Charges levied in Philly "Basement of Horrors" case
The dank basement room in Philadelphia where Gregory Thomas, Linda Ann Weston, Jean McIntosh and Eddie Wright, inset from left to right, allegedly held captive four weak and malnourished mentally disabled adults is seen Oct. 17, 2011. / AP Photo/Philadelphia Police Department
PHILADELPHIA A paroled killer targeted mentally disabled adults in a scheme to steal their Social Security benefits, confining them like "zoo animals," forcing some into prostitution and causing the deaths of two victims through abuse and neglect, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
Linda Weston, 52, of Philadelphia, was indicted on charges including hate crimes, kidnapping, murder in aid of racketeering and forced human labor.
Mentally disabled locked in Philadelphia basement
Weston and four other people who were involved in what some are calling Philly's "Basement of Horrors" case are facing a total of 196 counts, reports CBS affiliate KYW-TV in Philadelphia.
It's the first time the federal hate crimes statute has been used to protect the disabled, authorities said.
"Shocking does not begin to describe the criminal allegations in this case, where victims were tied up and confined like zoo animals and treated like property akin to slaves," U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger said.
The case came to light in October 2011 after a landlord discovered four malnourished victims locked in the basement of a Philadelphia apartment building, one of them chained to a boiler. Authorities soon began untangling a complicated web of relationships among victims and their alleged captors in an investigation that spanned several states.
- Disabled captive held for Social Security checks: Police
- Alleged Philadelphia "Basement of Horrors" victim testifies
- Portraits of locked basement victims emerge
Weston has been jailed since then and pleaded not guilty to related state charges. Her lawyer, George Yacoubian, said Wednesday that federal prosecutors had "over-reached for effect" with the new charges and that Weston maintains her innocence.
The 150-page grand jury indictment describes Weston as the ringleader of a "family" that included her daughter and three men who prosecutors say helped control and subjugate the victims.
Weston used "cunning, trickery, force and coercion" to get mentally disabled people to designate her as their caretaker, allowing her to illegally collect about $212,000 in Social Security payments over 10 years, Memeger said.
In all, authorities allege six disabled adults and four children were held captive in "subhuman" conditions in basements, attics and closets at various times between 2001 and 2011. The victims were often drugged, deprived of food and medical care, and forced to use buckets for bathrooms, officials said.
The victims' diminished mental capacity, coupled with the fact that Weston continually moved the family to elude law enforcement, meant that "escape for these individuals seemed impossible," Memeger said.
Weston forced two female victims into prostitution to earn more money for the family when they lived in Texas and Florida, authorities said.
Two other women died while living with Weston, leading to murder charges that make her eligible for the death penalty. Memeger said prosecutors are weighing whether to pursue it.
Maxine Lee, a disabled Philadelphia woman, died of meningitis and starvation while living with Weston in Virginia in 2008, authorities said. Another woman identified in court papers as D.S. died in Philadelphia in 2005 after prosecutors said Weston fed her drug-laced food while keeping her captive in a laundry room. Weston staged the death to look like an overdose, authorities said.
Weston already has served time for the starvation death of a man she locked in her Philadelphia apartment nearly three decades ago.
Others charged in the indictment unsealed Wednesday are Weston's daughter, Jean McIntosh, 33, of Philadelphia; Gregory Thomas Sr., 49, of Philadelphia; Eddie Wright, 52, of Killeen, Texas; and Nicklaus Woodard, 26, of West Palm Beach, Fla.
McIntosh, Thomas and Wright had already been named as co-defendants in the state case against Weston. Jury selection for that trial was scheduled to start Monday, but the Philadelphia district attorney's office said it will withdraw all charges in light of the federal indictment.
Woodard is a new defendant in the case who Memeger said was arrested in Florida on Wednesday morning. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer.
Popular on CBSNews.com
- Small Fla. town wonders who the Powerball winner is
- Officials confirm there's only 1 winning Powerball ticket
- Long Island police defend Hofstra student killing 310 Comments
- Could cop have avoided accidentally killing NY student? 89 Comments
- Allegedly random murder, "hate crime," stuns NYC
- Deadly twisters tear through Midwest
- FBI Agent Killed In Robbery Play Video
- Winning tickets sought in $588M Powerball jackpot
These are truely the lowlifes, the bottom dwellers of the American population.
sad thing is, this is probably happening all over the place. The Federal and State governments (i.e. all the SS departments and welfare departments and ssdi departments and social workers) have no way to check up on the hundreds of thousands of people receiving ss or disability or welfare. They just blindly accept applications and blindly start sending the money.
And Obama and others like him want more of this happening - not so much the fraud and deceipt and crime -- but more programs and money designed to be handed out to people, no questions asked.
Even "background checks" do nothing. A ton of people where I live have some kind of crime or misdemeanor, they come up in background checks, but no one cares, especially not the people who work at the SSDI departments.
get prepared for more of this,much more.
she and the others should have a date with the gass chamber, firing squad or hangmans noose. I'm not particular, they can cave their choice of any of the three. I don't include leathal injection, that one is too easy on them.
Don't do the crime if ya can't do the time!
No way to catch something like that, unless you go and check up on the living conditions of each and every recipient. Think the government can do that? Think again.
This is why I am NOT in favor of the democrats creating even more programs which just hand out money to people. The mentally ill get taken advantage of - obviously. So do the elderly.
The government cannot watchdog these programs!!!!!!!!
Perhaps recipients of ssdi or welfare should have to live in housing that is checked every day and their identity is checked frequently. That is about the only way to catch something like this.