Minn ex-church leader pleads guilty to sex assault

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A former youth leader at a Maplewood church has pleaded guilty to molesting a White Bear Lake teen in the 1990s.

Sixty-five-year-old Gary Odell Weldon of White Bear Lake was charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

In exchange for Weldon's guilty plea Friday, prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of four months in jail.

The criminal complaint says Weldon was a youth leader at First Evangelical Free Church for 15 to 20 years,

Weldon told prosecutors he abused the victim at a Wisconsin cabin between 1992 and 1996, starting when the boy was 13. He acknowledged putting his hands in the boy's pants and touching his private parts "approximately a dozen times."

A St. Paul Pioneer Press report (http://bit.ly/n556Qa ) says sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 1.

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Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, http://www.twincities.com

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