A former Amish couple pleaded to child endangerment for "gifting" their daughters to a Bucks County man who in turn allegedly fathered two children with one of their underage children.
Savilla and Daniel Stoltzfus entered guilty and no-contest pleas, respectively, for their involvement with Lee Kaplan, 52, of Feasterville.
When police arrested Kaplan and the Stoltzfuses last year, 11 of the couple's daughters and the mother, Savilla, were living in Kaplan's small Cape Cod-style home on Old Street Road.
The Stoltzfuses got financial help from Kaplan after they broke with their Amish faith and had to pay back a farm loan.
Kaplan remains jailed on $2 million bail on more than one dozen child rape charges asked to have his bail reduced ahead of his next court appearance. The Stoltzfuses will not be sentenced until Kaplan's trial is over in June.
The teen who fathered Kaplan's two children, now 17 years old, told police Kaplan considered her and her sisters to be his wives, and he told them it was what God wanted, Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said.
"Kaplan is accused of taking the Stoltzfuses' eldest daughter, 14 at the time, as his wife," Weinstraub's office said in a statement Thursday. "He raped her repeatedly over a series of years, causing her to give birth to two children."
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Defense attorney Ryan Hyde has said that the girls' stories have changed and that Kaplan maintains his innocence.
"He took these people in, he educated them, he helped support them financially, he didn't have a sexual relationship with the minor children, he had what he believed to be a family relationship with them," Hyde said after an earlier pretrial hearing was waived.
"He views these as his children, his family... he feels somewhat protective of them," Hyde said.
Hyde said Kaplan maintains the mother of his children is his wife and that he didn't touch the others.
Weintraub said they had "credible evidence" to prove the charges.
Officials in Bucks County acting on a neighbor's tip on June 20 found Kaplan at his Feasterville home, along with the 12 females, authorities have said. It was at that time the initial victim told police she and Kaplan had two children, according to investigators.
