Lee Kaplan, 51 Is A Sick Fuck, 12 Girls Found In His Filthy Hillbilly Home

[McDanel]

Not supporting them in the least, but I will point out they have no education, nor skills for life in our world. Farming is all they are capable of, and they are so ignorant they were even convinced this was legal.

 

[cubby]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/lee-kaplan-officials-girls-were-hiding-when-found-in-pennsylvania-home/

Detectives are questioning many of the 12 girls found in a small Pennsylvania home Friday, hoping to figure out who exactly the girls are, and if they ever suffered abuse.

The girls were found without birth certificates and other public records have not yet been located, according to authorities. Lee Kaplan, 51, faces a number of charges including statutory sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault for allegedly fathering two of the children with the oldest girl found, now 18.

When authorities raided Kaplan's Feasterville home on Friday after receiving a tip, the children were found hiding in the basement and in a chicken coop, among other places, according to Lower Southampton Director of Public Safety Robert Hoopes.

A couple is also charged in the case. Daniel Stoltzfus is charged with conspiracy of statutory sexual assault and children endangerment. His wife, Savilla Stoltzfus, is charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

The Stolftzfus' allegedly told police they gave the oldest girl, who they said was their daughter, to Kaplan several years ago in exchange for financial help.

Savilla Stoltzfus allegedly said that all of the children were her offspring, Hoopes told CBS News on Monday.

"She was in the house, and she said that, but we don't really know," Hoopes said. "There's no documentation."

He added that he is unaware if the Stoltzfus' have had any male children.

Hoopes said the children found in Kaplan's home were outfitted in traditional Amish attire, and as a result, were brought to homes in nearby Lancaster County, which has a large Amish community.

However, it is not clear if the children have had any relationships or experiences outside Kaplan's home, Hoopes said.

At a press briefing on Saturday, Hoopes said that it appeared the children were home-schooled. Musical instruments and homework were found in the basement of Kaplan's home, he said.

The children were brought to two separate locations in Bucks County Monday, where a total of three detectives are questioning them, hoping to learn about their lives, Hoopes said.

"At first, they're just going to try to see general information. Who are their parents? Where are they from?" Hoopes said. He noted that it is possible that the children could identify by the last name Stoltzfus, but not necessarily be related to the suspects.

"Stoltzfus is a very very common name in the Amish community," Hoopes said.

Authorities will spend the next day or two trying to learn about life inside Kaplan's home. In particular, they want to learn whether the other children suffered the same kind of abuse that authorities allege the oldest one did.

Authorities don't currently plan to press more charges against any of the suspects, but that could change after the girls are questioned, Hoopes said.

 

[joker_girl]

They were probably, you know, "asking for it", being all 9 and sexy and shit. With their little hello kitty outfits and whatnot.
Hopefully, he can go to prison, and someone can buy him to be their bitch over a package of raspberry zingers.

 

[cubby]

With their little hello kitty outfits and whatnot.

Naw he can't even claim that, they dressed the girls as Amish, very plain dresses with bonnets.

 

[joker_girl]

Sexy little bonnets lol.
I don't understand how people can be sexually attracted to kids.
I suppose that's because im, you know, NOT a pedophile lol.
You would think the natural instinct would be to protect children, not fuck them.

 

[cubby]

I think little kids smell funny.
[doublepost=1470266219,1466539215][/doublepost]http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/trial-ordered-couple-accused-giving-girl-man-41078370

Pennsylvania couple was ordered Tuesday to stand trial on charges they gave away their 14-year-old daughter to a Philadelphia-area man after he helped them out financially.

Daniel and Savilla Stoltzfus were charged with child endangerment after police found a dozen girls living with Lee Kaplan of Feasterville earlier this year. Police said Daniel Stoltzfus told them he and his wife "gave" their 14-year-old daughter to Kaplan after he financially helped the former Amish couple.

Kaplan also was ordered to trial on sexual assault charges. Authorities allege that Kaplan fathered two children with the girl. Police determined the other nine girls in Kaplan's home were the Stoltzfus' children.

