Married couple sentenced for abusing adopted kids, causing 1 child to develop sepsis and liver failure

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. (TCN) -- A 45-year-old author and her 43-year-old husband will spend the next several years behind bars after they pleaded guilty to abusing several of their adopted children and causing major injuries.

Court records show Joseph Wolfthal was sentenced to 10 years in prison and his wife, Jennifer Wolfthal, to 12 years following their guilty pleas to three counts aggravated child abuse causing great bodily harm and three counts of child neglect with great bodily harm. They both must serve 10 years of probation following their release. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors dropped three counts of false imprisonment against them.

The investigation began Jan. 1, 2021, when a Seminole County Sheriff’s Office deputy responded to Advent Hospital in Winter Park for a medical issue involving a juvenile. The deputy spoke with a Child Protective Services investigator, who said Joseph Wolfthal took the victim to a different hospital, but doctors determined they were critically ill and needed to be transferred. The deputy learned two other children were in the Wolfthals' home, and they were brought to the hospital with injuries following Jennifer Wolfthal and Joseph Wolfthal’s arrests.

According to the arrest report, one victim was brought to the hospital with a staph infection, sepsis, liver failure, renal failure, open wounds on both legs, and pneumonia in both lungs. Another child was treated for skin infections, open wounds, malnutrition, and bruising. A third child was hospitalized for two weeks for open wounds, skin infections, malnutrition, and refeeding.

One of the children told a child advocate that Joseph Wolfthal and Jennifer Wolfthal spanked her "in the same spot to the point of drawing blood." The child described the object as "being oblong and covered in fabric and was used regularly to deliver corporal punishment." The girl called it a "whacker."

She reportedly told officials that she was often told she "couldn’t stop sinning" and got in trouble often for "not going to the bathroom at the proper times, wetting the bed, not performing her exercises properly, and not eating what was provided to her." Her food was reportedly "a mixture of bran flakes cereal, water, and vegetable purée."

One child also had reportedly had to spend hours on end writing sentences at her desk, including, "My body stays flat on the bed at all times. I was never given permission to move or say anything. Now I get to write about this along with everything else. I’m a fool."

Two of the victims said they got punished almost every night as their parents poured cold water over them. They reportedly didn’t have any bedding, only a plastic mattress cover and a pillow. One of the victims reportedly said there was a box fan on the floor of her room "so that she could not hear any of the interaction between Joseph, Jennifer," and her sibling. She also said she often heard her siblings "scream and cry."

The victims reportedly had not had any contact with other adults "for several years." Investigators noticed the doors locked on the outside as well. The children were reportedly "scared to leave their rooms even at night to use the bathroom and as a result would 'pee in their pants' and sleep in it on an almost daily basis rather than risk leaving their rooms or communicating with each other."

Jennifer Wolfthal published a children’s book and even spent several years as an elementary school teacher, though her bio said she homeschooled her children.

WESH-TV reports the 18th Judicial Circuit State’s Attorney said the sentencing "ensures that the Wolfthals will spend significant time in prison while it protects the already-traumatized victims from the stress of having to testify."

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