A former Iowa State trooper who admitted sexually abusing his niece at his parents’ Denison apartment more than a decade ago will -not- serve jail time. Thirty-nine-year-old Karl Kluender of Huxley was sentenced yesterday (Wednesday) in Crawford County District Court by Chief Judge Michael Walsh. Kluender was sentenced to two years probation and he was also ordered to pay a one-thousand dollar fine, along with surcharge and court costs.
Kluender was previously charged with second-degree sexual abuse stemming from an incident involving his then seven-year-old niece in 1993. A plea bargain was made last October, though, with the charge instead being reduced to indecent contact with a child, which is an aggravated misdemeanor. Kluender was also ordered to complete a sex offender treatment program and register as a convicted sex offender. Kluender was fired from his job with the State Patrol last April after word of the abuse first surfaced.