How Could You? Hall of Shame-Liberia and Vietnam Adoptive Parents Jean Paul Kruse and Emily Kruse UPDATED

This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.

From Marysville, Ohio, an Ohio National Guardsman  and international adoptive parent,40, has been indicted of child sex crimes by a grand jury. His wife has been indicted for  two counts of witness intimidation and obstruction of justice due to sending one biological child out of state after the child revealed abuse details to authorities.

Their names have not been released . They parented 11 children. Two of the three victims are described as his adoptive children. The third victim was his stepchild. The other eight children consist of 4 adopted children and 4 biological children. At least three of the adoptees are from Liberia. One article indicates that the other three adoptees also may be internationally adopted.

“A National Guard major who has said he wanted to adopt a girl from Africa to protect her from rape has been indicted on charges he sexually abused three children, including two of his own.

A grand jury in central Ohio indicted the Marysville man on Monday on charges of rape, sexual battery and gross sexual imposition between 2006 and 2012. The 17-count indictment says he’s the father of two of the children but doesn’t give his relationship with the third.

The Associated Press isn’t naming the 40-year-old man to protect the children’s identities.

The man arrived in Kuwait at the end of June for a one-year deployment, Ohio National Guard spokesman James Sims said on Tuesday. The man, who was working as a medical operations officer with the 371st Sustainment Brigade, has been released from duty and is “being sent back to the United States,” Sims said.

In a 2008 story in a military publication, the man spoke about his large family and about wanting to adopt a girl to protect her from sexual assault.

Of the three children cited in the indictment, two are in foster care, and the third is with her father, who is not the National Guard major, according to the Union County prosecutor’s office.

Up to 11 children lived with the man and his spouse at a house in Marysville, a city of 22,000 residents northwest of Columbus, Marysville Police Department records show.

Police helped with the removal of 11 children from the house last August, according to a police report. Another report shows that three days later police received a report from the county’s Children Protective Services division alleging that someone living at the same address as the couple had been sexually abused.

Multiple attempts to reach the man, his spouse or their relatives by phone and email or in person were unsuccessful Tuesday. Court records don’t list an attorney for either defendant. They are scheduled to be arraigned in court Aug. 1.

The man’s indictment includes one count of intimidation of an attorney, victim or witness in a criminal case. A Union County grand jury also indicted the man’s spouse, a 35-year-old woman, with two counts of that charge and an additional count of obstructing justice.

The intimidation charges stem from the couple having intentionally sent one of the children out of the state after the child, who’s not one of the victims listed in the indictment, had reported some information, Union County prosecutor David Phillips said. Phillips did not elaborate on the type of information or say to whom it was reported, and he wouldn’t comment on any details of the abuse allegations.

The prosecutor’s office said two or three children who were not victims of abuse continue to live with the man’s spouse. ”

Ohio Nat Guard officer accused of child sex crimes

[Sacramento Bee 7/16/13 by Kantele  Franko and Regina Garcia Cano/The Associated Press]

“The man, who ABCNews.com is not identifying to protect his children’s identities, was indicted on 17 counts on July 15 in Union County Criminal Court in Ohio.

He sexually abused two 12-year-olds and one 5-year-old, according to Floyd Golden, the chief police officer for the Marysville Police Department. He was the stepfather of one of the children and adopted the other two, Golden told ABC News.

The alleged abuse took place between 2006 and 2012, according to court documents. In addition to sexual battery, the guardsman was indicted on charges of rape, sexual imposition and “intimidation of an attorney, victim or witness in a criminal case.”

“He was being detained in Virginia, pending a return to Ohio, and it was unclear if he had an attorney, Union County Prosecutor David Phillips said. A phone call to a number believed to be the guardsman’s family home in Ohio went unanswered.

Phillips told ABC News the man could face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment without parole if he is found guilty of raping a child under 10.

The man and his wife have 11 children — five biological and six adopted, police said. In August 2012, authorities removed all 11 children from the family residence in Marysville, Ohio, and placed them in foster care, said Golden.

After officials removed the children, the Marysville Police Department and Union County Department of Job and Family Services subsequently investigated the parents and presented the case to a jury at the Union County Criminal Court last week.”

“A 2008 article written for the Defense Video and Image Distribution System featured the guardsman and his wife as a happy, churchgoing couple seeking a large family. It said they purposely adopted older children from developing countries because they said they were the least desirable adoption candidates. They originally were going to adopt one Liberian child, according to the article, and ended up taking home three. The article quoted the guardsman saying he wanted to adopt a girl from Liberia because, “They are often raped and molested from a very young age.”

The names of the child victims have not been released.”