All three defendants remain in the Bucks County jail unable to post bail.

Defense attorneys argued there was no legal documentation to prove a marriage had not occurred or the official age of the girl.

The now 18-year-old identified her parents and Kaplan in the courtroom Tuesday, answering questions with simple "yes" and "no" responses.

Defense attorneys at times had difficulty hearing the soft-spoken teen. She testified that she had lived with Kaplan for years and had shared his bed since she moved to his home at 14.

She told the court Tuesday that she still cares for and trusts Kaplan.

Daniel Stoltzfus faces an additional charge of conspiracy in his daughter's alleged sexual assault after prosecutors contended he made the agreement to give his daughter to his business partner to avoid financial ruin.

Defense attorneys for the trio disputed the meaning of "gave" in the case. Each questioned what investigators had been told.

Detectives said Kaplan had lied several times and knew the girl's age. The couple, they said, lied about how many children had been in Kaplan's home after learning of the sexual contact.

The teen testified that her parents had not known she was pregnant until her mother assisted in the birth of the then-15-year-old's first child. She said her parents then split residences, with Savilla Stoltzfus and some of Savilla's children moving to also live with Kaplan.

Daniel Stoltzfus' attorney said prosecutors had made a leap in suggesting the girl's father agreed to let his business partner have sexual intercourse with his daughter.

But, Bucks County Assistant District Attorney Mary Kate Kohler maintained that a father does not give a child to another man — especially one who is not a relative — without an understanding that sexual contact could occur.

Kohler argued the girl's father didn't intervene after learning his daughter was pregnant because "that's what he expected."

"He did nothing," Kohler said.

Attorneys for Kaplan and Savilla Stoltzfus did not make closing arguments to try to persuade the judge to dismiss the charges against their clients.

There were 12, TWELVE, a dozen, girls in Kaplan's house. The oldest one who was given away, her two with Kaplan, and 9 of her sisters. There is still so much WTF in this, it's just hard to believe.

 

[FrayedKnot]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/daniel-...-teen-daughter-lee-kaplan-waive-arraignments/

Daniel and Savilla Stoltzfus had been scheduled to appear Friday in Bucks County, but online court records show they appeared Wednesday and waived arraignment. The man to whom they allegedly gave their daughter, Lee Kaplan of Feasterville, did the same thing Tuesday. They’ve all pleaded not guilty.

 

[sarahdownunder]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/daniel-...-teen-daughter-lee-kaplan-waive-arraignments/

Yes Your Honour. We admit we sold our daughters like livestock to this man to use and abuse for payment that meant we could keep our farm. But we're not guilty of doing exactly what we admitted to doing, Your Honour!

I hear banjos. And the world's tiniest violin.
Fuck I HATE it when scum like this admit to doing horrendous crimes, then turn around and plead not guilty. Fuck the judicial system - in my eyes you're already filthy scum, regardless of what some Judge says.

 

[thatsmallgrl]

She told the court Tuesday that she still cares for and trusts Kaplan.

Chances are she didn't know any better. Grooming sucks ass.

But, Bucks County Assistant District Attorney Mary Kate Kohler maintained that a father does not give a child to another man — especially one who is not a relative — without an understanding that sexual contact could occur.
Kohler argued the girl's father didn't intervene after learning his daughter was pregnant because "that's what he expected."

The amount of What the Fuck for that whole scenario. It bears repeating. What. The. Fuck.

 

[Freyjacat]

Bucks County...not surprised.

 

[cubby]

https://www.yahoo.com/celebrity/man-found-living-12-girls-234957371.html

While Lee Kaplan lived with 12 girls in his Pennsylvania home, authorities say, he allegedly brainwashed them to believe he was a prophet of God — grooming several of them for sex and calling six of them his “wives.”

Prosecutors this week revealed these and other harrowing details of the girls’ years of alleged mental and sexual abuse, as the investigation of Kaplan continues and he faces multiplying charges.

“This guy set up a virtual feeding ground of victims,” Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub tells PEOPLE. “He preyed upon one by one.”

