A Florida children's author known for writing stories about friendship has been indicted along with her husband on charges of abusing and neglecting an adopted child, authorities announced.
Jennifer Wolfthal, author of “True Friends,” and her husband, Joseph Wolfthal, a Lockheed Martin engineer, were charged with aggravated child abuse on January 13 under a plea agreement. Pleaded guilty to child neglect causing bodily harm. By Fox News Digital.
According to the plea agreement, Jennifer Wolfthal will be sentenced to 12 years in prison and her husband will be sentenced to 10 years.
A spokesperson for the State Attorney's Office for Florida's 18th Judicial Circuit said, “This guilty plea and sentencing agreement ensures that the Wolfthals will spend significant time in prison while also repaying their already traumatized lives.'' “This will protect victims who have suffered injuries from the stress of having to testify,” he said in a statement. Fox News Digital. “The State Attorney's Office ensured that law enforcement and the child's new guardian supported this sentence before agreeing to it.”
The investigation into the couple began in 2021 after their adopted daughter, who was 8 years old at the time, lost consciousness due to organ failure and was taken to hospital with injuries all over her body.
The couple also had two adopted children, ages 9 and 11.
“Because of my height and weight, [the girl]”The swollen bruise on the back of her head, lacerated lip, and broken tooth were unlikely to have been caused by a loss of balance and a fall,” the police report said.
Investigators visited the girl while she was in the hospital. family home It said two other children were also found with “symptoms of malnutrition, bruising and lack of care”.
Police said the doorknob in the child's room was installed backwards and the lock was on the outside.
In an additional search of the home, authorities found more than 1,100 texts that read: “My body is always flat on the bed. I have never been given permission to move or speak. Now I will write about this along with other things. .I'm a fool.
The book is still available for sale on Amazon, but reviewers have embedded links in the comments to news articles about the allegations against the author.
Authorities also shared that all three of the Wolfthals' adopted children were subject to other horrific stories of abuse. As a result of the investigation, the children were moved to live with another family.
Fox News Digital's Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
