BENTON -- A former Baptist pastor in Dunklin County was found guilty Thursday of sexually assaulting a then 17-year-old girl left in his care by her missionary parents.

James Niederstadt of Malden was found guilty by Judge David Dolan of forcible sodomy, a non-classed felony in Missouri punishable by five years to life in prison. The trial took place in Scott County on a change of venue.

Sentencing will take place April 13, after the Missouri Department of Probation and Parole conducts a pre-sentence investigation and issues Dolan a recommendation.

Niederstadt, who had been pastor of Vinson General Baptist Church, had confessed to investigators in over three and a half hours of tape-recorded interviews that he had fondled the girl one or two times a week over a five-week period around March 1992, said Steve Sokoloff, Dunklin County prosecutor.

Niederstadt also explained how he had also sodomized the girl using his fingers, Sokoloff said.

Few facts are disputed in this case, said defense attorney Daniel Moore.

"Ultimately, everyone agrees about what happened," Moore said. "It's just a matter of narrow legal definitions."

Moore maintained that Sokoloff has not proven Niederstadt used forcible compulsion when he sodomized the girl.

During court testimony on Jan. 3, the victim said she was not conscious while she was being sodomized, Moore said.

"It's a factual, legal impossibility to have forcible compulsion because things happened when the victim was asleep," Moore told Judge Dolan.

Sokoloff acknowledged that the sexual abuse was initiated while the victim was asleep, but she had submitted to it out of fear resulting from prior beatings and death threats.

Missouri statutes define forcible compulsion as physical force that meets reasonable resistance, or a threat of death or serious injury.

The prosecutor recalled how the victim testified that Niederstadt had put his hands around her throat, telling her that he could kill her.

"You can't convict on the basis of could'," Moore told the court.

Niederstadt had confessed to sexually assaulting the girl only in March 1992, although the victim had recalled other incidents extending back to the summer of 1991, when she was left to stay with Niederstadt while attending a Christian school in Campbell.

Dolan also ruled that available evidence showed the victim was born in 1975, rather than 1973.

No birth certificate was available to verify her age since the girl was born in Africa to missionary parents. The prosecutor had presented the victim's U.S. passport to show a Dec. 9, 1975, birth date.

Other records, including hospitals' and drivers licenses', had shown the victim giving her birthdate as Dec. 9, 1973.

Missouri's statute of limitations on prosecution says that all felonies except class A crimes cannot be punished if charges are filed more than three years after the crime. Since forcible sodomy is one of a few unclassified crimes, Moore argued that the 1998 charges against Niederstadt were filed too late.

An exception exists for sex crimes against victims under 18, which gives 10 years to file charges.

Unless Niederstadt receives a suspended sentence, Moore plans to file an appeal, which he said would likely be heard by the state Court of Appeals in October.