BishopAccountability.org
	Former Assistant Pastor of Pa. Church Arrested on Rape Charges Associated Press, carried in News Journal [Pennsylvania] February 3, 2007 http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070203/NEWS/70203004 A former assistant pastor of a Presbyterian church was arrested in Arizona on charges of having sexually assaulted girls in Pennsylvania nearly three decades ago, authorities said. Gerald L. Klever, 75, who served as an assistant pastor at the First Presbyterian Church in Springfield Township, Pa., Delaware County, from 1977 to 1983, was taken into custody by Pennsylvania authorities Wednesday at his home in Tucson, Ariz. A dozen women have contacted the church alleging sexual misconduct by Klever on church property and on church trips, according to police from Springfield Township who opened an investigation in the spring. Two of the victims reported having sex with Klever when they were 16 years old, police said in a criminal complaint. One said she had engaged in oral sex with Klever at least 150 times from June 1977 through September 1980, mostly in his office at the church. Police said Klever told the mother of that girl that he was taking her to a seminar on assertiveness training and instead took her to a hotel room and had sex with her. He was counseling another victim for depression and anxiety at the time of the alleged assaults, according to the criminal complaint. Klever is charged with three counts of rape and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse as well as one count each of indecent assault, indecent exposure and corruption of minors. Klever was being held in the Pima County, Ariz., jail on a $500,000 bond. Springfield Township police said a detention hearing was scheduled Feb. 8 in Tucson. Authorities said they did not know how long Klever has lived in Tucson. Records at the Pima County Recorder's Office connect him to Tucson as early as 1996. Springfield Township police said he left Pennsylvania in 1983, when he bought a home in Maryland. Officials with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in Tucson said they had no record of Klever attending or working at any local churches.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.