Florida Children’s Author, Husband Plead Guilty to Abusing and Neglecting Their 3 Kids

USA Today
By Jeanine Santucci
1/18/25

Florida Children's Author, Husband Plead Guilty to Abusing and Neglecting Their 3 Kids

A Florida children's author and her husband pleaded guilty to abusing and neglecting their three children, leaving one girl hospitalized in critical condition with multiple organ failure.

She was 8 years old, according to local news reports. She weighed just 40 pounds, arrest records show. The children were beaten with a device called a "whacker," locked up, and not allowed to speak to each other.

Jennifer Wolfthal, 45, who wrote a children's book called "A Real Friend," and her husband, 43-year-old Joseph Wolfthal, an engineer at Lockheed Martin, pleaded guilty to three counts of child abuse and three counts of child neglect each earlier this week, according to court records reviewed by USA TODAY.

One of the children "described an existence in which she did not see or talk to anyone other than her parents including her siblings and spent virtually all of her time locked alone in her bedroom," according to a search warrant written by Seminole County Sheriff's Deputy Sean R. Platter. Two of the children also said they were often sent to bed, punished with a bottle of cold water poured over them, and left in that condition overnight.

The children were forced to write sentences as part of their punishments, they told investigators. A search of the house turned up over 1,100 paragraphs repeating: "my body stays flat on the bed at all times. I was never given permission to move or say anything. Now I get to write about this along with everything else. I'm a fool."

The parents were arrested in 2021 after the 8-year-old was hospitalized. In addition to multiple organ failure, she had sepsis, a staph infection, black eyes, open wounds and scabs, pneumonia and malnutrition, records show.

The other children were also taken to the hospital for care for malnourishment and bruises after a welfare check at their Casselberry home in central Florida. The children were adopted, according to the couple's arrest reports.

Platter wrote in reports that the children were afraid to leave their rooms at night to use the bathroom and would have accidents. One child said she hadn't been bathed in months and was only fed a mixture of cereal and vegetable puree, sometimes not having a first meal until late afternoon.

The couple used the object one child called a "whacker" to hit them, Platter wrote in an arrest record. The children said they were hit to the point of drawing blood and would be hit in the same spots that were already wounded.

Jennifer Wolfthal's book was published in 2020. The story is about best friends Max and Benny who get into an argument, according to a description on Goodreads. Benny tries to build a new friend after getting annoyed. "A recognizable picture book about playing together, quarreling and patching up a quarrel," the description says. "For playful children ages 4 years and up."

Clavis Publishing wrote in the book's description on Google Books and other sites after the arrest that it would stop further commercialization of the book.

"We were made aware of horrific news regarding one-time, Clavis' author Jennifer Wolfthal's arrest and strongly condemn child abuse, abandonment and neglect, today and always," the company said.

According to her author description, Jennifer Wolfthal grew up in South Florida, has a degree in elementary education and worked as a fourth-grade teacher for eight years at a public school. "She enjoyed instilling a love for writing in her students," and went on to homeschool her own children, the description says.

Jennifer Wolfthal was sentenced to 12 years in prison, and Joseph Wolfthal was sentenced to 10 years, according to court records. Their attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday.

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