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Sleepovers With Uncle Jeff

Continued from page 3

Published on October 18, 2007

No one disputes the fact that, in 2003, Buck's son Leslie and his second wife Lisa came to Buck with a grave concern.

Ashlee McEntire, Lisa's ten-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, had accused Klem of touching her during a sleepover at his house. Brea, Leslie's nine-year-old daughter from his first marriage, was at the same sleepover and was alleging the same thing. So this, according to Leslie and Lisa, was the first time Buck was made aware of a pedophile at his church.

Leslie and Lisa told Klem they wouldn't notify authorities if Klem promised to leave the girls alone. At this time, Leslie had no idea Klem had been molesting his daughter Ashlyn for the last four years.

But Kip Lamb, who's representing Buck, Klem and New Life Tabernacle, says it wasn't so sinister.

"New Life Tabernacle has not had any...child abuse complaints in decades," Lamb says. "However, several years ago...a very minor incident was mentioned to the pastor and recanted, and the parents of that child expressed doubts that it was even true."

Lamb says the girls quickly recanted and, as far as Buck knew, the whole mess was over. He adds that when Buck was served with the civil suit, which used pseudonyms for the girls and their parents, he had no idea who they could be. Moreover, Lamb says, Buck was never present at any of the incidents and therefore couldn't have been aware of Klem's actions. Lamb also carried forth with the medical motif: "The parents expressed doubt and the pastor understandably, you know, wasn't sure what they were even saying, inasmuch as Dr. Klem is a ­cardiologist."

When asked what Klem's job had to do with any allegations, Lamb betrayed a profound misunderstanding of the difference between "good touching" and "bad touching."

"You're going to someone saying, 'This doctor touched me on my chest,'" he said. "My doctor touches me on my chest, I don't think anything about it."

While it's not clear if Lamb's doctor ever touched him during a sleepover, Ashlee and Brea say they have a clear memory of what it meant to spend the night with Uncle Jeff.

After a fun day at the beach in Galveston, Ashlee, Brea and Ashlyn spent the night at Jeff and Beth's home. While Beth was reading a book in the bedroom, the girls were in another room, watching The Ring. That's when Klem strolled in, still in his scrubs, Ashlee recalls.

She asked, "'Uncle Jeff, I'm scared, will you lay beside me?' And when he came to lay beside me, he got under the covers. Well, I didn't think much of it because I was like, 'This is my uncle, it's not a big deal.'"

But then it did become a big deal. According to Ashlee, Klem then put his arm around her waist. It made her uncomfortable, so she hopped out of bed and went to the refrigerator for a handful of tiny ice cubes the girls liked to eat. After she collected herself, she returned to bed. Next, Klem moved his hand toward her chest.

Needing another break, Ashlee again hopped out of bed and threw on a bra. Back in bed, Klem moved his hand beneath the bra. This called for more ice cubes. Ashlee padded to the kitchen and back, and Klem continued his thing.

Ashlee needed some moral support. She asked Brea to come to the kitchen with her. That's when Ashlee explained what happened. She said she had to tell her parents and Aunt Beth.

Ashlee recalls her sister saying, "'No, don't do that. It won't work. That'll just make Beth really mad...so don't tell her.'"

That's when nine-year-old Brea offered to take the hit.

"She said, 'Well, I'll get back into bed with Jeff because he's put his hands down my pants before,'" Ashlee says. "She knew that I had never been messed with, nothing had ever been wrong with me. So she was just going to take it for me."

But Ashlee told her mother, causing an unfortunate chain reaction.

Lisa Treadway recalls: "When I told Les what had happened, Les believed me. But we both knew that it was going to be horrible...Jeff is Brother Treadway's pet. Jeff was a doctor. Everybody loves Jeff. It was hard to believe, but my daughter had never lied to me."

Ashlee told Ashlyn, who pretended not to believe her.

"Beth was all she had," Ashlee says of Ashlyn. "And she just adored Beth and didn't know what would happen, you know, if Beth knew she took my side."

She also told her stepcousin, another one of Buck's granddaughters via Kathie. The girl said the same thing happened to her. And then she didn't. She recanted, leaving Ashlee and Brea on their own.

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