Child-Care Author Jailed for Sex-Abuse of Teen Girl

A doctor who co-wrote a book on child care for Christian parents has been sentenced to prison for sexually abusing a teen-age girl.

District Judge William Gray on Thursday sentenced Dr. Herbert L. Ketterman, 58, to 5 to 20 years in prison for taking indecent liberties with a minor.

The family doctor from suburban Kansas City also was given a concurrent sentence of 3 to 10 years on an aggravated sodomy conviction.

Ketterman pleaded guilty in December to the indecent liberties charge and was convicted of the sodomy charge when he stipulated in court last month that the incident had taken place but declined to enter a plea.

He appeared at the sentencing with his ex-wife, Dr. Grace Ketterman, a child psychiatrist, who had asked the judge for leniency. Neither Ketterman nor his former wife, who co-wrote “The Complete Book of Baby and Child Care for Christian Parents” in 1981, would comment as they left the courtroom.

Ketterman was convicted in January for his relationship with a 14-year-old girl, a former patient, between May of 1983 and April, 1984.

Prosecutors contended the relationship was encouraged by the girl’s mother, who was sentenced earlier to two to five years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted indecent liberties with a child. Authorities said the woman encouraged sexual abuse and took photographs during sexual acts between Ketterman and her daughter.

Ketterman publicly apologized to the girl, her family and the medical community. Mrs. Ketterman said her ex-husband had many insecurities and that those, coupled with money problems, made him vulnerable to seductive people.