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Author Topic: 4 Disabled Adults Found Shackled in Philadelphia Basement  (Read 18022 times)
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MuffyBee
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« Reply #40 on: January 01, 2012, 07:51:21 PM »

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/prostitution-alleged-pa-basement-captives-case-15198789
3 to Be Tried in Philadelphia Cellar-Captives Case
By Patrick Walters
December 20, 2011

A judge on Tuesday dismissed all charges against a man whose attorney argued he was more of a victim than a perpetrator in a case involving four mentally disabled adults who were found locked in a filthy basement as part of an alleged Social Security fraud scheme.

Three others, including the alleged ringleader, were ordered to stand trial.

The woman accused of leading the brutal scheme, 51-year-old Linda Ann Weston, is charged with exploiting the mentally infirm for money and government benefits.
 ::snipping2::
Judge Patrick Dugan ruled there was enough evidence for Weston, her daughter, Jean McIntosh, and her boyfriend, Gregory Thomas, to stand trial. The charges include kidnapping, aggravated assault, custodial interference, theft by deception and neglect of a care-dependent person.
 ::snipping2::
But Dugan dismissed charges against Eddie Wright, citing testimony that Wright was sometimes held captive as well.
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AP
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"I cannot in good conscience hold Mr. Wright for trial," Dugan said after Wright's attorney argued that his client was more a victim than a perpetrator.
 ::snipping2::
A landlord said he stumbled upon the four adults — Tamara Breeden, 29; Edwin Sanabria, 31; Drwin McLemire, 41, of North Carolina; and Herbert Knowles, 40, of Norfolk, Va. — in the basement on Oct. 15. Authorities have described the victims as having the mental capacity of 10-year-olds.
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MuffyBee
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« Reply #41 on: January 01, 2012, 07:54:03 PM »

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-12-22/justice/justice_philadelphia-dungeon-case_1_disabled-adults-dungeon-case-preliminary-hearing?_s=PM:JUSTICE
Prosecutors recharge suspect in Philly dungeon case I've never heard of a suspect being "recharged".  MB
By Sarah Hoye, CNN
December 22, 2011

Prosecutors re-filed charges against one of suspects Thursday in the case of four disabled adults held captive in the sub-basement of an apartment building.

Eddie Wright, 50, is once again facing aggravated assault, kidnapping, unlawful restraint, reckless endangerment, false imprisonment, terroristic threats, and stalking charges, according to the Philadelphia District Attorney's office.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wright, who is currently in custody, for January 20, 2012.

On Tuesday, Judge Patrick Dugan had dismissed charges against Wright, citing his belief that Linda Weston, who police have described as the ringleader of an alleged fraud and abuse scheme, may have also victimized him.

Dugan said he could not "in good conscience" send Wright to trial.


Prosecutors will present evidence and witnesses for a second time in front of a new judge in efforts to have Wright ordered to stand trial.

"He himself was held by Linda Weston," said Louis D'Onofrio, Wright's attorney, after Tuesday's hearing, adding that Wright could be released within a day after the judge's ruling.

On Thursday, D'Onofrio said, "I am ready to ask the court again to dismiss the charges."

He noted in a statement that the judge had found Wright was also held captive by Weston, who "stole his money and mistreated him."
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« Reply #42 on: January 23, 2013, 02:41:49 PM »

http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/Former-Local-Woman-Accused-Of-Holding-Disabled-Adults-Captive-Charged-188070961.html
Former Local Woman Accused Of Holding Disabled Adults Captive Indicted
January 23, 2013

PHILADELPHIA (January 23, 2013)—Former Killeen resident Linda Weston, 52, is one of five people charged in a case in which mentally disabled adults were held in the basement of a Philadelphia home as part of an alleged Social Security fraud scheme, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment Wednesday against Weston, the alleged ringleader, and the four others that alleges Weston and her associates carried out a racketeering enterprise in which mentally disabled victims were targeted as part of a scheme to steal their Social Security disability payments.

It also alleges Weston's scheme of confinement and abuse caused the deaths of two victims.

Charges include hate crimes, kidnapping, murder in aid of racketeering, theft from government and other counts.

The indictment names Weston, her daughter and two others.

