[News] Black Woman Was Imprisoned and Tortured by Whites
Anti-Imperialist News
news at freedomarchives.org
Tue Sep 11 22:02:00 EDT 2007
September 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/us/12captive.html?ref=us
Woman, 20, Was Imprisoned and Tortured, Police Say
By CHRIS STRATTON and
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/u/ian_urbina/index.html?inline=nyt-per>IAN
URBINA
LOGAN, W.Va., Sept. 11 A 20-year-old woman was
held captive for more than a week in a mobile
home here, where she was raped, stabbed and
tortured by at least a half-dozen people, the
police said. Sheriffs deputies rescued her on
Saturday, and she remained hospitalized Tuesday in stable condition.
Ive been in law enforcement for more than 30
years, and this is the first time Ive ever seen
anything of this nature, the Logan County sheriff, Eddie Hunter, said.
Six people, including a mother and her son and a
mother and her daughter, have been charged in the case.
The police said the people charged, all of whom
are white, yelled racial slurs at the woman, who
is black, during some of the attacks. The woman
endured horrific torture, according to court
documents. She was raped by multiple men, some of
whom poured scalding water on her during the
assaults, according to the criminal complaints.
She was forced to lick up blood, eat animal feces
and drink water from a toilet, the documents
said, and she was also stabbed repeatedly in the
leg and was told that if she tried to leave, she would be killed.
The police said that more than a week ago, the
victim went with Bobby R. Brewster, 24, who she
believed was a friend, to the trailer where he
lives with his mother, Frankie Lee Brewster, 49,
in Big Creek, in the northern end of Logan County.
On Tuesday, the police were interviewing the
victim further about two more people she said were involved.
On Saturday, Logan County deputies received a tip
about a woman being held against her will at the
Brewster residence. A person working in the area
had heard disturbing noises coming from the
trailer and seen the victim with cuts on her leg
through the window, the police said.
Upon the deputies arrival, they found Mrs.
Frankie Brewster sitting on the front porch, a
police report says. The deputies asked Mrs.
Brewster if anyone else was at the residence and she said she was alone.
As she was talking, the police documents say,
Mrs. Brewster got up and stepped toward the door,
when a woman inside the residence limped toward
the door with her arms held out and said, Help
me. The womans eyes were bruised and she had
four large stab wounds on her left leg, the police said.
Police documents say Mrs. Brewster admitted to
holding the victim at the trailer against her will and beating her.
The victim was taken to Logan Regional Hospital
and then to the General Hospital of Charleston
Area Medical Center, where she underwent surgery for her leg wounds.
Mrs. Brewster was charged with sexual assault,
kidnapping, malicious wounding and giving false
statements to an officer. Mr. Brewster was
charged with kidnapping, sexual assault,
malicious wounding and assault during the commission of a felony.
The Brewster family and their trailer has a
history of violent crime, the police said.
Mr. Brewster killed his stepfather there when he
was 12, the authorities said, and served time at
a juvenile correction facility.
In July 1994, Mrs. Brewster shot and killed an
84-year-old woman she was looking after, also in
the trailer, according to court records.
Mrs. Brewster, who was charged with first-degree
murder, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter
and served six years at a state correctional
facility. She was paroled in 2000.
In 2005, two men got into a fight outside the
trailer, the police said, ending with a fatal stabbing.
In January, the police were again called to the
trailer, where they found a man who had been
slashed across his abdomen; the man survived,
according to court documents, and Mr. Brewster was a witness in that case.
Also being held in the case of the young woman
were Danny J. Combs, 20, who was charged with
sexual assault and malicious wounding; George A.
Messer, 27, who was charged with assault during
the commission of a felony and battery; Karen
Burton, 46, who was charged with malicious
wounding, battery and assault during the
commission of a felony; and her daughter, Alisha
Burton, 23, who was charged with assault during
the commission of a felony and battery. The four
were being held in $100,000 bond each.
The Brewsters were being held pending bond hearings.
The authorities said they were still deciding
whether to file additional charges, of hate crimes, against the defendants.
The whole family is shocked, a sister of the victim said.
The victim, who, relatives said, has mild
learning disabilities but graduated from high
school although she did not attend college. The
sister would not comment on whether the victim was living at home or had a job.
Chris Stratton reported from Logan, W.Va., and Ian Urbina from Washington.
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