Ohio National Guardsman Charged With Sexually Abusing 3 of his own Children

[ABC News 7/17/13 by Alana Abramson]

REFORM Puzzle Pieces

Update: They have been named locally as Major  Jean Paul Kruse and Emily Kruse.

“A tour of duty in Kuwait with the Ohio National Guard has been cut short for Jean Paul Kruse, a major in the Guard’s 371st Sustainment Brigade.

Union County prosecutor David Phillips says, since Monday, when Kruse was indicted on 17 felony counts of rape, sexual battery, gross sexual imposition, and intimidation, the military brought him back.

Phillips says Kruse is now on U.S. soil, in a Virginia jail.

Investigators say Kruse sexually abused three of the 11 children in his care between 2006 and 2012.

“Well, he’s back, but he’s in custody currently, and it’s whether or not the court keeps him in custody of course, is up to the judge, but if the court does decide to release him, there will certainly be no contact orders and we will do what we have to do to protect them,” said Phillips.

His wife Emily Kruse is facing three charges, two for intimidation and one for obstruction of justice.

Phillips says Emily Kruse had no part in the alleged abuse, and is now caring for five of the children, who were not involved in this case.

“Well, when you have an abusive, neglect, dependency case, the actual goal is reunification with the family,” said Phillips.

Children Services removed all the children from their home last August during the initial investigation.

The prosecutor says the other six children are either in the hands of their biological parents or foster care.”

Ohio Guardsman Accused Of Sex Crimes Back In U.S.

[10TV.com 7/17/13 by Danielle Ellis]

A   cached Ohio National Guard article  from 2008 identifies one  child as a special needs adoptee from Vietnam from the Lang Son Province . He was their first adopted child and supposedly they have an open international adoption with the biological mother. Jean Paul has one biological child. Emily has 3 biological children. They had one child together. The cached article does identify some of the names of the children.

They got their initial adoption advice from a collector family. ““We knew friends who were adopted and we believe God wanted us to do this,” Jean Paul said.

So they started looking into the process. A married couple from their church, the Marysville Church of the Nazarene, provided them with a great deal of information about where to begin—and they should know; they have adopted 22 children from seven countries, about one quarter of them with special needs. They recommended some websites and the Kruses began looking. ”

Regarding the Liberian placements: “Although they had completed most of Ohio’s formal adoption prerequisites, including home study, health checks, fire inspection and parenting classes, they had to complete a home study addendum to ensure they had the resources to accommodate an additional child.” “. About a week before he left, they got a call from the orphanage. There were two girls who were similarly named and the Kruses had to let them know which girl they meant to adopt. They chose the younger of the two, but two days before he left, they decided to try to adopt both.

“If this is God’s will, we’ll do it,” Jean Paul said. “He’s just got to open all the doors.”
“Their addendum was for one child only. It had to be approved and changed to include a second child, which normally takes about three months, Jean Paul said. It came back in a week.

Addendum complete, Jean Paul traveled to Liberia in mid-May to collect the children. When he arrived at the orphanage, he learned the second child’s mother was out of the country and out of contact, and he couldn’t adopt her in the time he had. However, he still had permission to adopt two children, so he called Emily. They figured an older girl would have less chance of being adopted by someone else, so they chose 8-year-old ***.

“At the time, we didn’t know ***was the daughter of one of the workers at the orphanage,” Jean Paul said. “We told her who we chose and she started crying. She was thankful, but no one wants to give up their children… but she wanted a better life for them.”

The following day, Jean Paul went back to the orphanage to help out with some painting projects. When he arrived, a worker told him the little boy named ***was ***’s brother. So again, he called his wife.

“I told Emily ‘How do we adopt one without the other?’” he said.

Although doubtful of receiving a third addendum in the few days before he was scheduled to fly home—both governments had to approve it—they were determined to try. They were encouraged when the Liberian government quickly agreed to process the third adoption, but the American agency, concerned with the disruption of three additional children in the house, held out. Two days later, they relented. [Oh so ethical! Who was this agency?]

“Our friends told us that this is unheard of; this never happens that they make changes like that,” Emily said.

Although both governments granted approval for the third addendum, the financial issues remained. By this time, the couple had come up with enough money to cover ***’s adoption fees and airline tickets for Jean Paul, ***, and ***. However, they were still short one flight and two adoption fees.

“We were lucky because this agency’s main concern was for the kids, so they agreed to let us make payments,” Jean Paul said. “They never do this. This was God’s will; we kept getting confirmation of it over and over again.”

Unlike many adopting parents, the Kruse’s had decided against borrowing to cover their adoption costs, opting instead to save up. And although they could finance the adoption fees, they still needed to purchase ***’s airline ticket. They tried without luck to sell Jean Paul’s motorcycle and asked their friends for a loan, but none was in a position to help. They were running out of ideas when Jean Paul asked Emily about her uncle, an empty-nester who also volunteered at their church. Emily gave Jean Paul his phone number.

