Federal Charges Allege Captors Held Adults with Disabilities in Subhuman Conditions to Carry out Social Security Fraud

First Hate Crimes Case of Its Kind in the Country Also Charges Murder Linda Weston, her daughter and three co-defendants are charged in a 193-count indictment, unsealed today, with racketeering, murder in aid of racketeering, hate crimes, sex trafficking, forced labor, theft, fraud and other crimes. The indictment alleges that Weston and her associates carried out a racketeering enterprise that targeted victims with mental disabilities as part of a scheme to steal disability payments from the victims and the Social Security system. As part of the scheme, Weston persuaded each victim to make her the designated recipient of their Social Security disability payments in exchange for the promise of a comfortable place to live. Once appointed as the designated recipient of disability payments, Weston, aided by the co-defendants, subjected the victims to subhuman conditions of captivity. According to the indictment, the defendants beat the victims, kept them captive in locked closets, basements and attics, deprived them of adequate food and medical care, and moved them between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Florida in order to further the scheme and evade law enforcement. According to the indictment, some of the victims endured this abuse for years, until Oct. 15, 2011, when Philadelphia Police Department officers rescued them from the sub-basement of an apartment building in the citys Tacony section. Along with Weston and her daughter Jean McIntosh, the indictment charges Westons paramour, Gregory Thomas Sr., Eddie Wright and Nicklaus Woodard. According to the indictment, the defendants used isolation, intimidation, threats of violence and violence to control the victims with mental disabilities and each defendant had a role in the racketeering enterprise: * Linda Weston was the leader and organizer of the enterprise that operated from at least the fall of 2001 through October of 2011. She enticed all of the victims into coming to live with the enterprise and controlled all aspects of their captivity. * Jean McIntosh was also a leader of the enterprise who acted as her mothers right hand woman. She assisted in confining, controlling, disciplining, housing and transporting the victims. * Gregory Thomas Sr. assisted in obtaining, confining, controlling, housing and transporting the victims. He installed locks on the doors and windows of every residence where the victims were kept to prevent them from escaping. * Eddie Wright assisted in confining, controlling, housing and transporting the victims. * Nicklaus Woodard assisted in confining, controlling and disciplining the victims. The indictment charges that in confining the victims, the defendants practiced what is described as abusive control and confinement techniques in which the defendants: · Confined the victims to locked basements, rooms, closets, attics and apartments; · Sedated the victims by putting drugs in the food and drink served to them by Weston and others, at Westons direction; · Subdued the victims by serving them a low calorie, high starch diet consisting exclusively of Ramen noodles, beans and stew and generally limited them to, at most, one meal a day; · Punished the victims 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, when the victims tried to escape, stole food or otherwise protested their confinement and treatment. The indictment alleges that Westons use of these techniques caused the deaths of two of the victims. For example, in 2002, Weston met M.L. and lured her to come live with the family. M.L. was forced to cook, clean, wash clothes and babysit without compensation. M.L. was beaten when she tried to escape or when she begged for food and was not provided with any medical attention for her injuries. When Weston moved the enterprise to Virginia in 2008, M.L. died of bacterial meningitis and starvation. Weston allegedly ordered other members of the household to move M.L.s body to a bedroom and stage the scene before calling law enforcement and the next day the family left for Philadelphia. In addition, in April 2005, Weston and Thomas allegedly targeted victim D.S. who they saw standing on a street corner. They brought D.S. to the WF home at 2211 Glenview Avenue in Philadelphia. D.S. was kept in the basement with the other victims, fed a substandard diet, and not allowed to use the bathroom. On June 26, 2005, D.S. was found dead in the basement. Weston allegedly ordered other members of the household to move D.S.s body to a bedroom and stage an accidental overdose before calling law enforcement. The indictment also alleges that Weston forced two female captives to engage in prostitution while the enterprise operated in Killeen, Texas, and West Palm Beach, Fla. The defendants are charged in four counts of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. The Shepard-Byrd Act criminalizes certain acts of physical violence causing bodily injury motivated by any person's actual or perceived disability, race, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity. The case was investigated by the FBI, the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, the Philadelphia Police Department, with assistance from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, West Palm Beach Field Office.