Ex-pastor sentenced for having sex with teen

[Ian David]

Saturday October 28, 2006

Ex-pastor sentenced for having sex with teen
Lee to serve 11 years in federal prison

By Nancy Dooling
Press & Sun-Bulletin

BINGHAMTON -- A mother asked a judge Friday to put the molester of her 15-year-old daughter away for as long as he possibly could.

"I'm asking you to put Lewis Lee in checkmate for good," Marsha Thomsen asked the court.

And Judge Thomas J. McAvoy complied, sentencing the family's former pastor to 11 years, three months in federal prison, the maximum under the guidelines for Lee's crimes. "It's just beyond my power to describe how heinous this crime is," McAvoy told Lewis Lee before sentencing him in Binghamton's federal court.

Lee, 54 at the time of his crimes, absconded with 15-year-old Elizabeth Thomsen in March, defying an order of protection that warned him away from the girl. Lee previously befriended the family, helping with chores at their Town of Columbus farm, hunting with the teenager's father and serving as their church pastor in Sherburne.

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