A country preacher from Tennessee, who used to live in Taneytown, was given a suspended 10-year prison sentence yesterday after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a Carroll girl more than 20 years ago.
Carroll Circuit Judge Luke K. Burns Jr. imposed the sentence on Ronnie Lane Robertson, 48, of Roan Mountain, Tenn., who in June was extradited to Carroll County from Tennessee on charges that he had abused three Taneytown girls in the 1960s and 1970s.
Prosecutors dropped charges involving two of the girls yesterday as part of a plea arrangement. Robertson, who has been free on $5,000 bail since June, was expected to return to Tennessee.
According to Carroll sex abuse investigators, the allegations against Robertson surfaced during an investigation of his brother, Roy Monroe Robertson.
Roy Robertson has been behind bars since January, when he was arrested on sexual abuse charges involving two children and three adults over 20 years.
In August, Roy Robertson pleaded guilty to having molested one of the adults and having shown a pornographic film to one of the children. He was sentenced to two years in prison, and prosecutors dropped the remaining charges.
Last month, a Carroll grand jury indicted Roy Robertson in the Feb. 18, 1993, fatal shooting of a friend, William C. Prodoehl of Westminster.
According to the indictment against Ronnie Robertson, child abuse investigators were unable to specify the dates and locations of the alleged abuse because of the young ages of the accusers and the alleged continuing nature of the offenses.
The three accusers lived in the Taneytown area at the time of the alleged abuse, said Cpl. Wayne R. Moffatt, a state police detective. The accusers -- who were 1 to 13 years old at the time of the alleged abuse -- are now adults living in North Carolina, Tennessee and Pennsylvania.