Judge imprisons therapist for sexual misconduct

SANDPOINT - A man accused of engaging in sexual misconduct with students he was counseling at a Clark Fork boarding school was sentenced to serve up to five years in prison.

But District Judge John Patrick Luster retained jurisdiction of Louis William Ladenburger, which means he will be eligible for probation after serving six months in the state prison at Cottonwood.

Ladenburger was originally charged with three counts of lewd conduct for alleged sexual contact with two teenage boys at Elk Mountain Academy between February and April of last year. He later entered into a plea agreement in which the charges were reduced to a single count of felony assault.

Ladenburger's defense counsel, Sandpoint attorney Jeremy Featherston, and Bonner County Prosecutor Phil Robinson recommended a suspended prison sentence, two years of supervised probation and an unspecified amount of local jail time. The defense and the state sought to make the recommendations binding upon the court.

Luster, however, was unwilling to agree to the recommended sentence.

“The main reason that the court felt it was inappropriate to simply treat this as a suspended sentence is really the gravity and the nature of the conduct,” Luster said.

Ladenburger, 70, was charged with touching one 17-year-old student and touching and having oral sex with another student, who also was 17 at the time.

Luster called Ladenburger's actions “inexcusable.”

“As a therapist and a counselor for troubled kids, to put them in this kind of an environment and subject them to this type of treatment, I think, for your own satisfaction is totally reprehensible,” said Luster.

Featherston told the court his client asked him not to make any remarks about mitigating circumstances in the case.

“He takes full responsibility for his actions,” said Featherston.

Robinson said the victims in the case were advised of the sentencing hearing but chose not to attend. They also declined to participate in the presentence investigation, which is conducted to aid a judge at sentencing.