It also names a fifth defendant, Nicklaus Woodard, 26, of West Palm Beach, Fla.

Weston earlier pleaded not guilty to related state charges.

Prosecutors said it's the first time the federal hate crimes statute has been used to protect the disabled.
 ::snipping2::
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« Reply #43 on: February 09, 2013, 03:43:24 PM »

Muffy 
I hope it won't be the last time they use the law to help the disabled.
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« Reply #44 on: November 05, 2015, 08:02:57 PM »

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/11/05/you-are-evil-woman-gets-life-in-prison-for-locking-disabled-people-in-dungeon/
‘You are evil': Woman gets life in prison for locking disabled people in ‘dungeon’
November 5, 2015

For 10 years, the group targeted mentally disabled people, luring those who were vulnerable and estranged from their families and locking them inside cabinets, basements and attics, according to prosecutors.

The group’s ringleader, Linda Weston, persuaded the victims to allow her to become their representative and began collecting their disability benefits. The victims, prosecutors said, lived in the dark and in isolation, and were fed food laced with drugs to keep them sedated; they were brutally punished if they tried to escape.

On Thursday, a federal judge sentenced Weston, 55, to life in prison — plus 80 years — for her role in the scheme.


“Your acts were unconscionable,” U.S. District Judge Cynthia Rufe told Weston, according to NBC News. “You are evil.”

Of Weston’s sentence, Rufe said: “Ironically, in prison you will get three meals a day and medical and psychological services . . . something you didn’t do for your captives.”

Weston had pleaded guilty in September to 196 counts, including murder in aid of racketeering, kidnapping and involuntary servitude. Thursday, she apologized in court.

“I am sorry,” Weston said, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I believe in God, and God knows what happened.”

Rufe responded, “There are a lot of people in this courtroom who know what happened, too.”

The case horrified Philadelphia, where in 2011 a landlord discovered four disabled adults locked inside a boiler room, NBC reported. Police rescued them from an apartment building in the Tacony neighborhood. The case was dubbed the “Tacony dungeon” case.

The group ran the operation in three other states, prosecutors said.

Two others — Eddie Wright and Weston’s daughter, Jean McIntosh — have also pleaded guilty; two others are awaiting trial.

In all, six disabled adults and four children were victimized by Weston’s group. Some of the victims made impact statements in court. Other didn’t survive the ordeal.

One female victim died in 2008 of bacterial meningitis and starvation in Virginia after being locked in a kitchen cabinet and attic for months, prosecutors said. Another victim died in 2005 after being kept in a basement with other captives; the victim was fed little food and barred from using the bathroom.
 
The plea Weston entered in September spared her from the death penalty.

“Her decision was motivated largely by concern for her children, so there could be some sort of closure for them,” Weston attorney Patricia McKinney had said of her client’s guilty plea.

McKinney told the Inquirer that Weston suffered abuse as a child, and she pushed back on depictions of her client as a monster.

“Usually people are not born with a ‘666’ on their heads,” McKinney said earlier this year. “Nothing that Linda Weston did was not also done to her as a child.”

That plea agreement paints a shocking portrait of abuse.

Sometimes, victims were forced to live in attics naked. Mentally disabled adults were fed a diet of Ramen noodles, beans or stew just once a day. Several victims said they were forced to drink their own urine and eat human waste. Some were encouraged to have children in order to collect more benefits.

Some victims were held for years, and the mentally disabled captives were moved around to avoid authorities, prosecutors said.

The group stole more than $200,000 in Social Security benefits from victims, some of whom were forced into prostitution, prosecutors said.

“When the individuals tried to escape, stole food or otherwise protested their treatment, Weston and others punished them by slapping, punching, kicking, stabbing, burning and hitting them with closed hands, belts, sticks, bats and hammers or other objects, including the butt of a pistol,” U.S. District Attorney Zane Memeger said in a statement.
 
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MuffyBee
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« Reply #45 on: November 05, 2015, 08:04:46 PM »

I shudder to think how many other innocent souls are out there in similar situations?   

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« Reply #46 on: November 16, 2015, 08:43:44 AM »

I shudder to think how many other innocent souls are out there in similar situations?   



I agree Muffy.  I am so blessed . . . beyond my words to express.

 
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