All language subtitles for Sins.of.the.Amish.S01E02.720p.WEB.h264-KOGi

What’s going on in Amish
communities is horrific.

There is sexual violence,
domestic violence,

child abuse, child sexual abuse.

Incest rates are
just staggering.

It’s just been generations and
generations and generations of abuse.

Misty: This is not happening to one
just Amish child or one Amish woman.

This is happening in Amish
communities across the United States.

I remember not being safe in my
room from my own fucking brother.

If I made it to my room before he
caught me and got the door locked,

he would take the door
off by the hinges.

I called the sheriff’s
department and reported it.

Don Henry: We had
put a wire on Mary,

and she talked to
Johnny about the abuse.

And Johnny didn’t
deny it to her either.

Tim Gaskell: Amish will come
in droves to the courtroom

when they have somebody
involved in a court proceeding.

Mary: They literally paraded
them up on the witness stand

to testify as to what
a good Amish man he is,

and people practically
cried on demand.

It’s not that it’s awful
that he’s a rapist.

It’s that it’s awful that I am
unforgiving and reported it.

The judge, as he was sentencing,
I can remember him saying,

"I see all you people here
in support of the defendant."

That was a very small triumph.

It was like, "Oh, my
God. This is unheard of.

He’s going to actually
do the right thing."

I thought he’d get 20 years.

I hoped.

Henry: I mean,
there’s not just

the Mary Byler case out there.

Woman: My child came
to me and she said,

"Mommy, does a daddy put
his hands up your dress?"

He told me it wasn’t a bad thing,
but that it was just a secret.

And I can’t tell you what
it feels like as a mother

to sit there beside your child
and listen to them tell you

what was done to them
by their own father.

I reached out to a friend,
and I said, "What do I do?"

And she said, "Audrey,
you have to report it."

These cases involving
Plain community defendants

are a little bit
unusual in the sense

that these defendants
never go to trial.

They generally admit to what they
have done and accept the consequences.

A plea agreement is where
the sentence is agreed to

by the commonwealth and
the defendant in advance,

but they don’t go to trial.

Eli got eight years. He got probably a
little more because he had a prior record.

David got four years.

And Johnny was by far
the worst of them three

between Johnny, Eli, and David.

By far.

The courtroom is
completely packed

with Amish people,

who made a mockery
out of that courtroom.

They bussed in four
busloads of Amish people,

and the thing that was
craziest about that

is that not a single one of
them was there in court for me.

I thought justice was
going to be served.

Gaskell: The judge
sentenced Johnny

to ten years of probation

and one year in our county jail.

We were dumbfounded.

We were angry.

We were literally in shock

as to what had just happened,

how somebody that
would go to the extent,

who removed door hinges
to get inside a room

to sexually assault
his own sister

could be walking away without
a significant prison sentence.

I was numb.

I don’t even think
it really sank in.

I could’ve been knocked off my chair
with a feather. I could not believe it.

He should’ve been sent to
prison for a number of years.

There’s no justification for
a year in the county jail

for as many times as he sexually
assaulted Mary, in my opinion.

He was also given
Huber privileges

which means that he was able to
go out and work during the day,

and then he’d come back to jail
and basically spend the night.

Mary: How is it justice to
allow an Amish perpetrator

to go to jail for one
year in county with Huber,

and then allow him to
continue going to church

where he has access
to more victims?

How do you get perpetrator
saying in court to a judge,

"I raped her close 75 times"?

How do you get that and one year in
the county jail with a work release,

and ten years supervision

and a $16,000 restitution
fee to pay for therapy?

I still don’t see

how that’s actually
rehabilitating somebody

or preventing somebody
from reoffending.

We’ll be coming up to where
Mary Byler’s place was.

That’s the big
house right there.

Doesn’t look like
much a place anymore.

Mary told me
yesterday on the phone

that Eli is still here.

That might be Eli right there.

He’s gonna come and beat
us with his fishing pole.

- What’s up?
- What are you doing?

- Driving along.
- Take that camera and shove it

- somewhere the sun don’t shine.
- Okay.

