A Centre County judge declared a mistrial yesterday in the case of a Bellefonte man charged with more than 2,500 counts of sexual assault.

Steven Kline was arrested last May and charged with assaulting two girls in Bellefonte over a period of about eight years. He faces 2,724 counts of indecent assault, aggravated indecent assault, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and one count of corruption and endangering the welfare of a child.

Yesterday, President Judge Charles Brown said five of 14 jury members were exposed to and may have been swayed by media reports that revealed similar sexual abuse charges filed against Kline in Bloomsburg.

Kline pleaded guilty to those charges, and when Brown interviewed jurors in the attorneys' presence before the trial, a few said they had heard of his past guilty pleas through the media.

Because the jurors had received information about Kline's past from media outlets and not from the trial, Brown declared a mistrial, meaning there will be a new jury selected for the case, and the trial will be rescheduled.

"[Some jurors said] it would be difficult if not impossible to be fair in this trial," Brown said after the ruling yesterday. "They believed knowing this about him would be in their minds somewhere."

Brown said the jurors could have been exposed to print, radio and television reports about Kline's background.

Assistant District Attorney Karen Arnold said the high number of charges against Kline are a result of recurring assaults.

She said assaults were "going on a frequent basis over a few years."

A new jury will be selected on Tuesday, Brown said. A new date for the trial still needs to be decided.

Defense attorney Philip Misorti did not return calls made by The Daily Collegian yesterday.