|
 Jean Paul Kruse, 42, also received 30 months for intimidating a
witness: a teenager from Haiti who had been sent to live with Kruse
and his wife through the online network.
The Haitian girl, who went by the name Nita Dittenber at the time,
had cycled through four homes within two years of being adopted by
an Idaho family and brought to America.
Now 19, Nita was not molested by Kruse, but she helped bring to
light the abuse of the other children in the household. She was
profiled as part of a Reuters investigation into private
"re-homing," an unregulated practice in which parents transfer
custody of children they adopted but no longer wanted to strangers
met through the Internet.
 During a two-week trial last month in the Union County Court of
Common Pleas in Marysville, Ohio, the attorney for Kruse argued that
Nita and the children were lying about the abuse. The jury
deliberated less than two days before finding him guilty of
molesting three of the four girls named as victims. Jurors also
found him guilty of intimidating Nita by removing her from the home
after she spoke out about the abuse.
"This defendant went to great lengths in an attempt to cover up his
crimes, and the damage he has done to the victims in this case is
immeasurable," Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said in a news
release after sentencing.
Kruse’s wife, Emily Kruse, has pleaded not guilty to felony charges
of obstructing justice, tampering with evidence, and intimidating
the victims and Nita. Her trial is scheduled to begin the week of
June 15. Nita, who testified at the Jean Paul Kruse trial, lived
with the Kruses for 17 months - from early 2011 until July 2012. She
was 15 when she was sent to live with the family. At the time, Jean
Paul Kruse was an information-technology specialist; Emily was a
stay-at-home mother. They had a mix of children from previous
marriages and overseas adoption.
[to top of second column] |
In a heartwarming profile of the Kruses distributed by the Ohio
National Guard in 2008, Jean Paul Kruse explained his desire to
adopt from 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."
Nita told Reuters that, shortly after she arrived to live with the
Kruses, the younger Kruse children confided in her that they were
being molested by Jean Paul. Nita was terrified to speak up, she
said in an interview.
Months later, the Kruses abruptly put her on a flight back to her
adoptive parents.
The Kruses no longer live together. Some of the couple's children
remain in the care of Emily Kruse.
(Reporting By Megan Twohey in New York. Edited by Blake Morrison)
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reserved.]
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