A South Lebanon couple faces decades in prison after they plead guilty as charged to numerous counts involving videotaped sexual encounters with a minor.

Leah and Benjamin Rodgers, 35 and 37 respectively, were scheduled to stand trial Thursday in Warren County on six sexual battery charges, four counts of producing sexually oriented material involving a minor and four counts of possessing the videos. They plead guilty Tuesday and will be sentenced Nov. 15.

Prosecutor David Fornshell said there were at least four different occasions when the couple staged the sexual encounters in their home at 439 Morrow Road. He said the victim is 16 years old.

The maximum penalty would be nearly 70 years in prison, Fornshell said, but that sentence won’t likely come to pass. If they got the maximum on each count and they were run consecutively, they could be sentenced to 68 years.

“It’s never anywhere close to that,” Fornshell said.

Fornshell said he is glad the case was closed without a trial.

“I’m very happy that by pleading guilty and acknowledging their actions, they’re going to save the juvenile victim from having to testify against them at trial,” Fornshell said.

The couple were to be tried together but they each had their own attorney. Leah’s attorney, Lou Rubenstein, said the plea speaks for itself.

“It was a strategy involved with the evidence that existed against them, there wasn’t much of a triable issue…,” Rubenstein said. “They had both pretty much confessed, so that tells you why there was no trial.”

Benjamin’s attorney, Tom Eagle, said the plea was entered out of concern for those involved.

“Although they disagreed with some of the charges, they wanted to spare their family and the victim of any further involvement or difficulty,” Eagle said.