Kaplan, who was charged with sex crimes after police rescued the girls from his home in June, is now accused of not only fathering two children with the eldest of the girls but also sexually abusing five of her younger sisters, Weintraub announced on Monday.

That same day Kaplan pleaded not guilty to more than a dozen new charges, including rape of a child, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and indecent assault, Weintraub says.

“He took these children into his home not too far from where we stand here today,” Weintraub alleged at a news conference. “Over time he played on their trust and affection for him. He groomed them to believed that he was a religious, cult-like figure for whom they should submit their will.”

Weintraub tells PEOPLE that Kaplan allegedly brainwashed the girls, using tactics similar to Stockholm syndrome, by taking advantage of their innocence and abusing his position of authority.

“They to accept it,” Weintraub says. “I’m saddened. I’m sickened, but I’m not surprised.”

Kaplan, 51, was originally charged with statutory sexual assault, unlawful contact with a minor and aggravated indecent assault after authorities rescued the girls, who ranged in age from six months to 18 years old, from his home in Feasterville, Pennsylvania. (Authorities were tipped off anonymously.)

After Kaplan’s arrest, the eldest of the girls told investigators she was 14 when her parents handed her over to Kaplan after he helped them financially. She told police she and Kaplan have two children together: a 3 year-old girl and a 10-month-old infant.

The eldest girl also said that years before moving into his home, Kaplan had his own bedroom in her parents’ Lancaster County home in Pennsylvania. She alleged that the sexual abuse started one night when she was 10. It didn’t stop until her rescue this summer.

Nine of the 11 other girls living in Kaplan’s home were her sisters, according to authorities; the remaining two were her daughters.

Newly released court documents obtained by PEOPLE show the sisters, who were quiet during initial interviews, recently opened up to investigators about their years of living with Kaplan.

Authorities had been unsure if he had harmed any of the 11 other girls, but six of the sisters, including the eldest, told police they were Kaplan’s “wives,” according to the documents.

The youngest is 10.

The girls said in their interviews that Kaplan claimed he had “dreams” about them becoming his wives. “Kaplan felt it was in the children’s best interests to become his wives,” according to the documents.

The girls’ every day life remains a mystery, Weintraub tells PEOPLE. They were sometimes spotted by neighbors playing in the front yard, dressed in traditional Amish attire, but no one ever saw how they spent their time inside the three-bedroom home.

According to the police interviews, however, multiple girls alleged they were routinely abused.

“They were not only hearing from him but from their parents,” Weintraub alleges, noting that the girls’ mother, Savilla Stoltzfus, is believed to have been living with her daughters and Kaplan during the abuse.

The girls’ story gained national attention after authorities announced the couple’s alleged “gifting” of their eldest daughter to Kaplan.

The Stoltzfuses, who have been charged with child endangerment, told authorities their eldest daughter was set to wed Kaplan, a former business partner and family friend. The family lives in an Amish community in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

(The father, Daniel Stoltzfus, had been “shunned” by the Amish by the time of his relationship with Kaplan, prosecutors previously told PEOPLE.)

Kaplan’s arrest affidavit alleges the Stoltzfuses “gifted” their daughter to him in exchange for financial benefits, but Savilla’s attorney, Craig Penglase, previously told PEOPLE that the language has been misconstrued.

Penglase compared the agreement the couple had with Kaplan to the common wedding ceremonial tradition of the bride’s father giving his daughter away to the groom.

“That’s what meant when they said that to the police,” Penglase said. “It’s an interpretation problem. It’s a cultural interpretation problem.”

According to Penglase, the couple had no idea their daughter and Kaplan were sexually involved. He said Savilla only learned about her daughter’s alleged sexual abuse by Kaplan when she learned about the pregnancy.

Soon after the baby was born, Savilla moved into Kaplan’s home with her nine other daughters, Penglase told PEOPLE.

Police have said there were a number of complaints regarding Kaplan in the months leading up to his arrest, but nothing warranting an arrest.

Attorneys for Kaplan and the Stoltzfuses could not be reached for comment about the new charges and accusations. (Kaplan’s attorney has previously declined to comment.)