“I called him and he said ‘OK. You’ll have the money within the hour,” Jean Paul said.”

Finances Post Adoption

“”Keeping expenses down is paramount for a family of 11—not to mention their two dogs, two cats, two rabbits and three fish. Oh, and the two hamsters—one male and one female—who bred and spawned an additional 15-20 (most will be taken to the pet store to be sold).”

“Despite the demands on their time and finances, the Kruse’s wouldn’t have it any other way.

“Our children are a blessing from God,” Jean Paul said. “We only have them for a short time.”

As for any future plans for adoption, for right now, it appears nine is enough.

“I’ve always wanted a big family,” Emily said. “And these kids had nothing. It is work and it costs money, but over there they have nothing. But you have to have resources. You have to know when enough is enough. I’m content for now. We’re done for now.”” [Except they adopted 2 more.]

Update 2: The Kruses were arraigned on August 1, 2013 and both plead not guilty.

“An Ohio National Guard major accused of sexually abusing three children over the course of several years appeared in court in Union County Thursday.

Jean Paul Kruse, 40, was in the midst of serving a one-year mission with the 371st Sustainment Brigade in Kuwait when he was indicted.

Kruse has been indicted on 17 charges, including rape, sexual battery and gross sexual imposition.

A judge set Kruse’s bond at $500,000 cash/surety.

According to the indictment, Kruse is accused of sex crimes involving children under the age of 13. The alleged acts occurred between October 2006 and August 2012.

The indictment states the victims are children he and his wife were caring for in their Marysville home.

Kruse’s wife, Emily, has been indicted on two counts of intimidation of an attorney, victim, or witness in a criminal case and one count of obstructing justice.

Emily was released Thursday on her own recognizance with several restrictions.

Guilty verdicts would bring a minimum of a mandatory 2- to 8-year sentence, and a maximum of life in prison with no chance of parole.”

Bond Set For Soldier Accused Of Raping Children In His Care

[NBC 4i 8/1/13 by Denise Yost]

“Jean Paul Kruse’s bond was set at $500,000. He is restricted to traveling within Union and Champaign counties. He also has a curfew of 9 a.m. – 7 a.m. and cannot change residences or phone numbers without notifying authorities.

Emily Kruse was released on a recognizance bond and is also restricted in travel and curfew.

Both are not allowed to have any contact with alleged victims or witnesses and will have weekly check-ins with authorities.

10TV spoke with the father of an alleged victim.  He sat in court as the couple was arraigned.

“It was pretty hard to hear everything that they were talking about. I mean, from the standpoint, you want justice done for your child.”

Kruse was recently brought back to the U.S. from Kuwait, where he was serving with the Ohio National Guard.”

Ohio Guardsman Accused Of Sex Crimes Pleads Not Guilty

[10TV 8/1/13]

10TV video says that Emily was still taking care of 5 of the 11 children but that Child Protective Services may be changing that soon.

Update 2/September 24, 2013

A search of Union County Ohio court records shows that on September 6, 2013, Jean Paul and Emily both waived their rights to a speedy trial.

Update 3:“On an Internet forum where parents sought takers for adopted children they no longer wanted, a teenager from Haiti was offered more frequently than any other girl.

Starting at age 14, Nita Dittenber was passed among four families over two years through a practice called “private re-homing.”

In September, Reuters exposed an underground market in which desperate parents use online bulletin boards to offer adoptees to strangers, often illegally and with no government oversight. The Internet forums, including the Yahoo group where Nita was advertised, can enable abusers to acquire children easily; in one case, a pedophile in Illinois took home a 10-year-old boy hours after an ad for the child was posted online.

In the last home where Nita was sent, re-homing served a different purpose, Ohio prosecutors contend. They say it was used to silence Nita and another girl in an effort to conceal the repeated sexual abuse of children.

For 17 months – from early 2011 until July 2012 – Nita lived in the Ohio city of Marysville with Jean Paul and Emily Kruse. Jean Paul was an information-technology specialist with the Ohio National Guard. Emily was a stay-at-home mother. The Kruses were the fourth family to take custody of her in America.

Not long after she was sent there, Nita says, the younger Kruse children told her they were being molested by Jean Paul. Nita says she struggled for months over whether to speak up about the allegations, fearing she’d be thrown out of the house and sent to yet another set of strangers if she did.

“I didn’t want to get passed around anymore,” Nita, now 18, says in an interview.

Months later, according to criminal charges filed in Union County Court here, Emily Kruse abruptly put Nita on a flight back to her original adoptive parents in Idaho – alone and “with only the clothes on her back.”