I hate them stupid things, and
I don’t want my picture taken.

- Okay.
- Point that stupid thing somewhere else.

- Are you Eli?
- Yes, I am.

I thought you were.
Have a good day, Eli.

Jasper: There’s
a lot of evilness

and a lot of terrible
things that happen

behind the essence of what America
loves to see, which is beauty.

When you go down the road and
it’s quilts and they have hotels,

and people want to take buggy
rides and things like that,

and I think it’s just because they
are stuck in that time period,

that 1800s kind of time period,

with the horse and the
buggy and no electricity.

That fascinates people.

See the gentle people.
See the kind Amish.

They are just
pretty much angelic.

You know, that’s the
message that’s given out,

and people buy into it.

Why are people so fascinated

that they’re getting
on double-decker buses

to drive by farms

that are filled with abusers?

Misty: This lie just
keeps perpetuating,

and it’s a shame
because, you know,

if people really knew
what the Amish were,

there would be no Amish tours.

We have Amish and
Mennonite everywhere.

You look around, and kids are
playing and they look happy.

And they don’t bother anybody.

They have their cute little horse
and buggies that go down the road,

and the kids are always
waving when you go by.

That’s our view. That’s our perception
of people in the Plain community.

As long as the facade is
able to be maintained,

abusers will always
have an upper hand.

Jasper: They even
sold this idea that

somehow it is this
idealistic life

that they want to live.

Challenging that
is very difficult

because there’s a lot
of money on the line.

They silence victims,
they protect perpetrators,

because it’s more important
to protect the branding.

And when you have a religion
that also is a brand,

people get it confused as
to what they really are.

If you meet an Amish buggy
and you see a little girl

sitting in there in
their Amish outfits,

and they’re so innocent...
I can’t help it,

I think, "Is that little
girl being abused?

Is she going to be abused?"

I look at them little boys,

and are they gonna grow up
and abuse their sisters?

And I worry about it.

I mean, there’s not just the
Mary Byler case out there.

I was born in
Lafayette, Indiana,

on February 9th, 1978.

My parents started
migrating through churches

getting more and more and more
conservative until we ended up in one

of the most conservative
Amish groups in the country.

I wanted a beautiful home.
I wanted a peaceful home.

I thought staying Amish
was the way to do that,

and I threw everything into
it that I had. Everything.

In communities that I was in,

a woman wasn’t allowed
to just be single.

You always have to be under
a male figure of some kind.

Mike and I dated
for several months,

and then we were married
in the summer of 2001.

It was a really big deal
when Mike started dating me

because his father was a minister
who later became a bishop.

His family held a lot of
political clout in the community,

and so it was a big deal.

I mean, that’s what
everybody wants.

You want to marry up.

I had no sex education.

I had zero knowledge of my body,

of men, of relationships,
of sex, nothing.

They shove a couple books
at you and say, "Read this,"

the last week right
before you get married.

"Read this, but
don’t talk about it."

And you’re ready for marriage.
You’re ready for sex.

You’re ready for raising kids.
You’re ready for all of it.

I had no clue. No clue.

I was pregnant within
the first month,

and nine months
later we had a baby.

By all standards, we had
a perfect Amish life,

and our family started growing
and everything was idyllic.

But slowly, something
started to feel off.

I now have five children,

and I’m extremely busy, I’m
homeschooling all of them.

But at that point, I was
overwhelmed, I was tired.

We were taught that it was a
woman’s job to please her husband

and then the children came next.

And if you do that, you’re
fulfilling your Biblical role

and you should be happy.

We were taught to take
a nap in the afternoon

so that we were sexually ready for
our husbands when they got home.

You know, he needed sex every
three days, because after 72 hours,

a man’s gonna go looking somewhere else
if you don’t give him what he needs.

The children were physically
abused by him from the beginning.

We were taught that you start
disciplining by six months.

The children were expected to sit through
a three hour service and make no noise.

The oldest was always
her wild, crazy self.

He would take her out of church
and beat her and beat her.

