Pennsylvania Lawyer Gets 15 Years in Russian Child-Sex Case

PHILADELPHIA – A suburban Philadelphia lawyer will serve 15 years behind bars for the sexual abuse of a young Russian ballet dancer he helped support.

Forty-seven-year-old Kenneth Schneider of Berwyn was sentenced Thursday. Prosecutors say he began a long relationship with a 12-year-old Russian boy in 1998. They say Schneider paid for the boy's ballet school and had him move in to his Moscow apartment.

He also was charged with bringing the boy to Philadelphia for a 2001 summer program and continuing the sexual relationship.

Schneider denied the charges, which arose after the victim filed a lawsuit against him in 2008.

A jury convicted him last year of traveling for the purpose of engaging in sex with a minor.

Schneider founded the Apogee Foundation, a New York-based arts group.