Wednesday, July 24, 2013
CLEVELAND (AP) — Three people charged with enslaving a mentally disabled woman and her daughter and beating the woman and stealing her pain medication have entered not guilty pleas.
The defendants are among four people charged with targeting and recruiting the woman in 2010 and holding her until October in a house in Ashland, 80 miles northeast of Columbus.
Jodie Callahan, Jessica Hunt and Dezerah Silsby entered their pleas Tuesday in federal court here.
The attorney for a fourth defendant, Daniel Brown, has said his client plans to plead guilty at a later date.
An indictment against Callahan, Hunt and Silsby alleges the woman was denied food, sexually assaulted and threatened with dogs and snakes.
Callahan’s mother, Becky Callahan, has said the allegations against the defendants are “all lies.”