All three defendants were set to appear in court the week of Nov. 7, but their hearings have been postponed, court officials tell PEOPLE.

He waas having a high old time with all those little girls. Had at least 6 wives, the youngest being 10 and the oldest, at the most, 17. He needs to never be released, "mom" and "dad" either.

 

[CLouise]

Prepare yourself for the quote from Kaplan's lawyer at the end of the article.

Mother, father, accused of 'gifting' teen daughter to Lee Kaplan enter guilty, no-contest pleas
Daniel Stoltzfus pleaded no contest before Judge Jeffrey Finley in Doylestown to a charge of child endangerment. His wife, Savilla, pleaded guilty to the same charge.
...
Daniel Stoltzfus met Kaplan at an auction, and the man helped them "transition from the Amish lifestyle" while assisting them financially, according to prosecutors.

Stoltzfus then "gifted" his oldest daughter to Kaplan -- a decision that Savilla Stoltzfus said she had input in but that was ultimately her husband's choice, according to information presented by prosecutors and acknowledged to be true by both Stoltzfuses.
...
Savilla Stoltzfus said that she had a feeling Kaplan was having sexual relations with her daughters but that "she felt like it was not her business to inquire what went on in those rooms, but knew that's what went on because Kaplan said it was God's will," prosecutors said.
...
Kaplan maintains his innocence, said his attorney, Ryan Hyde.

"He cares a great deal about these people," Hyde said after the proceeding. "He feels like they are his family, and he feels like they are being put through torture. ... He was very upset hearing the testimony today."

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/p...s-Amish-Feasterville-gifting-guilty-plea.html

 

[cubby]

Kaplan also would have conversations with family members that "helped define their sense of purpose as women," Assistant District Attorney Kate Kohler said.

Savilla's definition of a wife is to listen to and follow her husband and bear his children, Kohler said.

Two more quotes from the article. These people, Stoltzfus' and Kaplan, are sickening POS abusers.

 

[CbabyRKO]

child welfare official testified Friday that the young girls 'gifted' to a 52-year-old Pennsylvania man who allegedly had routine sexual contact with them for years were so unkempt they needed to be taught how to wash their hair.

Lee Kaplan, a self-described 'prophet,' is on trial for allegedly raping and sexually assaulting six sisters while they lived in his Bucks County house during a five-year period before his arrest last year.

Kaplan's trial began on Wednesday, during which it was learned that the girls' parents agreed to give at least one daughter to him.

The mother of the six girls says she knew about the sexual activity but believed it 'could be a good thing'.

Stacy Roach, a Bucks County Children and Youth supervisor, testified on Friday that after Kaplan's arrest, the girls were taken to a doctor for the first time in their lives, according toPhilly.com.

Doctors diagnosed three of the girls with Lyme disease while five of the girls needed to have a number of teeth removed.

'They had to be shown a video of how to wash long hair,' Roach said.

'It was obvious with the amount of dental work they needed that they probably didn’t brush their teeth.'

After Kaplan's arrest, the girls were put into foster care. They were enrolled in an online school and now have Social Security numbers and birth certificates.

Authorities say the Feasterville man fathered two children with one of the girls, who they allege had been 'gifted' to him by her parents because he helped them financially.

Police arrested Kaplan at his home in June 2016 after receiving a complaint about the health and safety of numerous children in the home.

When police responded, they discovered 11 girls living there.

Kaplan allegedly admitted to police that he fathered the two youngest children - a three-year-old and a 10-month-old - with the oldest girl, who was 18 at the time, according to CBS Philly.

The three other girls living at the home were the daughters of a Lancaster County couple who had broken away from the Amish community, investigators revealed.

Deputy District Attorney Kate Kohler argued in her opening statement that Kaplan 'brainwashed' Savilla Stoltzfus and her family, casting himself as a prophet, as he sought 'power, manipulation and control'.

'All they knew was life with the defendant as their leader, their preacher, their husband,' she said.

'Six children became his victims. Six children became his sex toys.'