I was brainwashed into believing that
it wasn’t abuse, it was discipline,

and it’s what God
wanted him to do

because that was his
place in the home.

With time, I started to see
the effects on the children

and especially my
two oldest girls.

They started to struggle
with depression,

and the day came when I
discovered that Marlena,

my oldest one, was
cutting herself.

And I’m like, "Why?
What’s wrong?"

I automatically assumed it was
the physical abuse from her father

and just the emotional trauma
of where our marriage was.

I thought it was just his anger,

and I told him
that over and over.

"We need space and
we need to feel safe,

and you need to go get help."

The only way I knew to fix it at
that point was for him to leave.

And so I filed for the divorce
to force him out of the house

so that we could have
peace and safety.

The church excommunicated
me for filing for divorce.

It was so backwards,

me filing for divorce
to protect us from him

was a greater sin
than his abuse.

Hinton: Plain community
people, Amish and Mennonite,

they talk about mistakes,

they talk about moral
misgivings, things like that,

but for the person who
has been excommunicated

and kicked out of the Amish
community permanently,

"They’re defiant.

They were wild.

They were sinful."

And their only sin is that they
couldn’t forgive their abuser

or that they spoke
up about the abuse.

Audrey: I was suddenly adrift.

At this point, my oldest
one’s still cutting,

and my second one, Dorthea,

starts attempting suicide.

She starts trying
to hang herself.

A little bit before I was 12,
I got incredible depressed,

and I went to a hospital
because I tried to kill myself,

and I just knew that I had to
find a way to protect myself.

And at some points if, you know,

taking myself out of this world

meant that it
wouldn’t happen to me,

then that’s just
how it was gonna be.

Audrey: I begged her to talk to
me, but she was so locked down.

It was really hard for me because I was
like, "What are they not telling me?"

I knew something
deeper was wrong,

but I didn’t know what.

I had no idea that my whole
world was about to change.

My oldest daughter
Marlena came to me first.

When I finally opened up to my
mom about what was happening,

it was because I had heard her

telling some of my
siblings around a campfire

the usual thing that a mother
would tell their children.

"If somebody ever touches
you in this place,

that’s a no-no, and you
need to tell an adult."

That was the moment that I
realized that it wasn’t normal.

It was sexual assault.

Audrey: She opened up and
asked me if it was normal

for dads to touch
their daughter’s butts.

And I remember sitting there frozen,
all of a sudden understanding

that this picture was a whole
lot bigger than I even imagined.

As she proceed to tell
me the different things

that he had been doing to her
and places he was touching her,

I wasn’t even sure if I had enough
information for it to be reportable.

I reached out to a friend who had
a lot of experience in that area.

I told her what my
daughter told me.

I said, "What do I do?"

And she said, "Audrey,
you have to report it."

And I knew with his
powerful family,

if I would report this and make
this kind of an accusation,

it could set the wheels in
motion for a huge court battle

and for me to
possibly lose my kids.

All these things are
racing through their mind.

"Is my child gonna be taken
away? I don’t know the system."

What do they do know about it has told
to them by the leaders or the men,

and so it’s not
correct information.

It was terrifying for me to
get the authorities involved

because my ex-husband
straight out told me

that if I went to the law

that he would get
custody of the children.

And biggest fear was
losing my children,

the very thing I
was fighting for.

I filed for a restraining order

the same day I made the report

because I knew the first
thing he was gonna do

was come after the kids.

Ahh!

I’m gonna cry...

( laughing )

- ( muffled chatter )
- What?

It’s so good to see you.

- But you’ll be okay, right?
- I always am.

- One day.
- Within this group of survivors that I put together,

we all come from
different communities,

from different parts
of the country,

from different levels of
Amish, strict to liberal,

but shockingly, all of
our stories are the same.

Gosh, I can’t
believe you’re here.

Audrey: When you’ve walked
through this kind of hell,

and you can connect with people
from the same cultural background,

you form a deep bond even if you
don’t even know each other that well.

Mine was 17 years ago.
Yours was, what, 16, 15?

- 16.16 years.
- Yeah.

