Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - ‘Prophet’ Lee Kaplan convicted for sex with 6 young ‘sister wives’

Episode Date: June 8, 2017

A Pennsylvania man “gifted” a half-dozen underage girls to be his “sister wives” could spend the rest of his life in prison after being found guilty of sexual assault. Nancy Grace and Alan Duke discuss the shocking case of Lee Kaplan in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. was gifted the oldest of the girls by her own parents who live in Pennsylvania's Amish country. He's accused of raping six sisters, fathering two children, and telling the girls he was a prophet. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Seville Stoltzfus told a jury if she was out of jail, she would be okay with him continuing his sexual relationships with the girls. They had no birth certificates and weren't enrolled in any school. At times she says she was jealous of the attention her children were getting because she too had been gifted by her husband to be one of Kaplan's wives. Daniel Stoltz says he thought it would be legal after doing research online.

I thought they were just part of his family. Little children, little girls, six of them in suburban Pennsylvania, kept as, quote, wives, wives, little girls kept as wives of an alleged pedophile, quote, prophet, a prophet right there in your suburb. The children, by the time they were found, had Lyme disease, rotted out teeth, and they didn't even know how to wash their own hair. Testimony in the trial of 52-year-old perv Lee Kaplan in Pennsylvania. The mother of the six little girls, who I may also say should rot in hell, the mother of the six girls claims that their abuser, this horrific 52-year-old freak,

was gifted the girls as wives. Okay, now how do you say that? That's like the door was left open and the dog got out and ran into the traffic, like the door did it on its own. Listen to this phraseology. The mother of these six little girls says the alleged pedophile sex abuser was, quote, gifted her six daughters as wives. Translation, she forked them over for a lifetime of pain. Kaplan, this guy, Lee Kaplan, the 52-year-old from Bucks County, helped the family, the mother's family, out when they fell on hard times. Police arrested Kaplan. They discovered 11 little girls living in his home, including two babies. He fathered with one of the little Stolfus girls.

Yeah, ew. Of course, here's D-Facts showing up a day late and a dollar short they find all these children with rotted out teeth lyme disease they had to have their teeth pulled out you know the neighbors had seen this i don't know what happened at the schools once again defax sitting at their desk, fat, dumb, and happy. Savila Stolfa says she knew her children were being raped by Kaplan, but believe it stemmed from his communications with God. I don't know what God they think they're worshiping, but it's not anything I've ever heard of. Kaplan facing numerous charges of statutory rape and sex assault. Once again, DFACS, Department of Family and Children's Services,

dragging their heels while these girls are now set up for a lifetime of pain. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. And as horrific as it is, we cannot turn away in good conscience from this. We cannot turn away and not listen to it and not know about it. We're not the monkeys, the three monkeys, see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. We have to confront it and do something about it. Now, Alan Duke, the Duke, is joining me from his posh Hollywood pad in Hollywood.

Excuse me. What part of Hollywood are you in? I'm actually in the Valley. I'm a Valley boy right now. Okay. Sadly to me, that means absolutely nothing. Studio City area, just over the hill from Hollywood and Beverly Hills. I can just go right over the hill and I'm right down there with all of the big stars.

So you can look out your window and see Tori Spelling getting evicted? Yes. Well, if I go up the hill, George Clooney lives nearby. I thought he lived in a castle in Italy. He lives in the house that Clark Gable used to live in. Yeah, I just, okay, you know what, Alan, stop. I want to get back to Ted Kaplan. As much as you'd like to talk about Clark Gable, God rest his soul, I want to get back to Lee Kaplan and how, out of a whole neighborhood,

nobody noticed all the little children, girls, living there, and that two little bitty girls got pregnant and gave birth. And they all have rotten teeth and Lyme disease. How does that happen? And don't they have to go to school for Pete's sake? Well, there's homeschool. There's homeschool. Yeah, and we're having a lot of problems with homeschooling, and I'm not knocking homeschooling.

I have a relative in Florida, and she homeschools her children. And let me tell you something. When they were in first grade, they were already studying the great classics of literature, classical music. I'm like, guess what? John, Dave, and Lucy know they're ABCs. So I'm not knocking it. But what I'm saying is there's no accountability. Nobody knows where the children are, how they were doing, or if they're pregnant with rotted teeth and Lyme disease, Alan. There is homeschool done right, and there are people who are very serious about it. Did you just hear me not talk about my cousin in Florida? I heard. I know about your wonderful, talented cousin. That's how I started the whole thing. But there are people, and we have to acknowledge this,

we dealt with this in the Adrian Jones tragedy, where there are some horrible people who hide their kids, isolate their kids by saying, oh, we're homeschooling them. We're homeschooling them. Yeah, they're homeschooling them with torture. Abusing them, beating them, and neglecting them. Yes. Yes.