During proceedings in court on Friday, it was learned that Stoltzfus urged her daughters to tell the truth to authorities about their sexual activities with Kaplan.

'Most people would consider him a very bad man,' one of Stoltzfus’ daughters said in a conversation recorded by detectives that was played in court on Friday.

'We understand it was God,' their mother is heard saying on the tape.

'We understand it was for a good purpose.'

Police say the girls' father, Daniel Stoltzfus, told them he and his wife 'gifted' one of their daughters to Kaplan after he financially helped the couple.

Defense attorney Ryan Hyde argued that Kaplan was married to the oldest daughter in the family's eyes and the other children loved him.

He denied Kaplan abused the younger girls.

'He was advancing their lives,' Hyde said, contending that the family took advantage of Kaplan's generosity.

'He was running them out of the darkness that was their lives beforehand.'

The mother of the girls, who along with her husband is awaiting sentencing on child endangerment convictions, said she knew about the sexual contact but believed it stemmed from Kaplan's dreams that were communications from God.

'I could see that it could be a good thing,' she testified. 'I always trusted him that whatever goes on is a good thing.'

She later said she had no regrets because 'we had a good life'.

She also told jurors she thought of Kaplan as an authority figure and discipline in his home was 'understood as a way of life'.

'As we all well know and understand, we're familiar with him and his ways, and we understand that he's always motivated to follow the leading of God,' she said.

'We understood that... it was the right thing to do or in God's leading.'

Although it was the oldest daughter who became pregnant, it was her younger sister who originally was offered in marriage to Kaplan, Stoltzfus testified.

The oldest, now 19, said she loves and misses Kaplan, and that she preferred living in his home to her parents', which was full of her siblings.

LINK

 

[Muriel Schwenck]

I believe the mother's defense or excuses about feeling it was right because it was God's will and Kaplan had them convinced.
Because what it really boils down to is that the parents were glad to have someone take all those girls off their hands. So they eagerly believed god wanted it.
I also believe the young teen wife when she says her life with Kaplan and two babies was better than living with that pack of dumb parents and all the little sisters that she probably had to help take care of.
None of those young girls knew how to shampoo and properly comb their hair? No one cared enough to show them how to wash properly or buy them a toothbrush?
It's like the entire family gave up on everything. Kaplan liked it that way. Kept everyone in thrall to him.

 

[Wifey]

OMG!!! They look exactly how I imagined them. Disgusting pigs!

 

[Francyne32]

Wow. This is so sad. Talk about having a sickness. The manipulation and mental health issues going on With ALL involved is too much to contemplate.

 

[PixieDust]

Oiii, not shocked or surprised. If they had a bigger house & were on TV, they would be the Duggers & millions would be striving to be like them. I bet it happens more often than people think

 

[ChaosKitty]

They were probably, you know, "asking for it", being all 9 and sexy and shit. With their little hello kitty outfits and whatnot.
Hopefully, he can go to prison, and someone can buy him to be their bitch over a package of raspberry zingers.

he doesn't deserve raspberry zingers unless they are shove up hs ass with a 2 by 4. This story was beyond revolting, real hills have eyes material, am waiting for someone to come up and rationalize it

 

[Sugar Cookie]

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/crime/parents-sentenced-in-gifted-girls-case-20170719.html

Daniel Stoltzfus, 44, pleaded no contest in April. “I regret having to put my children through what they’ve been through this past year and wish to reunite with my children,” he told the court Wednesday.

Savilla Stoltzfus said at the proceeding that she was “very, very lost” when the family met Kaplan and asked Finley to forgive her for “the fact that I put my children at risk on behalf of my own wishes and wants in life.”

 

[Just Rose]

Yes Your Honour. We admit we sold our daughters like livestock to this man to use and abuse for payment that meant we could keep our farm. But we're not guilty of doing exactly what we admitted to doing, Your Honour!

I hear banjos. And the world's tiniest violin.
Fuck I HATE it when scum like this admit to doing horrendous crimes, then turn around and plead not guilty. Fuck the judicial system - in my eyes you're already filthy scum, regardless of what some Judge says.

