Man guilty of 2002 sex assault arrested for soliciting a minor
Arrest is third probation violation in three years
A 22-year-old Bethesda man remained in jail today after a June 11 arrest for soliciting an undercover police officer posing as a minor for sex.
Over the past three years, Andrew G. Klepper of the 5300 block of Westbard Avenue was found guilty twice for probation violations after pleading guilty to a sexual assault as a teenager.
On June 11, Klepper was arrested arranging a meeting in Gaithersburg with county officers posing as a 16-year-old girl who responded to ads that Klepper posted online.
Klepper sought a "young, non pro to have an overnight with" in exchange for a "donation" of at least $250 and arranged a meeting in Gaithersburg. Terms of Klepper's probation bar him from using the Internet except for schoolwork.
Klepper tried to flee when confronted by police. Police found condoms, a folding knife, two cell phones and a small amount of cash in his Lexus, according to the documents and Det. Dan Fitzgerald, the charging police officer.
Klepper is being held without bail. His father Martin Klepper, a law professor at Georgetown University, referred comment to his son's attorney. The attorney did not return calls for comment.
A violation of probation hearing is scheduled next month.
When he was 15, he was charged as an adult with multiple felonies and pleaded guilty to first-degree assault, fourth-degree sex offense and robbery with a deadly weapon for holding a woman against her will and sodomizing her with the handle of a baseball bat.
"I have a number of concerns, and one of them, frankly, is the public safety," Judge John W. Debelius III said during sentencing in 2003 for the sexual assault. "The nature of, of what you did is so horrible that there needs to be a substantial effort both on your part and the system of justice's part to make sure that that doesn't happen again, that it doesn't happen to anyone else."
Andrew Klepper and two friends, ages 14 and 19, skipped school Nov. 8, 2002, and lured a woman to his mother's Bethesda home by offering her a job in an adult movie, according to records. The 19-year-old hit her twice in the head with a baseball bat while the 14-year-old pressed a damp cloth that "emitted a medicinal odor" over her mouth.
While the 19-year-old held a knife to her face, Klepper ordered her to undress and said "she had hurt his friend so now he was going to hurt her" before sodomizing her, according to the documents. Klepper threatened that he would harm her again if she went to police.
Klepper pleaded guilty in 2003 as part of a deal to avoid having the case moved to juvenile court as recommended by the state Department of Juvenile Services. He was given a 15-year suspended jail sentence and five years of probation on the condition he attend a residential treatment center for troubled teens and a therapeutic boarding school at his parent's expense until he graduated high school.
Klepper returned to Maryland in January 2005 and was arrested for driving a prostitute from Virginia to a Rockville hotel in 2006 after an undercover detective arranged online to pay for sex with the 29-year-old woman, according to court records. She had hired Klepper as her driver and bodyguard, and he had previously driven the woman to have sex with three men for money at his mother's home and videotaped one of the encounters.
Klepper pleaded guilty to participating in prostitution in July 2006 and was sentenced to a year of probation. He was sentenced to 15 years in jail with all but 18 months suspended and three years of probation in January 2007 for violating his probation in the sexual assault case.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to impose the suspended 15-year prison sentence for Klepper's first probation violation, Assistant State's Attorney Deborah Armstrong said. She would not comment on what penalties the prosecution would seek in the new cases.
Klepper was released from jail in December 2007 but found himself in trouble with the law less than two months later. He was charged with two counts of theft under $100 in January 2008 after a security guard at a Sports Authority in Rockville saw him remove two Under Armour gaiters, used to cover the wearer's neck and face, from their packaging, put them in his pockets and exit the store, according to the records.
He was acquitted of theft but charged with violating his probation and sentenced to 13.5 years in jail with all but nine months suspended and 10 months of probation in September 2008.