Jury: $45M to decade-long Philadelphia captive
A Philadelphia woman held captive for more than a decade in an alleged scheme to collect disability benefits on her and three other mentally disabled victims has won a $45 million civil judgment.
A lawyer for plaintiff Tamara Breeden says Thursday’s verdict sent a strong message and that they understand defendants Linda Ann Weston, Gregory Thomas and Eddie Wright might never pay up.
Breeden and the others were rescued in October 2011 from a boiler room in the basement of an apartment house in the city’s Tacony neighborhood.
Her lawyer says they were beaten, raped, starved and forced to drink urine.
Weston, Thomas and Wright are jailed while awaiting trial next year on federal kidnapping charges. Prosecutors say they moved Breeden and the others to various states to avoid capture.
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