Former youth minister sentenced for 1970s sexual relationship with child
A former youth pastor was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday on charges of sexual intercourse with a child younger than 16 in the mid-1970s.
Russell J. Lesser, 64, of Bryson City, N.C., had pleaded guilty April 14 to a felony charge of sexual intercourse with a child younger than 16. Two others charges were dismissed but read in.
The former pastor began his advances during a "trust" game, victim Laurie Asplund said, but then sexually assaulted her more than 40 times from summer 1974 to spring 1976. She was 14 to 16 years old.
Poorly advised in the 1980s, Asplund believed the statute of limitations had expired on her case. She thought she'd had only six years from the time of the offense to file charges against her assaulter.
Asplund first realized she could pursue the case after hearing about the Rev. Donald McGuire, a Jesuit priest convicted in Walworth County in 2006 of molesting two boys in the 1960s.
The case fell under an exception of the statute limitations because Lesser moved soon after the assault from Wisconsin to Indiana and then to North Carolina.
For a full story, read Friday's Walworth County Gazette, read online in the Gazette’s E-Edition or check back at WalworthCountyToday.com or GazetteXtra.com.
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