Plea Deal Spares Amish Girls From Testifying in Sex Abuse Case

A New York state man pleaded guilty on Friday to state charges of kidnapping in the abduction of two young Amish sisters from their roadside farm stand, in what appears to be the last in a series of plea deals in the sexual exploitation case. Stephen Howells II and his girlfriend, Nicole Vaisey, both from Hermon, New York, were arrested in last summer's abduction of the sisters, ages 12 and 7, from the rural Amish community of Oswegatchie near New York's border with Canada. Authorities say that the couple drugged the children, videotaped them being sexually abused and then released them the next day. The two already faced up to several hundred years in prison after pleading guilty to related federal charges.