Fox News |
A 42-year-old North Carolina man and his 20-year-old daughter have been arrested on incest charges after having a love child last year–and reportedly getting married.
Steven Pladl, 42, of Knightdale, and Katie Pladl, 20, were arrested Jan. 27, WNCN-TVreported, citing “warrants.” They have also been charged with adultery and contributing to delinquency. The maximum sentence for the incest charge is 10 years in prison.
The child, a boy, was born in September, the station reported.
The charges were brought in Virginia where authorities believe the relationship began.
The station reported that Pladl gave up Katie for adoption when she was an infant.
They reunited in 2016 when she tracked him down through social media.
At the time, according to the station, Pladl was living outside Richmond with his wife, Katie’s mother, and their two children, girls who would have been Katie’s sisters.
Katie moved into the home, the station reported.
Subsequently, Pladl and his wife legally separated in November 2016 and began living apart.
Online records show the wife filed for divorce in March 2017 and obtained a divorce decree three months later.
The ex-wife told authorities that just before she moved out Steven would sleep on the floor in Katie’s room, the station reported.
The ex-wife learned Katie was pregnant last May after reading one of her daughter’s journal, the station reported.
Eight days later child welfare workers in Virginia began conducting interviews, according to the station. They interviewed the two young Pladl girls who said they had been told their father fathered Katie’s baby.
The warrants show that Steven told his two daughters to call Katie their step-mom, the station reported.
Police in suburban Richmond issued arrest warrants for Pladl and Katie last November.
The ex-wife told Richmond’s WTVR-TV that her former husband and Katie married in Maryland and then moved to North Carolina.
She believes her ex-husband brainwashed and manipulated Katie, the station reported.
“This is a pretty unique set of facts I would say,” the station’s legal analyst Todd Stone said.