Katelyn Kampf Unhappy With Parents' Plea

Katelyn Kampf and her son D'Andre Kampf

Kidnapped Daughter Unhappy With Parents' Plea Deal

PORTLAND, Maine -- A North Yarmouth couple that made national headlines last year when their pregnant daughter claimed they kidnapped her and tried to force her to have an abortion will enter into a plea agreement this week. Now the daughter, Katelyn Kampf, said she is upset by the development and is speaking publicly about her ordeal for the first time.
With her new son, D’Andre, Kampf spoke with News 8’s Michelle Frey.
"I did end up making a run for it,” she said. “At one point, I ran out of the house. My father chased me down our driveway and tackled me, and I had grass stains all over, and I was screaming for help."

Kampf, 20, said her parents, Nick and Lola Kampf, kidnapped her after they learned she was six months pregnant. She said they tied her hands and feet, put her in the back of their car and started driving to New York, where they planned to force her to abort her baby.
According to Katelyn Kampf, "At one point, she (Nola Kampf) said something about making me have the baby and then killing it, and she would do whatever necessary to make sure the baby never came into the world."
Driving through New Hampshire, Katelyn Kampf feigned needing a bathroom break and made her getaway.

Her parents were arrested and arraigned on several charges, including felony kidnapping and misdemeanor assault and terrorizing.

Katelyn Kampf said they’re getting off easy.

"I feel pretty unsatisfied with the way my parents’ case is being handled," she told News 8 of the plea agreement that is expected to be entered into later this week.
In the deal, the Kampfs will plead guilty to misdemeanor charges of assault and disorderly conduct, while the felony kidnapping charge will be dropped.

In a telephone conversation with News 8, Cumberland County District Attorney Stephanie Anderson said Katelyn Kampf was “intimately involved” in the plea deal and saw everything in the paperwork and that if she’s upset by it, the DA’s office was not aware.
Anderson said, “I have not heard from Katelyn. I guess she’d rather just complain about it.”
Katelyn Kampf explained, "I was really upset, and I just told her, ‘If that's all they're going to get out of it, I don't care. Do whatever you want with it.’"

She said she simply gave up on the justice system and now considers their punishment to be never seeing her -- or their grandson -- again.
When asked if there was any possibility of reconciliation, Katelyn Kampf answered, "I don't think I could ever face them again. Just knowing -- I mean some of the things they said just replay in my mind all the time. My mom spit in my face -- twice. She told me she wished she'd never had me, that I was the biggest mistake of her life."

Previous Articles:

Kampfs Surrender To Maine Authorities

Sheriff: Race Issue In Alleged Kidnapping

Here's another article:

One step at a time
By Ben Bragdon Assistant Editor


WATERBORO (Oct 18): She seems cautiously hopeful as she sits at the kitchen table, her young son in her lap, surrounded by friends.

As Katelyn Kampf wonders about her future, she talks in hours and days. The years and decades seem too far off, an alternate universe where her problems are behind her, her boyfriend at her side, her child safe, her parents’ legal issues and everything leading up to them a distant memory. As she wonders about the time in front of her, and the events of the last year, something grabs her voice. “It’s so overwhelming,” said Kampf, eight month old D’Andre bouncing in her arms. “Losing my parents. Losing my boyfriend. Being a single mother. All at the same time.”

Kampf's parents, Nicholas and Nola Kampf, pleaded guilty Friday in Cumberland County Superior Court to misdemeanor charges of assault and disorderly conduct after Katelyn, now 20 years old, told police her parents tied her up and took her to New Hampshire last year with the intent of forcing her to have an abortion. Her parents have admitted to tying Katelyn’s hands following a fight and driving her to New Hampshire with the hope of convincing her to have an abortion. They knew that could not force Katelyn, then 19, to have an abortion, the parents said.
A "sweet deal?"

