Bucks jury in Lee Kaplan 'gifted' case, deliberating

As Lee Kaplan sat in the courtroom, looking down and at times frowning, his attorney told jurors that the six girls who called Kaplan their husband were lying in their accounts of sexual abuse.

But Bucks County Deputy District Attorney Kate Kohler said the girls were telling the truth when they recounted disturbing details about their relationships with Kaplan, who consigned them to a world in which "sex with children was ordained by God."

After listening to the closing arguments Monday, a Bucks County Court jury deliberated 5½ hours before recessing for the day. The jurors were to resume deliberations in Kaplan's sexual-assault trial on Wednesday.

Kaplan attorney Ryan Hyde alleged that the girls' mother, who pleaded guilty in April to child endangerment, had put the children up to testifying against Kaplan, hoping it would get her a deal to get out of jail. He said the girls had been "mishandled and mistreated" by authorities and prosecutors trying to get them to take the stand.

Kohler countered that Kaplan had kept control over the children by instilling in them fear of the outside world and had taught them to keep their sexual relations secret. "He told them not to tell, and he does not get to benefit from it" now, she told the jury.

Kaplan, 52, is charged with raping and sexually assaulting the six sisters over the course of a decade, eventually housing them all in his Feasterville home until his arrest last June. In total, nine Stoltzfus sisters lived there, along with two children whom the oldest sister, now 19, had with Kaplan. They parents have said in court that they agreed to give at least one daughter to him, and that it later became clear that he would take more as wives.

After three days of at times difficult and unsettling testimony last week before Judge Jeffrey L. Finley about what occurred in the home, attorneys on Monday sparred over evidence and the credibility of the witnesses. The jury of nine men and three women left to deliberate just after 11:30 a.m. Monday.

The girls all testified last week that they were "wives" of Kaplan, who preached to them as a prophet and kept them isolated from the outside world.

On a recording of a conversation between Savilla Stoltzfus and her six children, she is heard to tell her daughters that they don't have to tell investigators anything, but that they should tell the truth and if Kaplan had sex with them, authorities want them to tell.

"Each one of those girls had a motive to falsify their testimony, they had an opportunity to falsify their testimony, and they were straight-up asked to do it," Hyde said.

Kohler, who said no one ever told the girls what to say or promised Savilla Stoltzfus anything, argued that the girls had no motive to lie, saying their story has resulted only in their losing their home and parents, being put into foster care, and becoming a "spectacle" in national news. She added that Kaplan did not care for them, provide them with toothbrushes, soap, or enough beds, or take them to the doctor or dentist.

"He kept them hidden by putting fear into their minds, by telling the people on the outside world would ruin their lives," Kohler said. "He created a world where he was the only person they could trust."

Hyde said Kaplan was simply taken advantage of by the Stoltzfus parents, who were seeking money and help.

"He's quirky, and by quirky I mean weird," Hyde told the jury. "But does that mean he's a pedophile?"

Opposing attorneys said they were unconcerned about the lack of a quick verdict.

"It shows the careful attention the jury is paying to the evidence," Hyde said.

"I think the case went in really well," Kohler said. "It's in the jury's hands, and I know that they will do the right thing."