According to staff at the Hughes County Jail, the 49-year-old from Walker, South Dakota is no longer behind bars. They say he was released Friday night after posting 10 percent of his $100,000 bond.
The Republican rancher faces a long list of charges, including: eight counts of rape, two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, and two counts of witness tampering, sexual contact with a person under 16, and stalking. Those charges span both Hughes and Corson counties.
Ted Klaudt
Five teen girls accuse Klaudt of sexually abusing them. Of those five, three served as legislative pages. And all but one of the victims say some of the abuse happened in Pierre while Klaudt was serving in the State House.
This is the second case involving inappropriate sexual contact between a lawmaker and a page to surface within a year. Republican State Senator Dave Knudson of Sioux Falls can remember when he served as a legislative page. He says the program inspired him to pursue a life long, active role in government. But he says he can understand how the recent allegations against a former lawmaker may have some people concerned about the integrity of the page program.
“Those pre-existing close relationships are always hard to regulate,” Knudson said.
Knudson says both the recent investigation into State Senator Dan Sutton of Flandreau and the latest charges being brought against Ted Klaudt involve people with pre-existing relationships of some kind.
“In the case of Representative Klaudt it was a foster parent to foster child relationship and the legislators ability to regulate that relationship is very minor in the context of codes of ethics and protocol for pages,” Knudson said.
Nevertheless, Knudson says supervision of the page program has increased in the wake of the Sutton investigation. And he says, even though the charges against Klaudt may be disturbing, they are not representative of the page program as a whole.
Knudson says people should feel comfortable that leaders in Pierre will do everything they can to make sure pages have a wholesome and educational experience while working in the capital.
“Controlling the actions of human beings is always a tough thing but the process and procedures is substantially improved with the 2007 legislative session than things were before,” he said.
As of now, Klaudt is only facing charges for complaints from two the five teen girls who have brought accusations against him.
Klaudt is expected to appear again in Hughes County Court on May 31.