The reason: Kruse discovered that Nita had told relatives of the Kruses about the abuse accusations. Prosecutors say Emily sent Nita away to ensure the teen “would not be around to answer questions or participate in the resulting investigation.” They say another girl – an alleged victim of the abuse – was also threatened by Emily with re-homing unless she wrote a letter saying her accusations against Jean Paul were “not true.”

Jean Paul Kruse, 41, has pleaded not guilty to 17 felony criminal counts, including raping two of his daughters and sexually abusing another daughter. He and his attorney didn’t respond to interview requests. Emily Kruse, 36, has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of obstructing justice and intimidating a witness. She declined to comment; her attorney did not respond to questions.

RE-HOMED LIKE A PET

Since the late 1990s, Americans have adopted about 243,000 children from other countries. If the failure rate of international adoptions is similar to the rate at which domestic adoptions fail – estimates by the federal government range from about 10 percent to 25 percent – then more than 24,000 foreign adoptees are no longer with the parents who brought them to America.

No government agency tracks what happens to these children after they reach America, and none monitors how frequently children are transferred to strangers via the Internet. But on a single online message board examined by Reuters—a Yahoo group called Adopting-from-Disruption — a child was offered for re-homing about once a week during a five-year period. Most of the children were adopted from overseas. One was Nita.

After Reuters published messages from the Yahoo group, Nita’s adoptive aunt began reading the posts. Reporters had removed names and other identifying information. But Tammy Dittenber says she quickly recognized that some of the messages were about Nita, based on details about her age, nationality and state of residence.

Tammy says she knew that Nita’s adoptive parents – her in-laws, Tony and Michelle Dittenber – had sent Nita to other families. But Tammy says she had no idea how until she read the posts.

“I said, ‘Oh my God! All the puzzle pieces are coming into focus,'” Tammy Dittenber recalls. “…I realized she had been re-homed the way you re-home a pet.”

Re-homing a child is easy. No state or federal laws specifically prohibit it, and state laws that restrict the advertising and custody transfers of children are often confusing and rarely spell out criminal sanctions.

An agreement among the 50 U.S. states called the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children, or ICPC, is meant to ensure that child welfare authorities oversee custody transfers, review prospective parents and account for what happens to children sent from one state to another. Many law-enforcement officials – including police who investigated the Kruse case – have never heard of the compact.

Even so, Ohio state officials say prosecuting the Kruses for breaching the pact would be futile. “There are no sanctions or criminal penalties in Ohio for violating the ICPC,” said Benjamin Johnson, a deputy director of the state’s Department of Job and Family Services.

Authorities handling the Kruse cases are now calling for state measures to address re-homing, and other states have already taken action in response to the Reuters investigation.

In Illinois, lawmakers held a hearing on the practice, and Colorado, Florida and Wisconsin are moving forward with bills aimed at stopping re-homing. “We need to protect kids who are literally being traded between homes,” said Republican state Rep. Joel Kleefisch, who sponsored the Wisconsin bill. The state senate passed the measure this week, and it now awaits the governor’s signature. “This legislation puts Wisconsin on the national forefront of addressing re-homing and attacking it head on,” Kleefisch said.

At the federal level, a group of 18 Republican and Democratic members of Congress is seeking hearings to “identify ways to prevent these dangerous practices.” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, called for broad action in a letter to Obama administration officials, writing that it was “stunning” that “this practice of advertising children, usually over state borders, does not seem to violate any federal laws.”

Yahoo shut down the re-homing groups that Reuters brought to its attention, and the Illinois attorney general is pressing Facebook to explain how the social network polices itself. Reuters found that adoptive parents also were offering unwanted children there on a private page called Way Stations of Love. In a January 21 letter responding to the attorney general’s inquiries, Facebook said it had found “no evidence of the type of Pages you described” but that “if people were discussing the activity in closed Groups or in private messages, we do not know about those communications unless they are reported to us.”

HOW CAN PEOPLE DO THIS?’

Born Nita Durand and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Nita still speaks with a trace of a Haitian accent. She says her birth parents were poor and sent her to an orphanage when she was 9, hoping she would have a better life than they had.

In 2009, Tony and Michelle Dittenber adopted her and brought her to their home in Nampa, Idaho, just outside Boise. Tony helps operate a food warehouse. Michelle books flights for an airline.

Nita was 13 at the time. She became one of nine Dittenber children, four biological and five adopted, including Nita’s younger biological sister. Each of the adoptees is Haitian.

The Dittenbers and Nita clashed from the start. Nita had “behavioral issues,” Tony Dittenber says. Nita says she thought the Dittenbers were harsh and treated her unfairly.