Let's get back to Kaplan. A prophet. That always makes me suspicious when people just outright claim they're a prophet. Well, he's got the beard and the hair. I mean, I just need a more fuller beard, and I probably could be considered a prophet. Are we back on you, Alan? Yes. Okay.

Try to focus off Alan and on to these six little girls and the mother. I think the mother needs to go to jail because she knew about what was happening. You know, there I am sugarcoating it. She knew this 52-year-old man was having sex with her little girls, and she believed it, quote, could be a good thing. Then this Bucks County Children and Youth Supervisor testified that the girls were taken to a doctor after his arrest for the first time in their lives. I'm learning a lot of this from Philly.com. And I'm overwhelmed the mother of the six girls that kaplan viewed of wives

told she now says she tells the girls to tell the truth to police about what happened as they believed quote god was at work in their relationships with a man decades older than them. I'm learning this from Justine McDaniel. She's the staff writer who has been covering this trial for Philly.com. Now, the mother goes on to say, most people would consider him a very bad man. This is the mother. And this was a recorded conversation that detectives played. But we understand it was God and it was for a good purpose.

You know, she's not crazy. She's not legally insane. Therefore, she is part and parcel of this, and she must go to jail, unless they work some kind of an immunity deal with her. Alan? How can you not face some kind of punishment for doing this, going along with this?

I mean, these girls were in there five years? Is that what it was? Well, the other thing is this alan i mean under civil law in our country our jurisprudence system that was gifted to us that we adopted we chose to adopt it from great britain from their hundreds and hundreds of years of law you, which was brought to them by the Anglo-Saxon invasion. That's where this code, the legal code, came from. But under that code, you do not go to jail for refusing to act. Say, Alan, you fall into a lake. I can swim. I'm an Olympic swimmer, but I don't rescue you. I cannot go to jail for that in our country. However, if you have a duty to act, i.e. you're the mother of

these girls, that's a whole different can of worms. Plus, she made an overt act and that is handing the girls over. Alan, you've covered a lot of conspiracy cases, conspiracy when you plan to commit a crime. A big defense to conspiracy is, oh, that was just talking about it. I dreamed about it. It was a movie script. It wasn't real. Unless you commit an overt act to further the conspiracy, and by her handing the girls over to him, that was an overt act. I just can't sit still while this woman is not prosecuted, Alan.

And if you're a parent, I think that is child neglect. The more I look at this, you know, you called this case to my attention and I didn't quite believe what? And I looked at it and I said, it was so much isolation. These girls didn't even know how to wash their

hair. When they were put into foster care, they actually had to be shown a video how to wash their hair. That's how basic it was. What kind of lives were they leading? And how could you hand over a little girl as young as age describe summer swimming in Kaplan's backyard pool, learning history from documentaries, taking care of chickens, picking fruit from trees, and being raped by a man 37 years older than her. That witness, the rape started when she was 10. And they asked the girl, do you know why Mr. Kaplan was having sex with you? And she responded, because I'm his wife. How did you know you were his wife? Because he told me.

Over two full days, a parade of witnesses testified about the family and living with this predator. I want to know, you know, you have taught many times, Alan, about how your grandmother married when she was 15. Right. And I told you about my grandmother on my father's side in Alabama that was married when she was 14. And they were married well over 65 years. Yeah. And you suggested that child briding, and I'm using that as a verb,

is okay in some circumstances. And I vehemently disagree. No, I wasn't. I was asking a question. Let's be clear about disagree. I was asking a question. Let's be clear about that. I was asking, why was it okay 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 years ago or way back in time, and all of a sudden in the last how many, 20 years? It's just appalling that somebody at age 15 gets married or 14. I have a question for you. Why is it that thousands of years ago, we wore animal skins, had no shoes.

