A Baptist minister charged last year with fondling three teenage girls in Kingston while playing hide-and-seek in the dark and teaching one-on-one music lessons will spend a minimum eight months in prison, Judge Peter Paul Olszewski Jr. said today.
Brian Neiswender, 27, pleaded no contest last month to two counts of indecent assault of a person less than 16 and three counts of corruption of minors, all misdemeanors.
Neiswender did not admit any guilt when pressed by Olszewski in court or when questioned by reporters as sheriff’s deputies led him out of the courthouse.
Neiswender’s attorney, Nanda Palissery, called the sentence “absolutely fair.”
“(Olszewski) could have imposed additional time and he could have imposed less time, but given the testimony he was offered by people on both sides, it was apparent that the judge had a very difficult decision to make,” Palissery said. “As a result, it was fair to both sides.”
Under state guidelines, Neiswender could have qualified for probation on every charge, Luzerne County Assistant District Attorney Nancy Violi said.
She said the prison sentence “sends a message” to would-be sex offenders.
“This case is really a true testament to the courage and strength of the victims,” Violi said.
Olszewski ordered Neiswender to avoid contact with the victims and four other girls he had previously been accused of fondling.
There may have been as many as six other victims, but they did not come forward after seeing a backlash against the girls who made the initial accusations, Capt. John Jorda, the lead investigator on the case, said.
Neiswender, who currently lives in Lakeland, Fla., touched the girls while he was a minister at Christ Community Church on Dorrance Street in Kingston, prosecutors said.
