Fayetteville man convicted of groping girl, conspiring with her mom to drop charges

Becky Metrick
Chambersburg Public Opinion

CHAMBERSBURG - A Franklin County jury on Tuesday night convicted a Fayetteville man of inappropriately touching a young girl over a period of several years and conspiring with the girl's mother to get the charges dropped. 

Kevin Keefer Sr., 57, was found guilty of 11 of the 14 charges against him. The jury deliberated for about three and a half hours. 

Keefer was found guilty of felony counts of corruption of minors, two types of unlawful contact with a minor, endangering the welfare of a child, intimidation of a witness, and conspiracy to commit intimidation of a witness. He was convicted of misdemeanor counts of corruption of minors, criminal conspiracy to commit obstruction and criminal conspiracy to commit corruption of minors.

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He was also found guilty on one count each of felony dissemination of sexually explicit materials to a minor and misdemeanor indecent assault, and was found not guilty on one count each of those same charges.  

He was also found not guilty of one misdemeanor count of obstruction of administration of law. 

The prosecution presented Keefer's case as a "grand conspiracy." 

When prosecutor Rosby Carr asked Keefer during the two-day trial what had happened, Keefer identified several other people as the reason he believes he was in court. 

A girl claimed Keefer groped her while she was in his care, touching her and forcing her to touch him inappropriately from the time she was 8 or 9 years old until she was 15. He also allegedly forced her to watch pornography. Carr said Keefer's actions corrupted the girl's morals and endangered her welfare.

Keefer was also accused of working with the girl's mother to get the girl to recant her allegations. The woman, Linda Unterberger, is also charged with witness intimidation in the case, and testified against Keefer during the trial.

In his testimony, Keefer claimed several possibilities for why the allegations were made against him. 

Among them were the belief that his sister and niece put the girl up to making the allegations; the belief that the girl was molested, not by him, but by his eldest son; and the idea that law enforcement and a prosecutor who used to be on the case put ideas into the girl's head.

Keefer's attorney, Drew Deyo, told the jury during closing arguments that not only was Keefer innocent of indecent assault because he never knowingly touched the girl inappropriately for sexual gratification, but the girl's own testimony proved Keefer never forced her to watch pornography. Deyo argued Keefer should be found not guilty of all the charges, considering the rest hinge on whether or not he acted appropriately toward the girl. 

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Deyo and Carr disagreed on whether the girl testified to being forced to watch pornography. Deyo said he believed she said she only saw pornography materials around Keefer when she walked in on him watching it. Carr said he believed she said during testimony and throughout the investigation that Keefer would get her to watch or look at pornographic materials.

When it came to the intimidation charges, Carr played clips from 24 calls Keefer made from jail to Unterberger, in which he could be heard telling the family about several different ways and reasons he could and should be freed.

Among the reasons for getting out of jail, Keefer said he had a dire need for a leg surgery and that if he did not get it he would lose his leg. He also told other children in the home if he had been out of jail, he could have taken them on a trip or gone shopping with them.

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Keefer could be heard telling Unterberger to tell the girl to say that it was his sister who made them make the allegations, or that they should tell investigators that it was just one of her stories. 

Deyo argued that these calls couldn't be intimidation because it's only intimidation if Keefer was asking the girl to give misleading information. Deyo said Keefer never said he wanted the girl to lie, only that he wanted the family to make it right.

Becky Metrick, 717-262-4762