I still do that. And wandered the earth looking for food. I still do that. And fearing lightning. I don't do that. Because we advanced. We progressed to a different level. And God willing, a thousand years from now,

they're going to look back at you and I and laugh their heads off. So that's why. They're laughing at us now. Because we now have come to the understanding that it's wrong. You know, there's a theory in the law, which I vaguely recall from first year of law school, that the law exists and it is our duty through case law, which I vaguely recall from first year of law school, that the law exists, and it is our duty through case law, i.e. cases, to divine it, to figure it out. It just took a

while to figure out how wrong this is, this child-briding. I'm not saying it's right, but I'm asking, I think it's interesting that, yes, we both have grandparents who are married at 14 and 15 and stayed married forever. And it wasn't a wild, unusual thing. Times were different back then. Well, I got them back. I didn't get married until I was 47. So there. You balanced it out.

Now, don't blab that because the twins think I'm 11 and a half. Don't mess it up. I'm sure they do. It could be this, that we do stay children longer now, I think. I was looking at a book last night about this, that actually a U.S. Senator, Sass from Nebraska, has written a book talking about how people don't grow up anymore until they're way, way older, that you're 25 years old and you're still like a four.

What's the difference in a 14 and a 25 year old in the way you still live at your parents house? You don't have your career going. Alan, if you're talking about white blamers, I'm talking about a sex predator. OK, get back on it. Back in the middle of the road, Alan. Back in the middle of the road. How society treats 15-year-olds today

is different than they treated them 100 years ago. I want to pause and thank our sponsor today, Zip Recruiter. It's awesome. And if you're hiring, are you hiring? Do you know where to post your job to find the very best candidates? Well, with Zip Recruiter, you can post your job to 100 plus

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ZipRecruiter.com slash Nancy Grace. One more time. Try it free. Free. Find the person you're looking for. Hire somebody today. Get them working. ZipRecruiter.com slash Nancy Grace. ZipRecruiter, thank you for what you are doing in the job market and thank you for being our partner. Okay, back to Ted Kaplan. Okay, I want

to talk about their relationship and if you want to know more about it, I'm just telling you, this reporter at philly.com is awesome. I was reading what she wrote. The title is Kaplan followed, quote, God's leading, says mother of girls he took as, quote, wives. This is by the Justine McDaniel I was telling you about. And I learned all about his, quote, marriage to the underage girls. He taught the female members of the family how to be, quote, wives, that they were made to be submissive. You know, I don't know where that is coming from. I try to focus more on the New Testament and the Old Testament.

But let me just get back to this. We learn at the get-go about their family life, an overcrowded, ration-filled home where 11 girls, nine sisters, and the oldest girl's two daughters, I'm sure they were getting queued up to be the next victims. All these children in the home, nine girls and two of their children that they had by him. And we learned how there wasn't enough food and they had to ration the food. And we learned about the relationship the family had with Ted Kaplan before he got a hold of all the children. The mother tried to blame her husband for giving her as a wife to Kaplan, and how it was all about money. It was about money. He propped them up financially.

Alan, that's where it all started. I'm seeing here, as I'm looking at this, that the mother actually did enter a guilty plea to child endangerment. And got practically nothing. Yeah. Practically nothing. And the father pled no contest to the same charge. Practically no jail time.

And this is another thing I saw, and I learned this when I was working at the Atlanta Batter Women's Center as a volunteer for almost 10 years. The prophet, Ted Kaplan, brainwashed the family, isolated them from the outside world while sexually abusing the girls. And that is, Alan, as you know, you know this from all the cases you've studied and covered and investigated. You isolate the victim to where they don't even see there's another way to live. I remember it would break my heart when I would be investigating cases and I would go into the, quote, worst areas to find witnesses. And there would be children growing up with their parents as hookers and dopers. And they knew no other way to live. They didn't know that there was school and college

and a life outside of that microcosm, and that is what abusers do to their victims. They don't know there's another life out there. Alan? It's amazing how there are people who are isolated in this world, but this is purposeful. I mean, there's geographic where you just live in a certain small small community and never travel that could even be in a big city you just never get out of east la let's say but this guy wouldn't even let him out of the house and

completely brainwash them they would go around the neighborhood and the neighbors could see them tending chickens in the backyard the girls girls, all of them, wore homemade clothes. They had unkempt hair. You could smell urine at the front door. There was no soap, no toothbrushes in the home, the entire home. There were not enough beds for all the children. Mattresses were set up upstairs. Windows could not be opened. Just, it was full of fish tanks, canned food. There was a chicken coop with an egg incubator. I guess that's how they were fed, Alan. They would raise chickens and eat the eggs.