I can’t begin to describe
how momentous it is

to have multiple
survivors gather together

and doing things together

for the betterment of future
generations of Amish people.

For me, it’s validating
and empowering,

and it’s comforting
to my younger self

to know that even though I didn’t
know each of you, I wasn’t alone.

So to sit here and have this
conversation with a group of women

who have all walked away, who found
their voice, who told their stories

it’s validating,
it’s empowering,

and it’s just comforting to that younger
part of me that was never believed.

I’d be a millionaire
if I had a dollar

for every single time somebody’s
looked at me and said,

"But are you sure he would
really do something like that?"

- Right, right.
- "I mean, isn’t this just a case of he said, she said?"

Do you know how many
times I’ve heard that?

Where did that come from,
"he said, she said"?

Because so many of the cases, sexual
assault cases, that’s all you have.

Parents have to believe
the child no matter what.

I mean, there were times that even though I
just could hardly believe it was possible,

I still always
believed my children.

I’ve heard them tell countless
people, "Mom always believed me."

And they’d be like, "How did
you have the courage to tell?"

And they were like, "Mommy believed
me. She always believed me."

I still sometimes can’t
really process it all.

It still kind of feels like that was
another life, another person, another world.

Mom, do you need
help with anything?

I don’t think so. I think we’ve
almost got it, like, literally.

- How’s you?
- Good.

Audrey: She said, "I’ll
never forget the night

I sat straight up
in bed and said,

"What the fuck?

I’ve been sexually
abused my whole life

and I didn’t even know
that’s what it was."

’Cause it started when she was
so small, it’s all she ever knew.

Then I said, "How did
you not know to tell me?"

And she said, "Mike would
tell me that if I told,

he would do it to
the other children."

And so she said,

"In order to spare my
siblings, I didn’t tell."

Right before they went
in for interviews,

my other two
daughters came to me,

and my second oldest,
Dorthea, said,

"Mom, I know I’m gonna have to
tell them what Dad did to me,

so I guess I might
as well tell you."

There’s a lot of
challenges for interviewers

in communicating with Amish
children when they do present.

I personally can’t imagine
what they’re going through,

the sadness in their heart to
know that someone they love,

trusted, can do these
horrific things to them?

When they become aware
that it is wrong,

it’s devastating.

Audrey: My youngest
daughter came to me.

Angie remembers graphic details.

Her story was one
of the most graphic.

She said from the age
of about four or five

until she was between seven
and nine, he raped her.

And I think her
story cut me the most

realizing that my ex-husband
was raping a five-year-old child

and she’s bleeding and
begging him to stop.

And he says, "Just wait a little
bit longer. It’ll all be over soon."

And I can’t tell you what
it feels like as a mother

to sit there beside your child
and listen to them tell you

what was done to them
by their own father.

Farrell: For those naysayers
the don’t believe kids

or say it’s a he
said, she said case,

when a child gives me
details or tells me

it felt like a tree trunk
was going into their body,

the detailed pattern print
of her dad’s boxer shorts,

the smells around,

those are the things
kids don’t just make up.

Usually children tell me,

you know, "I’ve
never told this much

because I don’t want anyone
to know about how it felt.

I don’t want anyone to know
the shame and guilt I have."

Audrey: The trooper
filed the charges.

32 counts,

19 felonies,

9 first-degree.

He was arrested a
day or two later,

and the community supported
him from the get go.

The community put the
bail money together.

The community excommunicated me.

The community has sheltered
him and harbored him

and paid for his attorney.

From the very get go,
they have coddled him

and they left me
to fend for myself.

How does it make you feel

to see Audrey
fighting for her kids?

It’s okay to cry.

It’s almost unfathomable
to think that any parent

inside of an Amish
home could ever,

ever even begin to
fight for their kids.

Misty: It’s just so
structured over the years

that you just push it aside,
you make them be quiet,

and forgive and move on, and
that’s just how it’s done.

I can remember the first
time I called the police

I was terrified out of my mind.

I didn’t even know how to do it,

and I was afraid there would
be some type of repercussions.

