NK man pleads no contest to child endangerment count

A New Kent County man indicted on two counts of aggravated sexual battery involving an underage girl has pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of felony child endangerment.

Terry Lee Kramer, 51, of 11794 King’s Pond Road, Providence Forge, entered the plea as part of a plea deal reached on Monday in New Kent Circuit Court, averting a jury trial scheduled for the same day. One aggravated sexual battery charge was reduced to child endangerment while the second count was dropped.

Following terms of the plea agreement, Judge Thomas B. Hoover suspended all of a three-year prison term. Kramer is to remain on probation for the next 10 years. The judge ordered the defendant to undergo a psychological/sexual offender evaluation and complete any recommended treatment.

Kramer is also to avoid contact with the girl and her family and pay $1,000 in restitution toward counseling fees for the girl. The defendant is not required to register with the state as a sex offender.

In a summary of evidence to the court, Commonwealth’s Attorney Linwood Gregory said the girl, who is Kramer’s step-granddaughter and was 13 at the time, and her siblings were spending the night at the defendant’s house on Dec. 2, 2006. The girl and Kramer were in an upstairs room watching a movie when the girl claimed the defendant began massaging her back, eventually reaching under her shirt and touching her breasts.

Kramer, Gregory said, asked the girl if she liked what he was doing and she replied no. He then asked her if she felt uncomfortable and she answered yes, the prosecutor said.

Kramer stopped, but later reached up the girl’s pants leg and touched her vagina, Gregory said. The girl abruptly left the room and went to bed.

The next day when the mother picked up the children, the girl told her mother she did not want to go back to Kramer’s residence.

“When asked why, she told her mother Mr. Kramer was weird and too touchy-feely and she felt uncomfortable in his presence,” Gregory told the court.

The girl, however, did not report the incident to her parents until the following August when she overheard an aunt telling others about an encounter with Kramer. The father then contacted the New Kent Sheriff’s Office, Gregory said.

“These cases are sometimes difficult,” the prosecutor told the court. “We have a young witness who said what happened, but Mr. Kramer has no [criminal] record and made no incriminating statements.”

Defense attorney Jacqueline H. Ford told the court her client is a decorated Army veteran who runs a successful mortgage business. She claimed the girl made inconsistent statements about what took place.

Kramer massaged the girl’s back at the girl’s request, Ford said, adding her client denies touching the girl inappropriately. The attorney said the girl spent time afterward in the Kramer home and has actively sought attention from older men in her personal life and over the Internet.

“Your honor, I still maintain my innocence of this charge, but I plead no contest,” Kramer replied when asked by the judge for any comment before sentencing.

The girl’s father, meanwhile, told the court he has an issue with the $1,000 Kramer must pay toward the girl’s counseling, indicating the amount should be more.

“I have a hollow 14-year-old kid who’s had a significant amount of counseling,” he told Hoover. “This has been a great burden on our family.”

Kramer paid $400 in court costs on Monday, but Hoover ordered the amount to be applied to restitution. The defendant must also pay an estimated $1,200 to cover the cost for jurors summoned in the case.