LEBANON, Va – Eighth-grade science teacher Connie Beth Klewer sports a wide, friendly grin in the faculty photo posted on the Web page for the Lebanon Middle School.
Not so in the jailhouse mugshot snapped last week. The 37-year-old is being held without bond at the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in Abingdon on charges of taking indecent liberties with a child.
Obscene photos found on a teenage boy’s cell phone July 9 grabbed the attention of the Russell County Sheriff’s Office, according to a search warrant filed Monday in the county courthouse.
The boy and his mother handed deputies “obscene and explicit photographs that had been sent to the child from the suspect, Connie Beth Klewer, via telephone and computer,” sheriff’s Deputy David McCown wrote in the search warrant.
Chief Deputy Bill Watson declined Wednesday to say whether Klewer once taught the boy. Watson did confirm that the boy is younger than 15 years old.
County Commonwealth’s Attorney Brian K. Patton declined in a news statement to disclose specifics of the case. He did not immediately return a call for comment Wednesday.
Klewer’s neighbors had even less information.
The science teacher lives in a red-shuttered, single story home at 46 Duff Street in Lebanon, nearly two blocks from the county courthouse. Lawn chairs and a table clutter the wide front porch. A thermometer in the shape of a snowman hangs on the front door.
The house was vacant Wednesday.
To one elderly man, Klewer was the woman who waved hello and goodbye every day. He saw her only when she parked by the curb or when she drove away.
An elderly woman said Klewer caught the neighborhood’s attention only after her arrest.
“Nobody here knows anything about her,” the woman said.
Neighbors began to pay attention the evening of July 7, when the elderly woman said three sheriff’s deputies parked on Klewer’s front curb.
Hours after seeing the photos, the search warrant shows, sheriff’s deputies carted computers, cell phones and disposable cameras out of Klewer’s home.
Deputies arrested Klewer the same day.
She is charged with single counts of using a communications device to solicit a minor, buying alcohol for a minor, indecent liberties with a child while in a supervisory relationship, indecent liberties with a child, abuse and neglect of a child while being responsible for the care of a child, and possession of child pornography.
mowens@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2549
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