Lawmakers are divided over whether Ted Klaudt's rape conviction will influence the Legislature's coming debate over a proposed code of conduct.

"I do think it will," Rep. Tom Hills, R-Spearfish, said.

Former state Rep. Ted Klaudt, who was a Republican from Walker, was convicted Tuesday of raping two foster daughters by touching their breasts and genitals during phony physical examinations.

The offenses were in Pierre during the 2005 and 2006 legislative sessions, and one of the young women was a legislative page.

Klaudt's conviction comes as an interim committee of the Legislature is about to unveil a proposed code of conduct for lawmakers.

The 2007 Legislature created the interim committee after the Senate censured Sen. Dan Sutton, D-Flandreau, for inappropriately touching a teenage male page - a charge Sutton denied.

Hills said he and other Republican legislators discussed a code of conduct at a recent meeting in Deadwood. "I would support it," Hills said. "Most of the stuff you'd put in there is really just common sense."

The code of conduct committee will report its recommendations to the Executive Board of the Legislature, which meets Nov. 19 and 20.

Rep. Gordon Pederson, R-Wall, who is on the executive board, has served in the Legislature for 29 years. He has seen ethics and conduct rules debated before. "People are going to do dumb and illegal and stupid things," Pederson said. "They're just going to do them."

Pederson said Klaudt's case would focus attention on the issue, but he added, "I'm not so sure writing on a piece of paper that you can't do this or that will change anybody's mind."

Pederson also pointed out that Klaudt's behavior already was illegal.

Sen. Tom Katus, D-Rapid City, said the Democratic minority in the Legislature offered a code of conduct bill. "It got shot down," he said.

Katus said the Klaudt case might attract more support for the idea, which he favors. "I hope this trial, which was lurid and obscene, would have some impact," he said.

Katus said a code might help make lawmakers and others more sensitive to the importance of reporting misconduct.

Katus is originally from Macintosh, about 12 miles from Walker. Katus said people in the area talked about Klaudt's relationship with girls in foster care long before he was charged.

"It was pretty common knowledge," Katus said. "No action was taken."

Katus said a code of conduct might serve as a slight deterrent. "If you've got a bad egg, maybe they're going to do it anyway, but this might be a shot across the bow," he said.

Sutton was not expelled from the Legislature last winter. He hasn't been charged with a crime, either, but Pederson said that case has had repercussions. "There's more attention being paid to what to do to protect the kids," he said.

A new rule already in place, for example, requires permission from parents for pages to stay anywhere not approved by their supervisors.

But Pederson also worries new rules might be too strict. "If I can't give a page a ride home, and I pass a car with a flat tire, and it happened to be pages, I couldn't give them a ride."

Pederson also predicted there would be a vigorous debate over a proposed code of conduct. "I know there are two sides," he said. "Some people think the law's good enough the way it is, and some people think it's going to be a partisan thing."

House Speaker Tom Deadrick, R-Platte, is vice chairman of the code of conduct interim committee. He also is an attorney, and he represented Klaudt, for one day only at a hearing, because he and Klaudt were friends.

Deadrick said the Klaudt case would not influence the Legislature's action on a conduct code. "Not at all," he said.

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com