After the family tried without success to get help from social service agencies, Michelle says she turned to the Internet. She had read offers for children in the online forums. “My first thought was, ‘How can people do this?'” Dittenber says. “Then as I read through it and read people’s stories and what they’d been through, I understood.”

In August 2010, Michelle posted a message on the Yahoo group Adopting-from-Disruption. Her profile name: idmomofmany.

“I have a 14 year old daughter I adopted from Haiti,” she wrote. “Unfortunately we are needing to find a new family for her. Where do we start?”

It was the first of several times Michelle offered Nita on the Yahoo group. In her posts, Michelle portrayed Nita as a “bully” with an “attitude of entitlement.” The girl “lies” and is “manipulative,” she wrote, but “does love little kids very much” and has “a soft spot for elderly people as well.”

Each time they transferred custody of Nita, the Dittenbers used a notarized power of attorney document stating that Nita was now in the care of the new family, Tony says. No social workers or attorneys were involved, he says, and there was no official vetting of the parents taking in Nita.

Nita says she did not know that she had been advertised on the sites until her aunt read the Reuters report and told her about it. “I didn’t really know what was going on,” Nita says. “I had no clue about where I was going to live and for how long.”

The first two families to take Nita — one in Ohio, another in Idaho — sent her back to the Dittenbers.

Then, Nita was sent to the Kruse home in Marysville. It was her third move in less than a year. She was 15.

‘NINE IS ENOUGH?’

It seemed like a good option. Michelle says that the first Ohio family who’d taken in Nita knew and vouched for the Kruses.

In 2008, the couple also had been profiled in a heartwarming story distributed by the Ohio National Guard, headlined “Nine is enough?” The article described how the Kruses happily scrambled to care for their large family.

At the time, the story said, the Kruses had five biological children – four from previous marriages — and four adopted overseas. A photo showed a grinning Jean Paul tickling one of the adopted children, a girl born in Liberia.

“We wanted a girl because they have it so hard there,” the story quotes him as saying. “They are often raped and molested from a very young age.”

Within weeks of arriving at the Kruse place, Nita alleges, several young girls in the home told her they were being sexually abused by Jean Paul. She says she wasn’t abused herself but was terrified to come forward. It took her about nine months to share the allegations with Emily, she says. When she finally did, Nita says, Emily accused her of lying and promised to put her on a plane back to Idaho if she told anyone else.

Nita kept silent for another eight months. “I was like, ‘I’m not about to ruin this one,’ ” Nita says. The stress of being sent from family to family was overwhelming, she says: She suffered an eating disorder and contemplated suicide.

Then, in July 2012, Nita and two of the girls were visiting with a Kruse family relative. Nita says she recalls feeling glum that day, burdened by what the young girls were continuing to tell her. The relative asked her why she looked so down. Nita told her of the alleged abuse, and then the other girls told their stories.

The relative took Nita and the girls to see other family members, Nita says, and they went over the allegations again. In court documents, authorities describe what happened next: After learning that the abuse allegations had come to light, Emily picked up Nita at a local hospital where the teen was working as a volunteer. Emily then took Nita directly to the nearby airport in Columbus.

Emily “did not tell the child where she was going and did not permit her to pack her clothing or other belongings,” prosecutors allege in court documents. At the airport, they say, she ordered Nita to get on a flight to Boise so that the girl couldn’t be questioned in any investigation of Jean Paul. The move was so abrupt, they allege, that Emily didn’t give the Dittenbers advance notice that Nita was heading back to Idaho.

The Dittenbers were away on vacation at the time, so they asked Tony’s brother and sister-in-law, Michael and Tammy Dittenber, to pick up Nita. When Nita walked off the plane, she “looked lost and really confused,” Tammy wrote in a police statement as part of the Kruse criminal cases. “…She said she had nothing. No suitcase, duffle bag, carry on, nothing.”

Almost immediately, Michelle Dittenber again began offering Nita for re-homing.

In a July 24, 2012, post on the Yahoo group, Michelle blamed Nita for the rupture with the Kruses.

“The last straw with the last family was her making allegations that the dad in the family was sexually molesting all the kids but her,” Michelle wrote. “…I would love to be done with her permanently.”

Soon, however, child welfare workers and police began to investigate the Kruses. In August 2012, 10 children were removed from their home.

Later that summer, police in Nampa, Idaho, interviewed Nita as part of the investigation. Sgt. Don Peck says he never looked into how Nita came to live with the Kruses. He says he had no reason to believe her custody transfer was improper, despite an Idaho state law that prohibits anyone without a state license from advertising children for adoptions.

