Ohio woman, child held captive threatened with pit bulls, snakes

A disabled woman and her child were beaten and forced to work while in captivity for more than two years, during which they were threatened with pit bulls and large snakes, federal officials in Ohio said Tuesday. They announced three arrests in the case.

“This is a case of modern-day slavery,” Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said at a televised news conference.

Jordie L. Callahan, 26; Jessica L. Hunt, 31; and Daniel J. Brown, also known as D.J. Brown, 33; were arrested Tuesday. The trio are accused of participating in a conspiracy in 2011 and 2012 during which they held a woman and her child in a basement in Ashland, Ohio, about 65 miles from Cleveland. They are charged with forced labor, and Callahan faces an additional count of tampering with a witness, officials said.

The woman, identified only by the initials S.E., managed to free herself in October by stealing a candy bar so she would be taken into custody by authorities.

According to officials, S.E. suffered from a cognitive disability and received monthly public assistance payments. Callahan and Hunt recruited S.E. and her child to live with them in their two-bedroom apartment in Ashland. Hunt’s four juvenile sons also lived at the house, along with numerous pit bulls, as well as large snakes and other reptiles, according to a law enforcement affidavit.

Hunt held on to all of S.E.’s government benefits cards and rarely gave any money to S.E., according to the affidavit. Callahan and Hunt forced S.E. to clean the house, do laundry, walk to the store to do their shopping and care for their numerous animals and reptiles, according to the affidavit. Callahan and Hunt beat S.E. and her child, threatened their lives, denied them food and threatened them with the pit bulls and reptiles.

S.E. and her child initially were forced to sleep on a cement floor in the basement with no mattress. Later they were moved to a room upstairs, again with no bed or mattress, officials charge.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attys. Chelsea Rice and Thomas E. Getz after an investigation by the FBI and Ashland Police Department and assistance from the Ashland County prosecutor’s office.

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