairman of the Government Operations and Audit Committee, an investigative panel, in his final four years.
Klaudt was term-limited in the House last year and chose to run for the Senate in a sprawling district that covers much of northwestern South Dakota. He lost to Democrat Ryan Maher of Isabel.