Arizona man gets 14 years in prison for abusing adopted daughters

By David Schwartz

PHOENIX (Reuters) - An Arizona man was sentenced on Thursday to 14 years in prison after pleading guilty to child abuse for beating and starving his adopted teen daughters, a court official said.

Johann Glenn Jorg, 62, also was sentenced to lifetime probation by Judge Michael Kemp during a hearing in Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix, said court spokesman Vincent Funari.

Under the deal with county prosecutors, Jorg pleaded guilty to two counts of child abuse and four other counts were dismissed. His attorney declined comment on the sentencing.

Jorg and his wife, Kimery, 54, were arrested last June at their home in the Phoenix suburb of Peoria after state child welfare workers alerted police to possible neglect of the 13-year-old and 11-year-old girls following a visit.

Police investigators found the 13-year-old in such poor shape that she had to be hospitalized, and said the 5-foot-tall (1.52-meter) girl weighed just 60 pounds (27 kg) when she was admitted.

Investigators said the home-schooled girls were severely punished by their parents, including beatings with a wooden paddle and being forced to live in a backyard tent either naked or wearing a diaper.

The youths also were forced to run outside in the heat, and would have to run longer if they failed to adequately memorize Bible verses, police said.

The parents told investigators the girls were being punished for lying and stealing.

The case against Kimery Jorg is on-going, according to court records.

(Reporting by David Schwartz; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Sandra Maler)