I was terrified of what would
happen when Mike found out

that I called the cops

because there’s
always repercussions.

You don’t do that.

You’ve got neighbors
that spy on you, right?

Yeah, that’s why I
built that fence.

They would stand
in those windows

and watch everything we did.

They’d stand in there and
watch us swimming on Sundays.

Meg: So they are on
Mike’s side or...

- Oh, yeah.
- They’re just nosy?

Audrey: No, they’re
on Mike’s side.

February of 2020 was when the
physical harassment started.

That was when they first
broke into my home.

They were looking
for dirt on me.

In the Amish world,
it’s a social game

of whoever can make the
other person look worse.

So it became this cycle of
them breaking into my house.

And they would stand down
there by my children’s beds

in the dark in the doorways.

Dorthea: I used to not be
able to sleep at night,

and I would just lay there,
and it felt like any minute

someone was gonna come
into my room with a gun.

Or it felt like anytime was
home by myself, you know,

I was gonna hear somebody
and they were gonna hurt me.

It’s, like, every time I came home, it
felt like somebody was gonna be here.

Audrey: There’s something that
it does to you psychologically

when your last safe place
on the face of the Earth

is no longer safe.

That’s the kind of
stuff that they do

to try to destroy the
people who speak up.

Sometimes pressure is put on
victims by the Amish community

to not cooperate
with law enforcement,

or various things to
prevent them from engaging

in the criminal justice
system like anyone else would.

Woman: There’s a
lot of emphasis on,

"We deal with
problems as a church.

We do not go world, as
they term it, for help.

There’s this very
strong expectation

that even if there
is an abuse case,

you just quietly suffer
for the sake of the Lord.

In their desire to try to exonerate
the offender or minimize what he’s done

and make it not be quite so
horrible and evil and terrible,

they’re willing to assign
blame to the victim.

Hinton: Every bit of
their theology is twisted.

There’s this theology
that rape happens,

abuse happens, people
fall into temptation,

and that’s okay because
God is a very giving God.

Grace can wipe all of that out,

and we’re all gonna be in
heaven singing together

and, you know, praying together,

except for those who
spoke out about abuse.

Reinaker: They can be
subjected to a lot of pressure

and ostracization from
the rest of the community.

They can be shunned
by the community.

They can basically be removed
from the Amish community,

and that’s the only
life they’ve known.

At first they just started
following me to work,

and parking and
watching me around town.

And then they would drive back and
forth past the house real slow,

and of course terrify my
kids out of their minds.

The cops were like, "We’ll
put up a trail camera

and we’ll get license
plates." It wasn’t enough.

They were watching
everything we did.

They knew exactly when we came
and went for every single thing.

I know they’re trying to
push me out of my home.

They’re trying to force
me away. I won’t leave.

It’s my home and I’m
not going anywhere.

And it’s like the cops
told me multiple times,

"You do what you have to do and we’ll
clean up the mess when we get there."

I’m armed all the time
and I don’t mess around.

I was working, and I was
trying to take care of children

- who were suicidal and who weren’t okay.
- Yeah.

And so it was, like,
dealing with all

the constant trauma of my
children and their needs,

and then trying to deal with
all the trauma of not knowing

- what’s gonna happen next or what they could do.
- Yeah.

You and I both know
what they’re capable of.

Yep. That we do.

Audrey: "Dear Audrey, we write
this letter with heavy hearts

and a longing to see
you return to God’s way.

However, you continue to choose
a selfish and sinful path

at the expense of your
children’s security,

your husband’s heart,
and your own soul.

We long for you to
find rest again.

I know life has dealt
you some hard blows,

but it’s only the beginning unless
you get rid of the bitterness.

We don’t want that for
you and the children.

We want peace and
rest for you all.

With love and prayers, Leroy
Kauffman and Irving Kauffman."

Since I left the DA’s
office in January of 2017,

I’ve had a lot of
Amish cases since then.

I would say a majority of the times
that I have a defendant who’s Amish,

they typically
admit it right away.

They say they’ve done it,
so it’s less of, you know,

this whole thing of defending.