Katelyn Kampf, now staying with friends in Waterboro, spoke publicly for the first time last week, out of frustration, she said, on the light sentence handed to her parents. The judge's decision stipulated only counseling and did not include jail time. She felt the deal was made because the incident was seen as more of a family squabble than a crime. “If they were not my parents, I don’t think they would hear of a deal this sweet,” she said.

Kampf is upset at the plea, upset that her parents were let off so easily, and upset with the district attorney, who, Katelyn said, did not involve her in the plea bargain. But she is also trudging forward day-to-day and trying to raise her son. She is also trying to reunite D'Andre with his father, Reme Johnson, who is in federal custody awaiting deportation to his native South Africa.

Kampf said she was not personally involved in the plea bargain discussions and was told by District Attorney Stephanie Anderson that the more serious charge of kidnapping could not be proven in court. “She treated me like a child,” Kampf said of Anderson. Anderson, who has said that Kampf was kept abreast of the plea deal and that Kampf told Anderson she did not want to go to trial, did not return calls for comment.

Kampf also said her parents wanted her to have an abortion because the father, Johnson, is black. Lawyers for the Kampfs said the parents’ dislike for Johnson had nothing to do with his race but rather their own concerns over his ability to raise a child and his criminal record.

Last week, Kampf contacted Portland lawyer Seth Berner, who agreed to represent her for free. On the basis of his talks with Kampf, Berner called the incident between Kampf and her parents a “particularly horrendous hate crime” motivated by racial hatred. Berner said he never questioned the veracity of Kampf’s claims. “She struck me as very articulate and believable, and as the victim,” he said.

Longing for support

At the sentencing, Superior Court Justice William Brodrick reportedly referred to a “bizarre” family relationship as a reason for a plea deal involving no jail time. Said Berner, “I am completely baffled. It is like saying incest is a bizarre family circumstance. This was a crime, not a bizarre family circumstance.” He said the incident should be considered under federal hate crimes statute.

The plea deal stipulates that the Kampfs undergo counseling, both by themselves and with Katelyn. Before Friday’s sentencing, Katelyn Kampf said she wants nothing to do with her parents. “I can’t imagine having any type of relationship with them after what they’ve done,” she said. “I feel like they really took themselves away from me. They just spit in my face. I just can’t get past it.”

Even after all this, Kampf said, she still has times when she wishes she had the support and love of her parents, especially as she tries to raise her son. “I’m still young and they are still my parents, so there are still moments...” she said, her voice trailing off. Kampf said she is not sure how she will feel about the relationship in the future, but “I wouldn’t trust them with my son.”

Her parents have expressed hope that their relationship can be salvaged. "We have all made some bad choices in the past and we will have to live with them, but we must believe with our hearts and soul that time will heal the wounds they have caused," Nola Kampf said in a statement following the sentencing.

Focusing on her family

A lot of Katelyn Kampf's attention is now focused on helping Johnson, who is in federal custody in Connecticut. He has received a 20-year ban from the United States following a short jail stay for possession of stolen property, Kampf said, and will most likely be sent back to his native South Africa in the near future. She has only talked to him on the phone a few times because of the expense, and he has only seen D’Andre once, at a court date.


Friends have contacted the offices of Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe regarding the deportation, but have not heard back. Kampf said Johnson has little connection to South Africa, which he left with the rest of his family when he was 6 years old. “Pretty much his whole life is over here,” she said. If he does get deported, she said, he may try to move to Canada to be closer to her and D’Andre. “The chances of me getting to South Africa are slim,” Kampf said.

The separation is made more difficult by all the problems with her parents, and every time she looks at her son. “He looks just like his father,” she said. Johnson recently wrote her a letter and included a portrait he drew of his son. The last time they talked, she said, “he was really sad, but hopeful at the same time. If we can get through this, we can make it through anything.”

Already there are bigots/misogynists who call Katelyn Kampf hateful names. Especially those at the hate website, American Renaissance. These people called her "stupid", "race traitor", etc. They call her son a hate name that I won't say on this site. The baby's father was called "a criminal". These people have no sympathy whatsoever.