A town of Breed man was sentenced to 15 years in prison and nine years of extended supervision more than two years after his two daughters were removed from what the prosecutor referred to as a “house of horrors.”
“These girls have offered information that they were terrorized at the hands of this father,” special prosecutor Wendy Lemkuil said Friday at the four-hour sentencing hearing of Shawn Paholke, 35.
The girls, now 7 and 9, are living with their mother and doing better, Lemkuil said.
“They’re healthier, they’re chunkier. They weigh more. They’re around a loving environment,” she said.
The younger girl was suffering from chronic malnutrition when she was taken into protective custody in 2013, weighing 24 pounds, instead of a healthy 40 pounds. The older girl was scarred from burns she suffered while tied up on the deck on a hot day.
In April, Paholke pleaded no contest to six of the original 12 child abuse charges against him, occurring from July 2012 to May 2013, in Breed. Paholke’s two daughters were living with him and Jennifer Fendryk, his live-in girlfriend and eventually his wife. Fendryk started divorce proceedings in March.
In August, Fendryk was sentenced to 11 years, six months imprisonment and seven years extended supervision for five counts of child abuse involving the girls.
Judge Jay Conley said the before-and-after photos show how much the girls had changed since their removal from the home.
“The pictures are very profound in this case,” Conley said.
He read statements from a criminal complaint in which Paholke admitted to investigators he used food deprivation as a disciplinary tool and locked his younger daughter in her room.
Photographs showed the older girl’s scarred arm, which was badly burned on July 4, 2012. Paholke admitted to authorities in 2013 he tied up the girl on the deck as a punishment.
“Both you and Jen were involved in the discipline and the care — or rather the lack of care — of these girls,” Conley said. “And let’s rush to the finish line. This kid (suffering from malnutrition) almost died!”
Paholke, on Friday, spoke for 30 minutes and denied any wrongdoing, saying he never tied up his older daughter or locked up his younger daughter in her room all day.
“I would never hurt those kids,” he said.
He said he took his younger daughter to numerous doctors to try to get her the help she needed.
“I feel I did the best I could, taking her to physicians,” he said.
In announcing Paholke’s sentence, Conley noted his lack of remorse.
“I can’t look at these pictures and see how you feel you did nothing wrong,” Conley said.
Paholke’s attorney John Wallace said Fendryk harbored a bizarre jealousy regarding Paholke’s interaction with his children, which led to their mistreatment.
“If Shawn had never met Jen, we would not be here,” he said, though he acknowledged that both Paholke and Fendryk were culpable for what took place.
Paholke pushed the blame to others, including the girls’ mother, who granted Paholke custody of the children because of trouble in her own home life.
Tina Tischer, an aunt of the girls’ mother, cared for the girls a few months after they were taken from the Paholke home.
She described the younger one as standoffish, lacking basic life skills and not accustomed to being praised or cuddled. She would hoard food, hiding it in her closet, and shake her dolls, slam them down and yell at them.
The older girl would hoard water bottles, hiding them under her mattress or on the playground. She would push her sister into a corner, pretending to lock her up.
Today, the girls are healthy again, Tischer said. Once they were off their medications and in a healthy environment, they did better, she added.
“It took many weeks of counseling,” Tischer said, about 90 sessions.
Tischer was the only person to speak on behalf of the children. A few of Paholke’s relatives, including his father and grandfather, and a neighbor spoke in support of Paholke. They expressed their surprise over the allegations and asked for leniency.
Conley sentenced Paholke to the maximum imprisonment on each count, with sentences running both consecutively and concurrently. However, he did not adopt the maximum sentence for extended supervision, saying Paholke was a model citizen in everything else aside from the “deplorable” way in which treated his daughters.
Paholke is to have no contact with the children unless approved by a therapist.
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