Wichita ? A Kansas couple forced mentally ill adults to labor on their farm in the nude and subjected them to other kinds of physical abuse, a criminal federal complaint unsealed Wednesday charges.

The couple run a mental health facility in Newton that officials said had failed to provide any treatment to its mentally ill residents for the past 15 years. They are charged with one count of involuntary servitude in connection with an incident from nearly five years ago.

Arlan Kaufman, 68, and his 61-year-old wife, Linda, remained jailed Wednesday after making an initial appearance before a federal magistrate. Their attorney, James Fletcher, who is also Linda Kaufman’s brother, said the couple was not guilty.

“A lot of it (is) made up, a lot of false allegations,” Fletcher said.

Nude workers

According to an affidavit filed by Ryan Filson, an agent with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, authorities found two nude people working in the yard of Arlan Kaufman’s Potwin home on Nov. 8, 1999. Neighbors told Butler County Sheriff’s deputies the Kaufmans on several occasions brought people to the home to perform carpentry and other manual labor in the nude.

FBI agents removed a total of six adults from the couple’s care on Tuesday, FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza said. Lanza said the FBI had been working on the case for about three weeks, along with the Health and Human Services Department.

The Kaufmans are charged under a law that makes it illegal to hold or sell another person into “any condition of involuntary servitude,” which is prohibited by the 13th Amendment.

Violators can be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

The affidavit alleged the Kaufmans used a stun gun to shock one resident on his stomach, testicles and feet in front of other residents and punished residents by taking away their clothes.

The affidavit also alleged deputies discovered in 1999 that Arlan Kaufman did not only not pay the residents for the work, but took the Social Security payments of one of the residents.

No treatment

The Kaufmans have operated the Kaufman Treatment Center, also known as the Kaufman House Residential Group Treatment Center, since 1985. Some 14 residents stayed at the center during that time.

The affidavit said investigators thought no doctors or other mental health professionals provided any treatment to the mentally ill residents at the home during the past 15 years.

Rocky Nichols, executive director of Kansas Advocacy and Protective Services, a federally funded protection and advocacy organization, said the agency received a report in May from a mentally disabled woman in her 50s who claimed her guardian and therapist had sexually abused her for more than 20 years.

The agency got an emergency order the same day to suspend the Kaufmans’ guardianship authority and removed the woman from the home, Nichols said.

The agency then worked with federal authorities to get the rest of the adults out of the home, Nichols said.

Asked why it took so long for authorities to remove the mentally disabled adults from the home, Nichols said, “It is a good question. We just recently found out about it. As soon as we found out, we started taking steps.”

Sexual abuse

Documents obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press indicated some state officials knew about problems at the home as early as 2001.

The state’s Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board suspended Arlan Kaufman’s clinical social worker license in an emergency order dated Aug. 9, 2001. The order includes allegations of sexual exploitation by Kaufman of dependent adults who had been paying room and board to the couple for years.

The Kansas State Board of Nursing suspended Linda Kaufman’s nursing license on Feb. 18. That emergency order says 30 videotapes recording what the couple called “nude therapy” were seized from Linda Kaufman’s bedroom.

In the sessions, Arlan Kaufman is shown encouraging adults to masturbate before the group and shave each other’s pubic hair, among other acts. The videotapes also depict instances in which he touches the genitals of both male and female patients, the order states.

A detention hearing for the Kaufmans is scheduled for Wednesday, to be followed by a preliminary hearing on Nov. 10.

Gordon Smith, pastor of Faith Mennonite Church, which the Kaufmans attend, was at their hearing Wednesday to lend “spiritual support.”

“It has been a shock to everybody,” Smith said of the arrests.