SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. (TCN) — A 45-year-old author and her 43-year-old husband will spend the next several years behind bars after they pleaded guilty to abusing several of their adopted children and causing major injuries.
Court records show Joseph Wolfthal was sentenced to 10 years in prison and his wife, Jennifer Wolfthal, to 12 years following their guilty pleas to three counts aggravated child abuse causing great bodily harm and three counts of child neglect with great bodily harm. They both must serve 10 years of probation following their release. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors dropped three counts of false imprisonment against them.
The investigation began Jan. 1, 2021, when a Seminole County Sheriff’s Office deputy responded to Advent Hospital in Winter Park for a medical issue involving a juvenile. The deputy spoke with a Child Protective Services investigator, who said Joseph Wolfthal took the victim to a different hospital, but doctors determined they were critically ill and needed to be transferred. The deputy learned two other children were in the Wolfthals’ home, and they were brought to the hospital with injuries following Jennifer Wolfthal and Joseph Wolfthal’s arrests…