One of 3 brothers charged in wide-ranging incest case sentenced to 18 years

Bruce Vielmetti
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

At a South Milwaukee house of horrors where 11 children were essentially abandoned to raise themselves, things devolved into something like the classic novel "Lord of the Flies," a lawyer said Thursday.

The oldest had no skills in raising children, cooking or running a household. 

"They all just scraped along," said Nathan Opland-Dobs, at the sentencing of one the older siblings on charges he sexually abused several younger siblings for years.

They didn't go to school or get medical care. They rarely left the house and didn't become socialized in the normal ways. There was no heat, nails stuck out on the kitchen floor, the basement smelled of sewage and the whole place was dirty. 

Their father, who moved into the garage after their mother left years earlier, did nothing to intervene, Opland-Dobs said.

"It was a total disaster," he said, like the 1954 William Golding story about young adolescent boys who attempt to govern themselves after they are stranded on an island after a plane crash.

One girl, now 17, threatened that if she wasn't allowed to go to high school, she'd tell authorities what was going on. She then made a friend and slowly disclosed to others some of what was happening. Eventually, she and her older sister decided to rescue all the younger siblings.

When police began investigating a missing children report, they heard of the abuse, and in April, the father, 62, and his three oldest sons were arrested and charged, the sons with sexual abuse, the father with neglect resulting in a sexual offense and bodily harm. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is not naming them in order to shield the identities of the victims.

Assistant District Attorney Sara Schroeder said the 11 siblings range in age from 10 to 29. All the minors are now living with a foster family.

The first of them to be sentenced, the second-oldest son, now 28, was sentenced Thursday to 18 years in prison and 10 years of supervised release. He had pleaded guilty to three of the original five counts, charging offenses against five different younger siblings, abuse that occurred over about 15 years.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Stephanie Rothstein acknowledged the defendant himself was a victim of the family's dysfunction who received no emotional nurturing and "no healthy outlet for anything," and had no other arrest record.

But she said that as he got older, and eventually worked outside the home, he had some realization his actions were wrong, "and yet the behavior continued." She also said she didn't believe that he was unaware that his brothers were also abusing their younger sisters.

Rothstein said he will have to unlearn a lot during years of treatment about what healthy emotional relationships are like.

Opland-Dobs said a forensic psychiatric evaluation found his client is not a pedophile or a psychopath, but an incest offender whose victims were opportunistic, and that he is unlikely to re-offend.

The defendant apologized and said he is deeply ashamed, and that he realizes now how hurtful his actions were.

In a letter to the judge, one of the victims, now 20, said her mother was abusive to them all. While she didn't think her brothers' crimes were excusable, "I think there's a reason this happened," and that "abuse begets abuse."

Two other brothers, ages 29 and 20, have also pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges and are awaiting sentencing. The father has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for trial in December.

Contact Bruce Vielmetti at (414) 224-2187 or bvielmetti@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ProofHearsay.