Former founding New Found Glory guitarist Steve Klein has been convicted of felony indecent exposure in a case involving underage girls.
Stephen Lee “Steve” Klein, was charged with five felony counts of lewd acts on a child, a count of contact with intent to commit a sex offense and possession of child pornography back in 2014. The charges stem from a two-way chat room videos involving underage girls found on an external hard drive at his home.
Screenshot recordings from the incident were played at a hearing back in 2014. They reportedly contained explicit footage of Klein allegedly exposing himself on the video chat site Omegle. As Loudwire note, an expert witness for the prosecution, Dr. Nisha Abdul Cader, testified that the two females involved in the call were likely between 9 and 16 years old.
Klein will serve no jail time and will be sentenced to two years of formal probation. He will be required to register as a sex offender for at least 10 years.
He was the founding rhythm guitarist and primary lyricist for New Found Glory until parting ways with the band in late 2015.
“Upon our return from Warped Tour Australia, Steve made us aware of possible allegations that might be made against him,” the band shared in a statement after the initial announcement of criminal charges. “At that point, not knowing all the details, we made the decision to part ways in order for him to deal with these personal issues.”
Authorities were alerted to Klein’s alleged misdemeanours after his ex-wife found a video of him masturbating on camera whilst talking to young girls.
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“Steve Klein is not accused of having any lewd actual physical contact with any minor,” Debra S. White, an attorney representing Klein shared in a statement back in 2014.
“ALL charges against Steve are derived solely from online consensual video chats between Steve and some female strangers he met on an adult website. Steve believed the females were over the age of 18.
“The females alleged to be “minors” in this case are not known females. This means that no one, not the prosecution, not the police, and not the defense, actually know who the females are and no one knows their true age.”
