Update: Children testify they were abused sexually

DOYLESTOWN--Bucks County prosecutors on Wednesday accused a 52-year-old man of manipulating a former Amish couple to fulfill his "deviate sexual desires" with six of their young daughters.

Prosecutor Kate Kohler said the parents of the girls initially promised Lee Kaplan one of the daughters to be his future wife, but that eventually, Kaplan had sexual relations with six of their daughters, including the youngest at six years old. He impregnated the oldest daughter twice, starting when she was 14, Kohler said. Kaplan referred to all of the girls as his wives.

The girls' mother, Savilla Stoltzfus, testified that she, too, became one of Kaplan's wives and that she soon grew jealous of her own daughters. Prosecutors read a letter Stoltzfus wrote to her legal husband Daniel Stotzfus complaining that Kaplan stopped having sex with her and instead preferred the daughters' company in his bedroom.

"I looked at them more like other women than my children," Stolftzfus testified at Kaplan's first day of trial Wednesday at the Bucks County Courthouse.

Kaplan is facing 17 counts of rape, sexual assault and conspiracy charges. He appeared in court Wednesday wearing a charcoal suit and red tie with a short haircut and trimmed beard in contrast to his shaggy appearance when he was arrested at his Feasterville home last year.

He stroked and twisted his beard for much of the testimony Wednesday that included a neighbor who said he didn't know children were living at Kaplan's home, a detective who noted there were no toys and only one real bed at the home and a social worker who described gradually finding 11 girls living at the home with no evidence of toiletries or toothbrushes.

None of the girls was enrolled in school or had seen a doctor. They "didn't exist on paper," Kohler said.

Ryan Hyde, defense attorney for Lee Kaplan, insisted in his opening statement of Kaplan's trial that his client was in fact the victim.

Hyde said Daniel Stoltzfus, the father of the girls, spotted him at an auction, noticed Kaplan had money and saw an opportunity to offload some debt and obligations. Hyde said Stoltzfus invited him into his home and agreed to "gift" him one of his daughters as repayment for saving his business and providing a home for the family.

"Like a tick, they were digging in," Hyde said of the Stoltzfuses.

Kaplan did his best to help the family and "he got taken advantage of," Hyde said.

Hyde alleged that the younger girls told the truth when they initially denied any sexual contact with Kaplan.

But Hyde could not get around the fact that Kaplan impregnated one of the older daughters at age 14 and again at age 17. Hyde explained, however, that Kaplan considered the girl his wife and that her parents accepted that.

Kohler said Kaplan used the six children as his "sex toys," all the while brainwashing the family that the activity was God's will. All six girls will testify against Kaplan, Kohler said, but she warned the jury that the girls still love Kaplan and don't want to see him get in trouble.

Savilla Stoltzfus testified that she knew her daughters were being intimate with Kaplan, but she thought it was okay because the activity stemmed from dreams by Kaplan that were communications from God.

"I could see that it could be a good thing," she said.

She later said she did not regret anything because "we had a good life."

The girls were kept isolated and neighbors did not know any children were living at Kaplan's home behind a tall wooden fence and blankets and boards that covered the windows.

Children and youth service workers raided Kaplan's home in June last year after getting a report from a neighbor that there were girls in the yard who looked sad even though Kaplan didn't have any children.

Once inside, the CYS case worker testified that Kaplan only admitted to having five children at the house. But when Savilla Stoltzfus summoned the children, eight turned up around the dining room table.

Then more children appeared.

The oldest child, 18, came upstairs holding a three-year-old. A search of the property later turned up a 17-year-old girl hiding in a chicken coop in the backyard holding a six-month-old baby.

Savilla Stoltzfus initially said all 11 children were hers, but case workers soon determined two of the children were born within one month of each other, making it impossible for her to be the mother of both.

Savilla Stoltzfus underwent more than hour of questioning from the prosecution Wednesday before the trial broke for lunch. Kaplan's defense attorney will get a chance to question her when the trial resumes shortly after 2 p.m.

Savilla Stoltzfus pleaded guilty last month to child endangerment and her husband Daniel Stoltzfus pleaded no contest. She appeared in court with waist-length hair wearing a maroon prison jumpsuit.