Lee Kaplan, 51, was found guilty on Tuesday with 17 indictments comprising of molesting a child, indecent Assault, and statutory sexual assault, as stated by the district attorney of Bucks County in Pennsylvania.
What did he do?
The judgment came nearly a year later when authorities said they discovered Kaplan residing with 12 girls at his residence in Feasterville, including an eighteen-year-old, who authorities said was one of six siblings "gifted" to Kaplan by their parents after he provided monetary funding to them.
Concurring to the criminal ailment, Kaplan co-parented two adolescents with the eighteen-year-old, who was only fourteen-years-old when the first child was born.
Kaplan's lawyer, Ryan Hyde alleged that his client preserves his innocence.
Hyde stated, "My client has stated his innocent since the day I first spoke with him. That is still the case, nothing has changed. I certainly don't believe that you've heard the latter of this.”
Something wasn’t right
In April, the mother and father of the eighteen-year-old girl, Savilla and Daniel Stoltzfus, inputted defenses to child endangerment charges, a felony. The mother, Savilla Stoltzfus, 43, pleaded guilty to endangering the welfare of adolescents, and the father, Daniel Stoltzfus, 44, pleaded guilty to the same charge. Both are currently awaiting sentencing.
According to the Prosecutor's Office in Bucks County, the Stoltzfuses, previously adherents of the Amish community, were maintained monetarily by Kaplan.
As a form of repayment, the Stoltzfuses "gifted" Kaplan six of their daughters.
Kaplan’s neighbor, Jen Betz stated that she had called the police multiple times about him.
"My inner gut was forcing me to ratify what I was believing, I knew. There was no reason why this old single man would have these many kids, all dressed in the same blue dresses, rarely outside the home, and appearing very frightened," she said.
"Something was wrong, I comprehended that something wasn't well."
Kaplan was hardly ever seen outside or in public with these girls, according to his neighbors.
The Stoltzfuses admitted knowing that Kaplan was being intimate with their oldest daughter.
According to prosecutors, Daniel Stoltzfus stated that he had "gifted" his wife to Kaplan as well with expectations of hardening the Stoltzfus bloodline.
Kaplan is scheduled to be sentenced at a future date.
