Four adults imprisoned in a dark Philadelphia boiler room, beaten and underfed, were confined like zoo animals, federal prosecutors said Wednesday in announcing a 196-count indictment against their alleged captors.
The litany of federal charges against the alleged ringleader and her posse includes the first hate crime case of its kind — the victims were mentally and physically disabled, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Other charges against the five defendants, together and individually, are sex trafficking, murder, fraud and forced human labor, among others.
The defendants, according to prosecutors, held the four victims in subhuman conditions in a scheme to steal Social Security disability payments.
Linda Ann Weston, 52, whom police have described as the ringleader, her daughter, Jean McIntosh, 33, Gregory Thomas, Sr., 49, Eddie Wright, 52, and Nicklaus Woodard, 26, are accused of using isolation, intimidation, threats of violence and violence to control the victims and each defendant had a role in the racketeering enterprise, according to the indictment.
