General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPolice: PA Couple Gave 14 yr old daughter to man as thanks
A Pennsylvania couple is accused of child endangerment after police said they gave away their 14-year-old daughter to a man who helped them financially. The friend has been charged with sexually assaulting the teen, who had two children with him.
Officials acting on a tip Thursday found 51-year-old Lee Kaplan at his Feasterville home, along with 12 girls ranging in age from six months to 18 years.
According to an affidavit, the girl's father, Daniel Stoltzfus, told an officer he gave his daughter to Kaplan after he helped the family out of financial ruin. He told police he thought it was legal after he did some research online.
Kaplan faces a number of charges including statutory sexual assault and aggravated indecent assault. 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.
All three are being held on $1 million bail. No lawyer information was listed in court documents.
The girl, now 18, told police she and Kaplan have a 3-year-old and a six-month-old.
<snip>
read:http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/police-pennsylvania-ouple-gave-daughter-man-39948043
mnhtnbb
(31,418 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)mnhtnbb
(31,418 posts)This doesn't surprise me in the least that an Amish father would pull something like this.
maxsolomon
(33,473 posts)until you know that detail. it only makes sense within a limited-information, patriarchal, closed society.
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)Demit
(11,238 posts)Feasterville is fairly distant from Amish country. In miles and culturally. Wonder how these folks encountered one another in the first place? And the Amish dad was going online? The Amish don't even use zippers.
Freddie
(9,282 posts)Amish in Feasterville??
REP
(21,691 posts)They won't use it in their homes, but even old order Amish will use computers and cell phones in their businesses. The couple who are the parents of at least one of the children is from Lancaster County.
Demit
(11,238 posts)I suppose doing online research to determine the legality of giving your daughter away in thanks for financial aid is "business," but it's a bit of a stretch.
underahedgerow
(1,232 posts)Soooo the guy had a harem or what? Maybe he was doing a whole Mormon thing there, and committing welfare and social services fraud too.
I've never heard of the Amish 'giving' their daughters away.
countryjake
(8,554 posts)The couple is claiming that all of the kids, except for the two youngest, are theirs.
This will be one weird and troubling investigation, for sure.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)countryjake
(8,554 posts)for quite a while.
Files federal lawsuit
http://lancasteronline.com/news/ex-amishman-church-ruined-me/article_005d9901-3e8f-5d7e-8a77-e9a52b59b26b.html
Daniel Stoltzfus, shown at his Kirkwood metal fabrication business, has sued the Amish church and two church-related charities, alleging they conspired to drive him out of business and seize his home after he was shunned by the church. (Deb Grove/Intelligencer Journal)
A former member of the Amish church has sued the church, its charitable organizations and church officials, claiming they conspired to ruin his business and seize his home when he did not follow church teachings.
Daniel Stoltzfus of Kirkwood claims he was shunned by the church after Amish members learned he was a born-again Christian who did business with a Jewish man.
In a suit filed Feb. 4 in federal court in Philadelphia, Stoltzfus and his wife, Savilla Stoltzfus, accuse the church of "tortuously interfering with and shutting down" his business and accusing him of keeping his wife against her will and abusing the couple's children.
The suit also accuses Amish church officials of conspiring to purchase the Stoltzfus' property at a sheriff's sale at a fraction of its value.
Though the home was sold at a sheriff's sale, the Stoltzfuses and their 11 children continue to live at the Kirkwood property because they have not been evicted.
The couple is seeking $1.1 million in damages and the return of their former property, along with other unspecified damages.
In that article, it says that they both left the Amish church in 2003, and from other articles relating to this current case of giving their daughter away to be raped, in his mug shot, again the father has a bushy mustache and no Amish man has ever been allowed to grow hair above their lip. I can't be certain if it's the same Daniel and Savilla Stoltzfus, but comparing the two pics, it sure looks him.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3647657/Three-held-Pennsylvania-rape-case-teen-Amish-girl-gifted-man.html