Amish brothers get 15 years for molesting sister after judge revokes probation
10/23/2020 9:26 am PDT
via WDAF:
WEBSTER COUNTY, Mo. (WDAF) -- A Webster County judge revoked the probation on Thursday of Aaron and Petie Schwartz, two brothers guilty of child molestation.
They will serve 15 years in the Missouri Department of Corrections, which is what they were initially sentenced to in September before getting probation.
According to court records, those charges were originally suspended, but the brothers violated probation three days after receiving it. Those records say they weren't supposed to have contact with their victim, but violated those terms.
When they were originally charged, each faced six felony counts of statutory rape or attempted rape, later amended to two counts of child molestation.
The girl was 12 years old at the time she was found to be pregnant and disclosed to a doctor that she had been having sex with her brothers. The brothers admitted to raping their 12-year-old relative. A doctor's state hotline call reported on June 6 prompted the investigation. The victim had a baby this year.
Petie Schwartz, 18, and Aaron Schwartz, 22, were initially charged with six counts of statutory rape and one count of incest. The victim, who is now 13, had a baby this year.
“One of the brothers is the father of this child,” said Webster County Prosecuting Attorney Ben Berkstresser. “In this case, there were four brothers, two of them minors, while the other two legally are adults. All of them had sexual relations with their sister. There is no question this occurred."
The Webster County Citizen reports the sister later had a baby born of the sexual assault with the two aforementioned brothers, as well as two other brothers, who weren't charged because they are minors.
During testimony, both brothers admitted that they had moved back into the family home where their 13-year-old sister lives, citing that they weren't aware they couldn't return to the home, although each signed a plea agreement clearly stating this was a condition of their probation.
Also noted in the hearing, the Citizen reports, was each brother's letter of apology to the Amish community, another condition of their plea agreement and probation -- Webster County Prosecuting Attorney Ben Berkstresser told the court that the letters were exactly the same; the only difference on each was a signature.
Once Circuit Court Judge Michael O. Hendrickson made his ruling, the brothers were placed in handcuffs and taken to the Webster County Jail, located just northeast of the Webster County Courthouse in Marshfield, the Citizen reports.
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