It’s more of just trying
to mitigate their sentence.

Now working with the defendant,
I have to, first of all,

show them that they’re going to
lose, show them the evidence and say,

"There’s no way that a jury’s
gonna find you not guilty

based on what we have here,"

then give them the
best advice I can

as to what they should
do going forward.

I have to keep
explaining to them,

you know, what they did,
and why that’s a crime,

and what they’re looking
at for punishment.

And they feel as though they’ve
corrected it within their community.

This person’s been remorseful,
has admitted to the sin,

has done whatever their
bishop has told them to do,

and for them that’s it.

But then here we come
from outside telling them,

"Oh, no, you’re going
to state prison,"

and they don’t like that at all.

They never wanna have
the victim testify.

The victims sometimes are very
inarticulate either because they’re young

or because they’re just not
experienced in this area.

So they don’t even
know how to describe

certain parts of their body.

And when they talk
to the police,

they’re descriptions sometimes
are really, really difficult

to understand what
may have happened.

And the person I represent
will say, you know,

"I did molest this person,
but I didn’t do these things,"

And that’s usually the worst
of it, is figuring out,

"Well, he said he did
this but not quite this,

and can we drop these charges?"

That’s usually it.

You have this Amish defendant
who has all this support

from the community
and the family.

I think that the English
person may come out of it

with a worse sentence
than the Amish.

Audrey: Today I’m meeting with
the DA and the prosecution team

to discuss plea
bargain versus trial,

what types of safety
measures can be put in place,

whether they incarcerate him
upon agreeing to a guilty plea

rather than waiting for a
separate date to turn himself in.

We’re hoping for a
million dollar cash bond.

We really don’t want
him walking the streets.

I’m not really sure that
they changed a whole lot

because I went into the
meeting pretty open ended.

I would say with
everything considered

and all the different
topics we discussed today,

a plea is going
to be a guarantee.

A trial might not be.

The first question the older
ones are probably gonna have is,

"Well, so give me numbers.
Like, how long are we talking?"

And they’re gonna
be disappointed.

So...

As I learned today,

Cumberland County is one of
the most lenient counties

for offenders in Pennsylvania.

But his defense attorney says,

"We recognize he’s gonna have to
plead guilty to some felonies.

We’re willing to
accept Megan’s Law

and sexually violent predator.

My client is thinking

two years in county work release

because he has a lot
of family members

that depend on him
for financial support.

And if they don’t
have that support,

they’re just not gonna
be able to make it."

So he wants two years
and then work release

and only sexually
violent predator?

He’s a fucking pedophile!

He wants two years
on work release.

- Wait, meaning what?
- No incarceration.

- No!
- Yes, exactly.

- No! What the fuck?
- No, he’s not gonna get that,

but that’s the bargain
they came with.

Most times they won’t
even accept Megan’s Law

- or a sexually violent predator.
- What’s Megan’s Law?

Okay, so Megan’s Law means
he’s going to have to sign up

for the rest of his life,
register everywhere he lives.

- As a sex offender.
- As a sex offender.

He’s not a fucking sex
offender. He’s a pedophile!

- I understand that.
- He’s a child predator.

He’s not just a sexual offender.

- I know.
- What the fuck?

Does the rape of a
six-year-old not mean anything?

This isn’t fair.

It’s not fair. It’s not.

And he just gets off
with all of this?

It’s not going to be
fair. I understand.

So, we can insist on
taking this to trial,

but you must understand this
is what trial could look like.

But if they’re willing
to do a plea bargain,

then we should exhaust
those options first.

Maybe we can get
ten years servable

and ten years probation.

At this point,

it’s probably gonna be about
the best we’re gonna get.

So it’s a lose-lose. It
really doesn’t matter.

We’re not gonna get
anything that we want.

We’re not going to get the
level that we wanted, no.

I’m sorry.

When I see the big picture,

I see that an Amish man

can rape a child and
have a reduced sentence.

You can get longer for burglary,

for possession of a
small amount of whatever,

than you do for raping
a child for 15 years.