Your so correct ..

Ship them out of the U.S.A. First sterilize them This is not the country where we treat humans like livestock.

 

[bigmtn]

I just threw up. Poor kids. Ugh.

 

[starry1]

Is there a sentence yet?

 

[EchaSez]

Is there a sentence yet?

From this 06/06/17 story:
https://www.google.com/amp/www.philly.com/philly/news/crime/kaplan-gifted-sex-abuse-stoltzfus-feasterville-20170606.html?amphtml=y

Judge Jeffrey L. Finley revoked Kaplan’s bail and deferred his sentencing until a sexual offender assessment is completed...

...Many of the 17 counts carry a maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years, and Kohler said she hoped Kaplan would spend the rest of his life in prison.

The parents were sentenced:
07/19/17

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. — A Pennsylvania judge on Wednesday sentenced a married couple to up to seven years in prison each for giving their oldest daughter to a cult-like figure who sexually assaulted the girl and her five sisters.

...Daniel Stoltzfus, 44, who pleaded no contest, was sentenced to 3½ to seven years. Savilla Stoltzfus, 43, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to three to seven years...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wa...6e1f0a-6cb8-11e7-abbc-a53480672286_story.html

 

[chuzyluva]

Money & Sex....go hand in hand! That's freakin gross..NASTY OLD MAN!
[doublepost=1500652892,1500652849][/doublepost]
[doublepost=1500663769][/doublepost]THATS SUM HILLBULLY...SHIT!! GROWN ASS MAN HUMPING ON A YOUNG GIRL..UGHHHH! SHIT IF IM in DEBT,IM NOT GONNA GO AND GIVE KNE OF MY KIDS AWAY TO HELP ME GET BK ON TOP...WHITE FOLKS NASTY

 

[lithiumgirl]

Daniel Stoltzfus, 44, who pleaded no contest, was sentenced to 3½ to seven years. Savilla Stoltzfus, 43, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced to three to seven years

This seem about right to me.
In the absence of threats and coercion i doubt these girls knew they were being abuse until the police showed up and told them they were being abused. I think this situation is very much how their mother described it ... a way of life.


He should have taken them to the dentist ... tooth aches hurt.
[doublepost=1500665679,1500665548][/doublepost]

IM NOT GONNA GO AND GIVE KNE OF MY KIDS AWAY TO HELP ME GET BK ON TOP...WHITE FOLKS NASTY

Give me a break ... you got Hispanics and black fucking grandma all day long, and the same selling their kids for drugs which is hardly a reprieve from financial crisis.

 

[chuzyluva]

This seem about right to me.
In the absence of threats and coercion i doubt these girls knew they were being abuse until the police showed up and told them they were being abused. I think this situation is very much how their mother described it ... a way of life.


He should have taken them to the dentist ... tooth aches hurt.
[doublepost=1500665679,1500665548][/doublepost]

Give me a break ... you got Hispanics and black fucking grandma all day long, and the same selling their kids for drugs which is hardly a reprieve from financial crisis.

There's ALOT of BULLSHIT that HAPPENDS in other RACES...THATS DISGUSTING,PERVERTED...ETC. I WAS REFFURRING TO THIS HILLBILLY OLD ASS MAN...BUT YES ITS SAD THAT PPL DO WAT THEY DO TO THEIR OWN SEEDS...FOR $$

 

[EchaSez]

He's been sentenced!

Long, interesting, read about the case.

09/20/17

Lee Kaplan spent at least eight years sexually assaulting six underage sisters, starting with the oldest and taking each of them in succession as his “wives.”

For that, a Bucks County judge ruled Wednesday, Kaplan will spend 30 to 87 years in prison.

“Corrupt, perverted, atrocious — use what adjective you’d like to use,” said Judge Jeffrey L. Finley of Kaplan’s sexual contact with the girls, which in the youngest cases started at age 7.

The sentencing hearing in Doylestown marked the possibly final chapter in a 16-month case that drew national headlines. But it also offered, for the first time, new details about the 52-year-old Feasterville man at its center.

