KY man who forced girls to work, punished them for not making enough gets 30 years.
A Kentucky man who made his girlfriend’s daughters sell items door-to-door and abused them when they didn’t bring in enough money has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison.
His girlfriend received a sentence of nine years in the case after acknowledging she benefited from the forced labor of her daughters.
U.S. District Judge Robert E. Wier sentenced Jordan Allen Otis, 26, and Tiffany Louise Walsh, 34, last week.
“Protecting the most vulnerable, including children, from harm is a fundamental priority for law enforcement,” U.S. Attorney Robert M. Duncan, Jr. said in a news release. “The lengthy sentences imposed underscore the seriousness of the conduct and help ensure the defendants are not able to victimize others for the foreseeable future.”
Otis, Walsh and her four daughters moved to Hazard around March 2017.
Otis stayed home with the four girls, who were ages 12 to 15 when the abuse occurred, under the guise of homeschooling them, but only had them do writing assignments a few hours a day, according to the court record.
Otis used threats and force to make the girls make wooden plaques and other items and had them spend up to six hours a day going door-to-door to sell the items and cancer awareness bracelets.
If they didn’t bring in enough money, they had to draw a slip from a “punishment jar” to see what punishment they would face, according to the court record.
Otis made the girls do excessive exercise, eat condiments that made them sick and sprayed them with bleach.
A family member told a neighbor that the punishment jar also included acts of a sexual nature, and Wier concluded based on testimony from three of the girls that Otis used sexual abuse as a way to force them to work.
“The children each testified that fear of further sexual abuse increased their willingness to participate in the forced labor to avoid being at home alone with Otis,” Wier said in his sentencing order.
That was one factor in the sentence for Otis. Another was that when they lived in another state, Otis held down three of the girls against their will and gave them tattoos.
When they were in Hazard, Otis kept most of the money the girls brought in and used it to buy cigarettes, electronics, lottery tickets and food for him and Walsh, according to the court record.
The abuse came to light in May 2017 when the girls knocked on the door of a house while trying to sell bracelets. The house was a children’s advocacy center, according to the court record.
The employees became concerned about why the girls weren’t in school and called authorities. Social workers and Kentucky State Police investigated.
Otis’ attorney, Greta Price Atherton, acknowledged Otis punished the girls in “vastly inappropriate ways,” but said he had been badly abused himself as a child and so had little knowledge of what was appropriate.
Otis’ aunt said in a letter that his parents used drugs and that his father was emotionally and physically abusive to him, beating Otis so badly he nearly died.
Atherton sought a sentence of no more than 10 years and one month for Otis.
However, the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hydee R. Hawkins, asked Wier to sentence Otis near the maximum under advisory federal guidelines, which would have been 30 years and five months.
Otis’ “cruel and sadistic abuse of the victims over an extended time period warrants a significant sentence notwithstanding the defendant’s childhood difficulties,” Hawkins argued.
Otis also faces more than 100 charges in state court in Perry County, including first-degree rape, first-degree sexual abuse and criminal abuse. Walsh faces nearly 100 counts of first-degree criminal abuse.
Otis and Walsh will have to serve at least 85 percent of the federal sentence.
This story was originally published July 27, 2020 at 9:22 AM.