Audrey: Just take for example,

Mike’s charges carry a minimum
of five and a maximum of ten.

- How is that even possible?
- How is that possible?

And he’s raped
three of his kids.

That’s fucked up.

Misty: Torturing a
child for so many years

and that’s okay to let them
out after five or ten years?

Does our justice system really
believe that is justice?

The day of the
plea hearing was...

hard for all of us
in different ways.

The prior agreement was
that he would plead guilty.

And like I told
the DA beforehand,

I said, "They always have
an ace up their sleeve."

So I said, "We’ll wait
to see what this one is."

He had two rape charges,
rape and forcible rape.

They wanted us to
drop the rape charge

because without that word,

he can spin the narrative
to his community,

"Well, you know, he
didn’t rape them."

But to us, the word wasn’t
as important as closure.

Taking it to trial would’ve
probably gotten him

a heavier sentence.

It could’ve dragged on
for another whole year.

And that was... it was time to
wrap it up for the kids’ sake.

And so we agreed to it
with the understanding

with the DA that she would
specifically spell out

during the hearing

the specific acts that
he did on each child.

She spelled out in
detail how he raped them.

The judge asked
him if he did it,

and he said yes.

And she asked him if he believes
that the court could prove him guilty

beyond all reasonable
doubt, and he said yes.

And she asked him how he pleads,

and he said, "No contest."

He admitted that he
knows you can prove it,

but he won’t admit it.

The agreement was he
would plead guilty.

If I would’ve known he
wasn’t gonna plead guilty,

I probably wouldn’t have agreed
to dropping the rape charge.

- Misty: The sentencing is finally almost here and...
- Audrey: Almost.

We’re just here to support you and
let you know that you’re not alone.

It’s, you know, the last leg
of the journey hopefully.

We’re kind of here to hold up your
arms when their getting tired, right?

Just realizing that
people care enough

to sit there and listen
and then respond is huge.

We want to do that for you.

And hopefully it will
not be a repeat situation

of what happened in
my court sentencing.

I hope they send him away
for a long, long time,

so that your children can
feel safe in their own beds,

so you can feel safe
in your own home.

I deserve to be able
to go to sleep at night

and not have to be afraid of
who’s gonna break into my home.

I shouldn’t have to carry a gun with
me ready to shoot at any moment.

I shouldn’t have to
do that all the time.

It’s time for that to end.

My darkest moment
was when I realized

that the man that I
married was a monster.

All of the dreams that I had

for a normal healthy
family have been shattered.

Even though we will come out
of this stronger in some ways,

we will never know
what normal is.

We’re gonna park in
the parking garage.

The rape crisis advocate is gonna
meet us outside the courthouse.

As a mother, realizing
that I didn’t know

that the person that
was supposed to be

the safest and the closest
to my children and to me

was committing such evil crimes
against them is life-altering.

Is there a way to be ready for
a day like this? I don’t know.

- No, not really.
- I don’t think there is.

I don’t know if this
road really ever ends,

but at least safety
should begin after today,

a small measure
of justice maybe.

Yes.

Yeah.

First of all, Judge
Peck, I, Audrey Kauffman,

the mother of the victims and
the ex-wife of the perpetrator,

want to thank you for the
opportunity to be heard

and to tell my truth.

How does a father use the power

he inherently possesses
for love and protection

to rape and abuse, dehumanize,

intimidate his own blood?

And how do I describe a culture

where sexual abuse
is completely normal?

A culture that not
only hides abuse,

but rallies to protect
the evil perpetrators.

A culture that people support,
romanticize, and enable

because they don’t
want to believe

it is anything
more than harmless,

peaceful people,
strong work ethic,

and delicious baked goods.

Each of my children
are Michael’s victims,

each one in a different way.

They will spend the
rest of their lives

fighting demons and battles

that no one should ever have to,

much less a child.

Michael Kauffman chose
to violate his children

in the worst of possible ways.

He chose to rape and
assault and destroy

the very beings
he helped create.

He is no father.
He is a monster.

