Police: Parents Wanted To Force Daughter To Have Abortion
POSTED: 10:35 am EDT September 18, 2006
UPDATED: 6:11 pm EDT September 18, 2006
SALEM, N.H. -- A Maine couple, infuriated that their 19-year-old daughter was pregnant, tied her up, loaded her into their Lexus and headed to New York to force her to get an abortion, police said.
"Her parents chased her out into the yard, grabbed and tied her hands and feet together," Salem Police Officer Sean Marino wrote in a court affidavit. "Katelyn states that her father then carried her to their car and they headed toward New Hampshire."
Katelyn Kampf escaped Friday at a shopping center in Salem and called police, authorities said.
Real estate developer Nicholas Kampf, 54, and his wife, Lola, 53, of North Yarmouth, Maine, were arraigned Monday on kidnapping charges. Prosecutors asked for $500,000 cash bail each, saying that passports and a rifle were found in the car and the couple were potentially dangerous.
Salem Police Prosecutor Scott McFarland said that during the more than two-hour car trip from Maine through Massachusetts and north to Salem, the parents repeatedly "threatened to kill the victim, the unborn child, the father and his family."
Defense attorney Mark Sisti objected, saying there was no evidence of any threats. In fact, Katelyn Kampf told police she was not hurt during the trip and that she and her parents "had been talking cordially," Sisti said, reading from a police affidavit by Officer Sean Marino.
"What we're dealing with here is a terrible family tragedy with some unfortunate misunderstandings and some overreaction, perhaps on all sides -- but not an attempt to terrorize anybody," he said, asking that bail be set at $25,000.
Judge John Korbey set bail at $100,000 cash or bond for each of the Kampfs and ordered them to have no contact with their daughter. He also ordered them to turn in their passports and forbade them to leave New Hampshire or Maine. They must return to court for a probable cause hearing Sept. 26.
If convicted, the Kampfs face seven and a half to 15 years in prison. They also could face charges in Maine or federal charges, because the Kampfs crossed state lines.
Investigators said rope, duct tape, scissors and a .22-caliber rifle were found in the Kampfs' vehicle and Nicholas Kampf had a loaded .22-caliber magazine clip and several bullets in his pants pocket.
Katelyn Kampf had been a student at Boston College, but was withdrawn by her parents because they disapproved of her boyfriend, Salem police told The Boston Globe. She transferred to George Washington University in Washington, but secretly dropped out and returned to Maine, where she was living with her boyfriend's family in Portland.
The boyfriend, 22-year-old Reme Johnson, last week began serving a 6-month theft sentence at Androscoggin County Jail in Auburn, Maine. McFarland asked the judge to grant protective orders for Johnson, his mother and his sister as well.
The kidnapping began with an argument Friday morning at the parents' home. They tied Katelyn Kampf up and her father put her in the car, according to the affidavit.
At some point, Katelyn Kampf managed to hide her father's cell phone in her pants, McFarland said. When Nicholas Kampf couldn't find the phone, he stopped in Salem to buy a temporary phone at a Kmart. Katelyn Kampf then persuaded her parents to let her use the store bathroom.
She ran out of the store and into a nearby Staples, where she used the cell phone to call 911, said Capt. Bill Ganley. Marino and Sgt. Kristin Fili responded and found "a hysterical female hiding in the back of the store," according to the affidavit.
The police accompanied Katelyn Kampf to the mall parking lot, where her parents were circling in their car. Katelyn Kampf got into Marino's cruiser while Fili pulled over her parents. When Lola Kampf opened the passenger side door, Fili spotted rope, duct tape and scissors, she said Monday.
"They told us initially they did take her here against her will, but they denied tying her up initially," Fili said. Although Katelyn Kampf was not injured, "Obviously what happened was a crime. She was taken against her will," she said.
Sisti said that based on the police affidavit, there was no evidence Katelyn was tied up while in New Hampshire.
"It's not a kidnapping. She freely went her own way ... without pursuit by either parent," he said.
Authorities in Maine were investigating what led up to the kidnapping, but said the parents apparently thought that, in light of their daughter's stage of pregnancy and differing state abortion laws, the abortion should be performed in New York.
Maine law prohibits the termination of pregnancy after the fetus is able to live outside the uterus unless the mother's life or health is at stake. While the law does not specify an age, it is generally between 20 and 27 weeks of pregnancy, said Dr. Dora Ann Mills, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. New York law prohibits abortions after the 24th week of pregnancy unless the mother's life is at stake.
Salem police declined to say how far along Katelyn Kampf's pregnancy was, but WMUR-TV said it was about 20 weeks.
The Kampfs moved from New York to Maine in the mid-1980s, and bought several properties in Portland. They renovated and sold the State Theater several years ago.
what an unbelievable.... It's disrespectful what the parents did to their own daughter. I can see that a daughter will NEVER forgive or see them again rest of their life...
I am glad 19 yeras old pregnant mom is ok but her parent oh lord! I am glad they were caught and put them away! I cannot beileve they forced her to abort the baby. But I am glad it didn't happen or she'll have real bad memory of it that her parent forced her! Even she is an adult, and it is HER decsion not the parent! JEEZ!!!
I can't believe what the parents did .. but lucky the pregnant mom is not hurt. I don't like forced abortion.. it should be a choice. period. Therefore she is 19 and an adult. She is now keeping the baby and I have a feeling she will never forgive her parents and disown them for the rest of their lives.