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Sleepovers With Uncle Jeff

Continued from page 5

Published on October 18, 2007

Some time before the meeting, the Hamiltons received a call from fellow church member and friend Tina McDaniel. She called to say she would no longer be attending church and that her daughter Randee wanted to say goodbye. McDaniel explained that Randee said she had been touched by Jeff Klem. Tina said it happened in 2001, when the girl was 11. She hadn't told anyone until four years later, by which time mother and daughter knew about the other girls' allegations. Tina said she immediately notified the police and Children's Protective Services. That was to take care of Klem. Then she told them she was part of a civil suit to hold Buck Treadway responsible.

  • Courtesy Jefferson County Sheriff's Office
    Don't worry — Dr. Klem is not a registered sex offender.
    Don't worry — Dr. Klem is not a registered sex offender.
  • Jeff and Beth Klem were a model couple at New Life Tabernacle.
    Jeff and Beth Klem were a model couple at New Life Tabernacle.

Subject(s):

child molestation, Jefferson County, plea bargains, sex offenders, Jeffrey Alan Klem, New Life Tabernacle
So when Buck said one of his kids was suing him, the Hamiltons suddenly believed that Buck was admonishing anyone who had prior knowledge of the suit. Indeed, Tina McDaniel and her husband — like others who refused to give Buck their support — received "letters of release" from New Life Tabernacle. They were no longer welcome.

Lamb says McDaniel was already looking to find a new church and Buck merely provided a polite letter giving her the opportunity to do so. He also says only a few people left the church, and the bulk of those who stayed are probably not even aware of the civil suit. And while Lamb says Buck had just returned from his fourth round of chemotherapy for cancer before that meeting and was not in the best physical or mental condition, no one appears to dispute that the meeting was bizarre.

But it's unclear whether any church members reported concerns over their pastor's mental health. And while Tina McDaniel says she and her daughter told a New Life official about the daughter's molestation, there is no documentation indicating that the district office or UPCI headquarters were ever notified.

While that may be, it would be hard for UPCI officials to plead ignorance once Klem was indicted in December 2006.

According to the UPCI's bylaws, all complaints against a pastor must first be investigated by the district before the headquarters can get involved. Complaints must be submitted in writing, signed by at least two accusers, and must state the nature, place and date of the offense. Insufficient complaints are kicked back to the complaining parties, who must submit another draft.

If this process is not followed — if, for example, there is only a verbal complaint — the district cannot open an investigation. Without evidence of a proper complaint, no UPCI officials can open an investigation. And if Texas District Superintendent Danny Russo says the district isn't interested in New Life Tabernacle, there is nothing that can be done at the national level.

General Superintendent Ken Haney politely explained this after he popped into his Tampa Marriott hotel room for a lunch break between board meetings.

"I'm vaguely familiar with that," Haney says of the rift at New Life. Unfortunately, the UPCI's bylaws prevent him from attaining knowledge beyond the level of "vaguely." His hands are tied.

"Was there a complaint properly filed?" he asks, later adding, "It is my opinion...that perhaps a complaint was not properly filed. If it is properly filed, of necessity, they have to make an investigation."

And what if a complaint is properly filed, but there's a conflict of interest between the district superintendent and the minister in question, and an investigation is never opened? Does the whole thing evaporate?

Haney assured the Press that it wouldn't.

"There's too many voices," he said. "In other words, there's too many other churches in that area with pastors that would lend themselves to complaining about it and something would have to be done."

Not satisfied with the bold proclamation that "something would have to be done," Haney added that "things will be addressed."

Then Haney had to go. He had to make another board meeting.

"I sat down these girls, and the consensus was, they wanted to get on with their lives. They wanted to plead this case and get on with their lives."

— Jefferson County prosecutor Waylon Thompson

"Two-thousand dollars per [count]? People get more for that on DWIs."

— Lisa Treadway, victim's mother

It's not clear who was for the plea bargain and who wasn't.

Thompson says he was ready for trial all along, but when the idea for the plea surfaced, he brought it to the families and they were all on board.

"If they had at any point said, 'No, we think we want to go ahead and roll the dice on this,' then we'd have done that," Thompson says. "That's what we do. We don't do anything designed to be charitable to a defendant by any means."

He says he thoroughly explained the conditions of the plea bargain and the risks of a trial. He would have to conduct three separate trials, one for each girl. And for some reason, instead of leading off with Ashlyn, who endured seven years of torment, Thompson planned to lead with Ashlee, who was touched on one ­occasion.

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