He stood in the pulpit publically leading
devotions and congregational prayer

and then raped and assaulted his
children behind closed doors.

No matter what legal
consequences he receives today,

nothing in this life will ever
bring back what he stole from us.

But this sentence will keep him
from violating more children,

it will give his victims,
including myself,

space to heal without fear.

This sentence will
show the children

that there are people and
authorities in this world

that believe them and
want to keep them safe,

that there is some
level of justice

not just on judgment day.

Honorable Judge
Peck, at this moment,

you hold in your hands the
opportunity to protect my children

and show them how
much a child is worth.

Are you coming?

( indistinct chatter )

Are you taking Sunny?

You’re good.

I love you, baby.

It went well, as
far as well can go.

I was impressed the judge called
him out and called him what he was.

He’s the epitome of a
pedophile and a sex offender.

They sentenced him
to what we expected,

5 to 20 years, mandatory
10 years probation,

and he will be listed as a
sexually violent predator.

It looks like about ten years

before he’s eligible
for any release.

Obviously I’d like to see
him in there for life,

but that’s not
reasonable at this point.

I don’t look at him anymore
as a father or a husband.

I look at him as a
pedophile and a criminal.

- Just let me give you a hug.
- Okay.

( sobbing )

I guess through
the whole process

my biggest concern
was our safety

because the family
harassment we’ve had.

- I love you so much.
- Love you, too.

Thank you so much for coming.

I know.

Well, it’s here. We
did it. It’s over.

But there was a lot...

It took a lot to
get to this point.

I guess I just want to
take this opportunity

to thank each and every
single person in this room

for everything you’ve done.

There’s just so much.

There’s so much, I could
never process it all.

It’s going to be day
by day for a while,

but the process of healing,

we’ve come so far
just in the last year

that another year is going
to bring another whole level.

So, you know, will
I stay in the area?

I don’t know. Probably
not permanently.

I’m here right now.

And their goal was to run
me out from the beginning.

That’s what they do.
And I refuse to run.

It’s my home, so guess
they got to put up with me.

This is why I say
there’s no justice.

Justice is a myth.
There is no justice.

But you know what, Mary?

It feels like there’s no justice

and it can feel like
there’s no hope.

But if I think about how alone
you were at your court hearing

or how alone Audrey
has been in her journey

or how alone Misty has been

or how alone that my mom
was and I was in our story,

the four of us are
now sitting together

and our stories are being heard.

And your story
won’t be for naught.

It’ll give somebody else
courage to come forward,

and I could imagine
a flood happening.

We’re like the crack in the dam.

But when that flood comes,

justice has to follow.

We will never get
justice in this life

for the crimes that have
been committed against us.

But I hope that our story

will bring light and
hope to other survivors.

Even if they never have the
strength to come forward,

they need... they deserve
to know they’re not alone.

A group put together... we
have the Civil Rights movement,

we have the Women’s
Rights movement.

I mean those movements,
they created change.

So if people come on board and
say, yes, we’re going to stand up

and we’re going
to say no to this,

we’re going to change
this scenario...

I mean, if enough people
come together and do that,

we can change it.

The Amish and Mennonite
children are America’s children,

and they are the
forgotten children.

They are the invisible children.

We need America to help
us to create a change.

We need the outside world.

What is happening within
the Amish communities

cannot be ignored any longer,

and it is our nation’s duty
to protect these children

and to start paying attention.

I think there might
be some tiny shift

and some tiny change that is
positive that is happening.

Because law enforcement,
in some cases,

are making arrests

and district attorneys
are pressing charges

against people who knew
and failed to report.

I think change within
the Plain community

has to come from people who are
already inside of the Plain community,

and they have to have the
courage to stand up to evil.

They have to stop going along
with this broken system.

This system is so
powerful. It’s so corrupt.

It’s so twisted. It’s so evil.

It’s so private.

Somebody from within
that community

has to stand up to evil
and say enough is enough.

Misty: This has to change.
We are not going to be quiet.

We’re not going to
be brushed aside.

You must do something
to change this reality.

This can no longer happen.

And this is where it stops.