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Man pleads to two counts; he faced over 200 counts of sexual assault of teen

A 38-year-old Summit Hill man who was facing over 200 counts related to the sexual assault of a teenage girl on Thursday pleaded guilty to two corruption of minors counts, a felony 3 and a misdemeanor 1.

John P. Klingaman, of East Hazard Street, who police say threatened to kill the girl if she told anyone about the assaults, appeared before Judge Joseph J. Matika.Sentencing will take pleace after a presentence investigation.Summit Hill Chief of Police Joseph J. Fittos had filed 168 counts against Klingaman and Lehighton Detective Scott T. Preboznyak filed an additional 58 counts.Charges in Summit Hill are 40 counts of statutory sexual assault with the person being under age 16, 40 counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse of an individual less than 16 years old, 40 counts of aggravated sexual assault of an individual under age 16, two counts of corruption of minors, 40 counts of indecent assault with a minor and four counts of terroristic threats.The Lehighton charges are 12 counts of indecent assault of a person less than 16 years of age, 12 counts of corruption of a minor, 12 counts of aggravated indecent assault, 11 counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse of an individual under age 16, and 11 counts of statutory sexual assault of an individual.The charges stem from incidents which police say occurred between Sept. 1, 2014, and Dec. 3, 2015.Police say that on at least two occasions, in September and October 2015, Klingaman had the teen smoke methamphetamine and then committed sexual acts.Fittos said he received the report of the offenses on Jan. 28 and then interviewed the victim. He wrote in the affidavit that the girl told him that Klingaman had sexual relations with her on a daily basis.“He told her at least four times that if she told anyone, he would kill her and then himself,” Fittos wrote in the affidavit.Fittos said in the affidavit, “The defendant and the youth would also smoke marijuana which the defendant gave the money to the youth to purchase the drug.”

Klingaman