Jean Paul Kruse is scheduled for trial in May; Emily Kruse is scheduled for trial in July. The two no longer live together, and some of the couple’s children have been returned to Emily’s care.

‘HEART TO HEART’

Eventually, the Dittenbers sent Nita to Mercy Ministries, a Nashville residential treatment center for troubled girls.

In December, Nita received a certificate for completing the program. In her eight months at Mercy Ministries, she says, she recovered from her eating disorder and regained a sense of self-worth, making friends and bonding with staff.

Michelle, who says she now regrets her decisions to re-home Nita, traveled to Nashville for the graduation ceremony. For the first time, Michelle discussed with Nita how she had used the Internet to seek new families for her.

“I was like, I do understand that you needed help…but there could have been murderers or killers,” Nita says. “You don’t know those people. I could have been dead.”

Michelle says she told Nita that “she always has the option to come back home” to Idaho.

Nita has no such plans. Today, she is living outside Nashville with Sandra Booker, a nurse she met through church. With Booker’s help, Nita intends to finish her education and “focus on the future.” Her ambition, she says, is to return to Haiti and work with orphans.”

Special Report: Girl harbored dark secret, fearing she’d be sent away[Yahoo 3/21/14 by Megan Twohey/Reuters]

Update 4:”Eighteen-year-old Nita Durand is a seemingly well-adjusted, young woman living on her own.  But for years, she struggled after being passed from one adopted family to another in an act known as “re-homing.”  Durand recalls one instance where she was woken up at 3 in the morning, told to shower, pack her belongings and was placed on an airplane to Ohio.

 

As a child adopted from Haiti, Durand was shuffled between families in Ohio and Idaho over four years.  While in Marysville, she lived at times with Jean Paul and Emily Kruse – now under investigation for sexual abuse and intimidation.  She was one of 11 kids in the house.

 

“I kind of stood up and I was like, ‘I don’t really like how you are treating us,’” Nita recalls.  “I think me speaking up was like the worst thing I did, because things got worse and worse.”

 

According to Union County court records, the family would never tell her where she was going and, “did not permit her to pack her clothing or other belongings.”

 

Several of the kids living in the house were the biological children of Emily Kruse and Chad Coutts, from their previous marriage.  Coutts says he fought for years to get custody of them, after finding his own daughter was abused and witnessing other children disappear.  “When I asked my kids about it, they specifically told me, ‘well, we don’t know. He was here, he didn’t get along with mom, and now he’s gone.’”

 

In most re-homing cases, there are no official records of the custody transfers – neither with the courts nor children services.  Often, it’s with a quick sign of the pen by an attorney to allow the transfer, which causes children to essentially fall off the map.

 

John Gore, Executive Director at the Union County Department for Jobs & Family Services, says local authorities don’t even know it exists.  “There could very well have been a number of people transferred – a number of kids transferred from anywhere – that none of us know anything about.”

 

Gore says Union County’s Children Services only learned about the Kruse case after the allegations of abuse surfaced.

 

Currently, there are no federal or state laws to prevent re-homing, but there are people working to change that.  In Ohio, State Senator Charleta Tavares introduced a bill in March that would ban re-homing and create a court registry for adopted kids.”

 

Grand Jury Indicts Couple On New Charges For Sexually Abusing Children[10 TV 6/16/14 by Danielle Elias]

“The Union County man and wife at the center of a scandal that could lead to changes in foreign adoption regulations have been indicted on additional charges stemming from the alleged sexual abuse of adopted children.

Based on new discoveries, a Union County grand jury indicted Jean Paul Kruse, 41,… on five counts of rape, five counts of sexual battery, six counts of gross sexual imposition, 10 counts of intimidation of an attorney, victim or witness in a criminal case, and one count of tampering with evidence.

The new charges are added to five counts of rape, five counts of sexual battery, six counts of gross sexual imposition and one count of intimidation of an attorney, victim or witness from the original 2013 indictment.

His wife, Emily Kruse, 36, of Marysville, is charged with 13 counts of intimidation of an attorney, victim or witness, and one count each of obstructing justice and tampering with evidence. The new charges are in addition to two counts of intimidation and one count of obstruction of justice filed last year.

He is scheduled for a jury trial in September and if convicted, could face life imprisonment. She faces a jury trial in July and could face as many as 92 years in prison. Both will be arraigned on the new charges June 27.

According to court documents, between October 2006 and August 2012, he allegedly raped three different children ranging in age from 4 to 10 years old.

The story has gained national attention because during that time, he served as commander of the 371st Special Troops Battalion Headquarters and Headquarters Company for the Ohio National Guard and served in Kuwait with the ONG.”

