Indictment: Group shackled, tortured teen
April 1, 2009 / CNN.com /CRIME
SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- Four Californians are accused of kidnapping a 16-year-old boy and torturing him for nearly a year before he escaped captivity wearing only boxer shorts and a shackle on his ankle, according to an indictment released Wednesday.
Anthony Vincent Waiters, 34; Caren Ramirez, 43; Kelly Layne Lau, 30; and her husband, Michael Luther Schumacher, 34, were charged with a slew of offenses, including torture, aggravated mayhem, child abuse and false imprisonment by violence that allegedly occurred from January 2008 to December 2008.
Authorities said the teen was shackled in the home of Lau and Schumacher in Tracy, about 65 miles east of San Francisco. During his captivity, the teen was tortured with a bat, knife and belt, according to court documents.
The teen escaped December 1 and walked into a fitness center about 500 feet away from the home. He was bruised and battered, wearing only boxer shorts and with his bloody ankle shackled, police said.
The four also face a new charge -- assault with caustic chemicals. The indictment accused the defendants of attacking the teen with "vitriol, corrosive acid, flammable substance and caustic chemical with the intent to injure the flesh and disfigure the body of the said victim."
The 17-count indictment was handed down by a San Joaquin County grand jury on March 23. Lau and Schumacher being held on a $2.26 million bail, while Ramirez and Waiters are being held without bail, a jail official said Wednesday.
The judge has issued a gag order in the case prohibiting attorneys on either side from speaking publicly.
Lau, Ramirez and Waiters all pleaded not guilty to the charges, but Schumacher, Lau's husband, postponed entering a plea until his attorney, John Casanave, has an opportunity to review transcripts from the grand jury investigation, the San Joaquin Herald reported Wednesday.
EVIL PEOPLE DESERVE EVIL PUNISHMENT... http://www.edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/04/01/shackled.teen/index.html?iref=hpmostpop
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