Lawyer in kidnapping case urges counseling, not criminal charges

PORTLAND – The lawyer for a North Yarmouth couple charged with kidnapping their 19-year-old daughter in hopes of forcing her to get an abortion said a reasonable conclusion to the episode would be for the case to be removed from the courts.

The parents and their daughter need counseling, not criminal charges, defense lawyer Tom Hallett said Wednesday.

Nicholas and Lola Kampf are free on $100,000 bail apiece after being charged in Cumberland County with one count each of kidnapping. The Kampfs face up to 30 years in prison if they’re convicted of the charges.

District Attorney Stephanie Anderson said it’s unrealistic for the Kampfs to hope that the criminal charges would be dropped.

“This is a crime. The fact that it was perpetrated by a family member doesn’t make it not a crime,” Anderson said. “We’ve been understanding this for many years with domestic violence. And this is in the same category.”

If anything, more charges could be forthcoming once the case is presented to a grand jury either next month or in November, she said.

The parents are accused of tying up their daughter Katelyn, forcing her into their car and heading for New York with the goal of making her have an abortion. They were arrested after Katelyn ran away when they stopped in Salem, N.H.

Hallett said the parents are heartbroken over what happened on Sept. 15. But he said the case is far different from the way it has been portrayed in the media.

He said the parents learned during a phone call the day before the incident that their daughter was pregnant. The parents had packed their car with belongings for a trip to Florida, but their plans changed because of the pregnancy, he said.

The parents were already concerned that their daughter had dropped out of George Washington University and returned to Portland without telling them, Hallett said.

Hallett didn’t get into details of what happened in the car, but he said Katelyn agreed during the drive to contact an abortion clinic in Massachusetts.

Now, the parents are forced to defend themselves against kidnapping charges and they’re forbidden from contacting their daughter in her time of need, Hallett said.