Wisconsin paid torture suspects despite child abuse report
Wisconsin paid torture suspects despite child abuse report
Couple were collecting at rate of $54,000 a year, even after moving to Oklahoma
By Crocker Stephenson of the Journal Sentinel Feb. 25, 2011
A husband and wife who officials say left the state after they were reported for child abuse are facing life in prison in Oklahoma on charges of torturing three children they adopted in Wisconsin.
Even after allegations of abuse were reported to Wisconsin officials, sparking what Canadian County (Okla.) Sheriff Randall Edwards called "a very limited investigation," and after the family left the state, Wisconsin continued to pay the couple $1,500 a month per child in adoption assistance - a stipend that would total $54,000 a year.
"I don't know how they can send them money with no kind of follow-up, with no check or balances," Edwards said.
The couple, John Edward Kluth, 50, and Sonja K. Kluth, 57, were charged Tuesday in Canadian County with three counts each of child abuse and three counts each of child neglect.
The children - 15- and 11-year-old boys and a 9-year-old girl - were foster children placed with the Kluths by the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families. They were adopted by the couple in Winnebago County, according to a Canadian County sheriff's report.
It is unclear when the adoption occurred, what alleged abuse reports were filed in Wisconsin, what kind of investigation was conducted by whom, or what services, if any, were provided to the Kluth family.
"What is going on up there?" Edwards asked a reporter from Wisconsin.
"Under Wisconsin law, the department is prohibited from providing confidential information as it pertains to specific children," Erika Monroe-Kane, spokeswoman for the Department of Children and Families, said in an e-mailed statement.
Wisconsin stopped paying the family's $4,500 a month adoption assistance payments in January, when it was informed by Oklahoma that the children had been removed from the Kluths' home, the statement says.
The Kluths' treatment of the children while in Wisconsin is under investigation, Monroe-Kane said.
Burned, fed pet food
According to court documents:
The Kluths, who live in Yukon, Okla., burned the children with hot spoons, strangled them, fed them pet food and locked them in a storm shelter with plastic buckets for bathroom use.
The children, who were malnourished and covered with injuries, told investigators that they were beaten with metal broom and mop handles and horsewhips, the documents say.
The children told investigators that the Kluths beat their faces with their fists, smashed their heads on the floor, and hit them with a mallet, soup spoon and the buckle end of a belt, the documents say.
The 15-year-old said he was kept in a plastic dog carrier for two months.
One child said that he told Sonja Kluth he wanted to kill himself. She told him to get a gas can and go to the cellar while she located a lighter, according to court documents.
The abuse came to the attention of authorities, Edwards said, in November, when the Kluths reported to the sheriff's department that the 15-year-old had run away.
Oklahoma City police found the boy sleeping in a box behind a store. As he was being driven back to Yukon, the boy told a sheriff's investigator that he and his siblings were being abused.
"Sonja explained that . . . she had totally lost all control and had become a monster toward the children," according to court documents.
"She said she had done things that she should never have done."
John Kluth told investigators that "he and Sonja were going to be accused of abusing the children, but the children came to them already damaged."
According to the Department of Children and Families website, the state pays assistance to families that adopt children who, because of special needs, might not otherwise be candidates for adoption.
"Because of mental or physical handicaps, disruptive behavior, medical problems or other factors, it may take time to find the appropriate family that can provide the extra measure of patience, acceptance, caring and understanding of the child's needs."
Federal law requires the state that finalizes the adoption to continue to pay adoption assistance if the family moves from the state.
Edwards said members of the Kluths' biological family who had contacted his department said John and Sonja Kluth adopted the children for the money and that the Kluths fled Wisconsin after abuse allegations were made to authorities by family members.
"It is just horrific what these people did to these children," Edwards said.
If convicted of any one of the charges against them, he said, the Kluths face up to life in prison.
"These people came to the wrong place to abuse their children," he said.