Nothing wrong with that. No, there's nothing wrong with that. I'm just saying they never even left to go to the grocery store. I mean, a large amount of machinery and tools. And a lot of this is photographic evidence that came out at trial. So why do you believe they took such a light plea with the mother and let her get away with this? I always wonder about this when they do this. We've dealt with this in many other cases where some people, like the lady who is now at kindergarten volunteering at her kid's school, even though she's a serial killer.

She got 12 years. How does that happen? I mean, these prosecutors, God bless them. Some of these prosecutors I know are just absolutely wonderful people. But is it just like you go and punch the clock and you want to get the case done? Is that it? There are those who have a fire under them. You obviously had a fire under you, and you got all you could get out of a case.

But you know better than me. Why do they do that? Well, I don't know. Maybe they thought they needed her testimony in order to make the case. But I disagree. I think the case could have been made very simply with really one witness, the lab worker who would perform a DNA test on one of those babies to say the DNA matched Kaplan and one of the underage girls of the baby. That is scientific evidence, isn't it? And bam, that's your case right there.

Now, is that the entire case? No. But what I'm saying is you could make this case without the mother. And some of these girls are now teens, up in their teens, and they can testify. Clearly, one of them is 19 at this point. Oh, God. And the more I read about it, the more I get upset. These little bitty girls, younger than my daughter Lucy.

Younger than her. As the good Methodist that you are and that I am, my favorite books in the New Testament were written by Paul. Ephesians, right? Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Yeah. My favorite, okay? The testimony on this guy.

I know this is going somewhere. There's testimony that he took the new Testament and he ripped out all of the letters of Paul from the Bible. Those were his least favorite. What does that say about him? You know, what's give us a little Bible study. What does that mean? If you rip Paul out of, out of the new Testament? Well, you're ripping a lot of it out and the New Testament, and you're relying on the Old

Testament, where very often you see multiple wives in the Old Testament. None of that is mentioned as I know it, and I'm certainly no expert. I'm just a rank sinner, and I know that, and that's the deal. I just try to be better. But, you know, that's funny that you like Ephesians. My fave is Romans, which was also written by Paul. Yes. Who was, here's the kicker with that, Saul, the Christian killer.

Saul was the Christian persecutor. Then he became Paul, the apostle. But that's a whole other can of worms. His writings are about love and understanding and really wise, wise letters to these congregations. But they offended this guy. Can I tell you something else? Okay, while it's just us chickens here. Listen to

this. The wife, who I am just, she's just killing me, Seville Stolfus, said she stated that she also moved in with Kaplan, and that she became jealous of her own daughters and stated that she was forced to compete with her own daughters for Kaplan's sex and affection. You know what? I'm not going to be happy until this woman is in jail for what she allowed. She had a hand in this. She is, in my mind, just as guilty as Kaplan, and I really resent that they used her as a witness and gave her immunity or gave her a cheap deal. You got to have some backbone and get in there and believe in your case and not do it.

Well, you know, I used to tell juries, sometimes you got to go to hell to get the witness to put the devil in jail. So, you know what? I'm not going to trash them. They're not the bad guys, the prosecutors. Kaplan is the bad guy. The mom is the bad guy. And everybody that knew.

And once again, defects. You know, they sit on their thumb while this goes down. So this is happening in a Philly suburb. How they didn't know it, I don't know. I guess it goes back to the original statement, Alan. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. As long as you don't look at it, it doesn't exist. We need to talk about that more at some point. About when should you speak up?

Because there's a lot of reluctance out there to speak up. Man, you're not kidding, Alan. You are not kidding. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go hug all my babies. You know, they're nine. But can you believe this, Alan? These little girls, it's just awful.

And the rest of their lives, they're going to grow up with this as their memory. And this is what I learned about child molestation victims. You know, they get past the actual act, but the feeling of helplessness and nobody helping them and being powerless, that stays with them forever. Forever. The rest of their lives, they're going to have to contend with this thanks to their own mother.

So that's what I'm screaming this morning. And we should note that a Pennsylvania jury found Lee Kaplan guilty on all 17 counts of sexually assaulting these underage girls after 10 hours of deliberation this week. And he could get up to 40 years in prison on each count when he's sentenced later. That could keep him locked away for the rest of his life. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off.

Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.