Beyond working in machinery and construction, Kaplan had studied aerospace engineering at Pennsylvania State University. He’d been a math and science tutor. And he’d spent “most of his life” working with children and college-aged people, including as a youth minister.

It added heft to the picture painted at trial of a perhaps uncommonly intelligent man whose brains and perversion helped him prey on “a naive and vulnerable family,” as the judge put it.

When Finley asked if Kaplan had anything to say, his attorney looked at him: “Now’s your chance.”

Kaplan didn’t apologize or deny the crimes, but said he wasn’t sure what he could say: “I honestly believe no matter what I said or how true it was, the way of media, public opinion, politics is too great to bother argument.”

To which the judge later replied: “While you may believe or have me believe that that was just a natural development of a relationship, well, I’m sorry, not in this society.”

Kaplan was convicted in June on 17 counts of child sexual assault for abusing the six oldest daughters of Daniel and Savilla Stoltzfus, a formerly Amish couple from Quarryville, Lancaster County. The incidents began in 2008, according to trial testimony, and continued until June 2016, when a neighbor’s tip to the state child-abuse hotline led child-welfare workers and police to knock on Kaplan’s door.

The shocking case drew national attention. In a five-day trial in June, all of the sisters and more than a dozen other witnesses testified about Kaplan’s isolated home, the strange beliefs he taught the Stoltzfuses, and what happened when the girls were alone with him.

Kaplan had taken all six girls as his “wives,” teaching them that it was a wife’s duty to have sexual relations with her husband. He had two children by the oldest daughter, now 19, who first gave birth at 14.

Kaplan’s jail time is made up of separate sentences for each of the six victims. Deputy District Attorney Kate Kohler called Kaplan a danger “to children everywhere.”

“This day couldn’t have come sooner,” she said after the sentencing. “I am very happy that he will be spending the next 30 to 87 years behind bars. That’s exactly where he belongs.”

The Stoltzfuses, who have 14 children in total and allowed all 10 of their daughters except one to move in with Kaplan, were both sentenced to up to seven years in prison in July for child endangerment. Daniel Stoltzfus, 44, pleaded no contest. His wife, Savilla, 43, pleaded guilty and testified at Kaplan’s trial after also persuading her children, who had at first denied that Kaplan had sex with them, to tell authorities about their life in Kaplan’s home. The couple met Kaplan in 2002, and he aided them over the years as they left their Amish community, faced financial troubles, and lost their home.

The six girls, now 9 to 19 years old, were placed in a group home with their other underage siblings (Kaplan’s two children are there with their mother). Child-welfare hearings, which are closed to the public, will be held later.

At their parents’ sentencing, the second-oldest pleaded with the judge to be lenient, saying the girls needed their mother and father. Individual and family counseling before any potential reunion with their children is part of both adults’ sentences.

When officials showed up at Kaplan’s home in June 2016, the windows were covered or nailed shut, the rooms sparsely furnished — Kaplan had the only bed — and the house filled with food and supplies. Kaplan and the Stoltzfus girls grew crops, raised catfish and bees, ran Kaplan’s model-train business — and never needed to leave the home. And Kaplan regularly brought the girls into his bedroom, in turns, and told them not to tell anyone.

The girls did not have any toiletries in the home and did not know how to wash their hair. They had been extensively educated by Kaplan, their mother, and with books and the internet; they all know how to play musical instruments.

Although they testified about the abuse, the girls also said at the trial they loved Kaplan and had been happy in his home.

“I feel like I trust him well enough that if he told me to do something, it would be for the better,” the 15-year-old sister said in June.

Prosecutors said during the summer that the girls were doing well and had been laughing and smiling more. They are now enrolled in cyber school and one is taking classes for college credit...

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/c...ntenced-wed-afternoon-20170920.html?mobi=true

 

[cubby]

I really hope things work out well for those girls, between their backward parents, who possibly didn't know any better and the Svengali Kaplan, I'm sure they've got a lot of learning and unlearning to do.