 Husband, wife face new charges[Examiner 6/18/14]

Update 5:”An Ohio National Guardsman accused of sexually abusing three adopted daughters and his stepdaughter at their home is scheduled for arraignment Friday on an updated, 35-count indictment that includes intimidation charges.

Prosecutors allege in court documents that the Marysville man and his wife abruptly sent a fourth adopted daughter out of state in July 2012 and threatened remaining children in the family with a similar fate to keep them from talking about what they knew.

The man is charged with rape, sexual battery, gross sexual imposition, intimidation and tampering with evidence. His wife is charged with intimidation, obstructing justice and evidence tampering.

The pair pleaded not guilty to their initial charges. Their attorneys aren’t commenting on their pending cases.

A prosecutor says the children no longer live with the man.”

Guardsman accused of child sex abuse due in court
[Wlky 9/2/14]

Update 6: On January 26, 2015 ,a jury trialof 10 days will take place for Jean Paul Kruse. http://w2.co.union.oh.us/Common_Pleas/Daily_Court_Schedule/Daily_Court_Schedule.htm

Update 7: “A teenager who lived with an Ohio National Guardsman now charged with sexually abusing his adopted daughters testified Wednesday that she confided about those allegations to a neighbor because she felt she had to tell someone.

The 19-year-old revealed the alleged abuse in 2012 after two girls described sexual acts the guardsman had forced them to do, the woman said on the third day of the guardsman’s trial in Union County court.

Shortly thereafter, the woman was met by the guardsman and his wife at a hospital where she was volunteering and taken with only the clothes she was wearing to the airport and put on a plane to her adoptive parents in Idaho, she said.

Prosecutors allege the action was to keep her from talking further.

The wife had warned her not to say anything but she felt she had to tell someone, the woman testified.

‘I was fed up. I was overwhelmed. I didn’t know what to do with the information. I couldn’t take it anymore and had to tell someone,’ the woman said under questioning from assistant state Attorney General Christopher Kinsler.

Under cross examination by defense attorney Darren McNeal, the woman said she wasn’t abused, but added that the guardsman would beat her and yell at her and once grabbed her rear end.

The woman, originally from Haiti, lived with the guardsman and his wife but wasn’t adopted by them.

McNeal repeatedly asked why the woman didn’t tell anyone about the girls’ alleged abuse the day it happened and later, why she told the neighbor not to do anything.

The woman said she was scared and afraid of being sent away.

Prosecutors have portrayed the defendant as a man who betrayed the responsibility a father has for protecting his daughter in the worst way possible, while the defense says the rapes never happened and pointed the finger instead at the man’s stepson, who has never been implicated.

The defendant, 42, of Marysville in central Ohio, was originally charged in 2013, and the charges were updated last year.

The charges include rape, sexual battery, gross sexual imposition, intimidation and tampering with evidence. He has pleaded not guilty.

Court documents indicate the girls were under 13 at the time they said the abuse occurred, with one as young as 5.

The defendant’s wife is charged with intimidation and obstruction but not abuse. She pleaded not guilty, and her attorney declined to comment while the case is pending.

The Associated Press isn’t naming the couple to protect the children’s identities.

Earlier Wednesday, an adopted daughter who alleged sexual abuse said she was forced to recant in a letter of apology to several people under threat of being sent away from the family.

‘I was mad I had to write an apology letter about something that wasn’t true,’ the girl, now 16, told defense attorney George Leach during cross examination.

A local prosecutor said last fall that the children were no longer living with the father.

The Guardsman remains a major with an Ohio National Guard unit out of Springfield and works one weekend per month, according to the organization’s community relations office.

In a 2008 story in a military publication, the man spoke about his large family and about wanting to adopt a girl from Africa to protect her from sexual assault.”

National Guardsman sexually abused adopted daughters after claiming he wanted to take them in to protect them, court hears
[Daily Mail 5/13/15 by Associated Press]

“A jury is now deciding the case of a central Ohio National Guardsman accused of sexually assaulting children in his care.

Jurors began deliberations in the complicated case of Jean-Paul Kruse shortly after lunch Thursday afternoon. At issue is whether Kruse abused and intimidated kids in his care.

He’s charged with rape and gross sexual imposition.

Prosecutors say Kruse sent one of the children out of state, and threatened others with the same if they talked. But in his closing argument, Kruse’s defense attorney said the children’s’ stories constantly changed because they’re made up.

“We couldn’t get any of these girls to say any story consistently,” said George Leach, defense attorney.

But prosecutors said that is because the girls were being threatened.

“That’s not evidence of a recantation, that’s evidence that someone’s tampered with a witness,” said Chistopher Kinsler, assistant Ohio Attorney General.

Kruse was in Kuwait when he was charged in 2012. He was arrested at the airport on his return. His wife also faces charges.

