Co-defendant says alleged victim routinely abused in Ashland home

By CHRIS COTELESSE

TheNewsOutlet.org

YOUNGSTOWN

A co-defendant in the labor-trafficking trial of Jessica L. Hunt, 31, and Jordie L. Callahan, 26, testified Friday he used his previous romantic relationship with the cognitively impaired purported victim to lure her back to her possible abusers after she had escaped the squalid basement where she was imprisoned along with her 5-year-old daughter.

Daniel J. Brown, 34, testified Friday that he witnessed and aided in the purported abuse and imprisonment of the woman, referred to as “S.E.” in court documents.

Hunt and Callahan are being tried in the Thomas D. Lambros U.S. Federal Building and Courthouse here after being accused of imprisoning and abusing the woman to steal her government assistance.

If convicted of those charges, they each face up to 39 years in prison. If the jury considers the sentencing enhancement for kidnapping, they could receive life in prison.

Testimony will continue Monday before U.S. District Judge Benita Pearson.

Brown pleaded guilty in June to a conspiracy charge for his role in the purported crimes and could receive up to five years in prison.

Brown said he was romantically involved with S.E. in 2010, but said he hadn’t seen her after he went to jail in December 2010. When he saw her again in July 2011, he testified that she was dirty, bruised and “a lot skinnier.”

“Her back was all welted up,” he said.

S.E. said in her testimony Monday that Hunt caused those welts by beating her with a wooden fence post.

Brown testified that Hunt and Callahan asked him to return S.E. to their home after she escaped to her mother’s apartment.

“I asked [S.E.] if she would go on a date with me to Dairy Queen. It was part of the plan to get [S.E.] to come back,” he said.

Brown said he convinced S.E. to return to Hunt’s and Callahan’s home, where she lived until she was arrested on a charge of shoplifting in October 2012.

Around that time, Brown testified, he was spending as many as “five days a week” at Hunt’s and Callahan’s home and said he saw the couple mistreat S.E.

“I seen hits, smacks, assaults; I saw it all,” he said.

He said that Hunt and Callahan also expected S.E. to discipline her daughter.

“[S.E.] was told to go up and stop [her daughter’s] crying or they were going to do it for her,” Brown said. “[Callahan] said if the kid didn’t stop crying, he was going to shut it up.”

Brown said Hunt’s and Callahan’s commands prompted S.E. to roughly strike her daughter, while Hunt, Callahan and Brown recorded the beating in order to blackmail S.E., Brown told prosecutors under direct examination.

He also admitted to abusing S.E., once by shaving her head into a Mohawk-style haircut and writing demeaning names on her head and chest.

Brown said S.E. was routinely mistreated and denied food. He said Callahan once got upset with him when he gave her some food.

“[S.E.] wasn’t allowed to eat, because she was supposed to cook for herself and her daughter ... canned food,” he said. “I took her some pizza up, and I got b---d at for it.”

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