Kruse’s wife is also charged in the case and will be tried at a later date.”

Jury Deciding Case of Guardsman Accused of Child Sexual Abuse[ABC 6 5/21/15 by Elizabeth Faugl]

“Ohio National Guard Major Jean Paul Kruse has been found guilty on 15 of 23 counts including rape, sexual battery and gross sexual imposition.

Kruse wept as the verdict was read. His bond was revoked, he was cuffed and taken to jail.

He could get 15 years to life for the 4 rape counts of a child under 10 years old. He could get 10 years to life for raping a girl under 13. He will be sentenced June 3.

Count 1, rape: guilty

Count 2, sexual battery: guilty

Count 3, sexual battery: guilty

Count 4, rape: not guilty

Count 5, sexual battery: not guilty

Count 6, gross sexual imposition: not guilty

Count 7: hung jury

Count 8, GSI: not guilty

Count 9, rape: guilty

Count 10, sexual battery: guilty

Count 11, GSI: guilty

Count 12, rape: guilty

Count 13, sexual battery: guilty

Count 14, GSI: guilty

Count 15, rape: guilty

Count 16, sexual battery: guilty

Count 17, intimidation: guilty

Count 18, tampering with evidence: not guilty

Count 19, intimidation: not guilty

Count 20, intimidation: not guilty

Count 21, rape: guilty

Count 22, sexual battery: guilty

Count 23, GSI: guilty

Some of the charges against Kruse were dropped during trial. The jury was deliberating over six counts of rape, six of sexual battery, seven of  gross sexual imposition, three intimidation counts and one of tampering with evidence.

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The jury started deliberating Jean Paul Kruse’s fate Thursday afternoon.

Court officials tell NBC4 if the jury doesn’t have a verdict Friday evening they could be brought back on Saturday to deliberate.

NBC4 spoke with a relative of one of the alleged victims who said she has also been in the Kruse home. We are not identifying her to protect the identity of the children.

“All the children except two have stayed with me,” she said. “I know how they act, how they talk. It was very upsetting yesterday.”

She referring to the closing arguments where the defense alluded the children kept changing their stories about the sexual abuse.

“You can’t convict on yes, no, yes, no, that is reasonable doubt,” said defense attorney George Leach.

The relative responded to the defense’s claim.

“That is part of Jean Paul’s and Emily manipulation towards the kids, that’s the way it has always been.”

She said she is nervously waiting like everyone else in the courthouse, but said she believes the children’s story and hopes the jury does too.

“I’m glad this day has finally come and maybe justice for all the children will be served.”

Some of the charges against Kruse were dropped during trial and the jury is now deliberating over six counts of rape, six of sexual battery, seven of  gross sexual imposition, three intimidation counts and one of tampering with evidence.

Kruse took the stand on Wednesday in his own defense and denied he ever abused the children.

“No expert ever came here and testified that man raped any of the children.”

Kruse could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted. His wife Emily faces counts of intimidation and tampering with evidence. Her trial is scheduled for June. ”

Kruse Found Guilty On 15 Counts[NBC 4 5/22/15 by Rick Reitzl]

Update 8:“A former Ohio National Guardsman who was convicted of sexually abusing three adopted daughters has appealed, citing ineffective legal counsel and other issues.

An attorney for the 43-year-old Marysville man said the court wrongly denied funding for an expert witness and that the evidence didn’t support the conviction.

There was no physical evidence, and all of the child witnesses recanted their accounts at some point, according to the appeal filed last week. It suggested that two victims who were known to have suffered abuse from a sibling may have transferred details from those experiences to their father, and that some of the children may have been influenced by a girl who came to live with the family.

“In total, the evidence weighs more heavily on the theory that these children were victim to a troubled child who manipulated them into either making up or believing that (the man) committed acts against them,” wrote the man’s attorney, Elizabeth Mosser.

The defendant, who was accused of abusing girls younger than 13, was sentenced last year to life in prison without parole on charges including rape and sexual battery.

He denied abusing his adopted girls, and his wife testified that she never saw signs of such abuse.

She was sentenced in July 2015 to 18 months in prison on charges of intimidation and obstructing justice.

The Associated Press isn’t naming the couple to protect the children’s identities.

Prosecutors alleged the father touched the girls in inappropriate, sexual ways and forced two of them to perform sex acts on him. They alleged the couple abruptly sent another girl who had been living with them out of state in July 2012 after she learned of the abuse and reported it to relatives.

The couple denied that and said they’d been planning for several days to return the girl to her adoptive parents in Idaho [They were rehoming a girl? ]because she was disruptive and intimidated the other children.”

Ohioan appeals conviction of sexually abusing adopted girls[13ABC 9/25/16 by AP]