United States v. Callahan
| Decision Date | 21 July 2014 |
| Docket Number | CASE NO. 1:13CR00339 |
| Citation | 165 F.Supp.3d 639 |
| Parties | United States of America, Plaintiff, v. Jordie L. Callahan, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Ohio |
Chelsea S. Rice, Bridget M. Brennan, Office of the U.S. Attorney, Thomas E. Getz, AUSA, Former Assistant U.S. Attorney, Cleveland, OH, for Plaintiff.
Donald Butler, Carolyn M. Kucharski, Edward G. Bryan, Office of the Federal Public Defender, Cleveland, OH, Vanessa F. Malone, Office of the Federal Public Defender, Akron, OH, Jennifer Yobe Scott, Lakewood, OH, for Defendants.
Defendants Jordie Callahan and Jessica Hunt (hereafter “Defendants”) jointly submit to the Court a motion for judgment of acquittal and a motion for new trial. The Government filed a brief in opposition, to which Defendants filed a reply. The Court has reviewed and considered the parties' briefs, the law, and the trial record. For the reasons explained below, the motions are denied.
Following a twelve day trial, a jury convicted Defendants of conspiracy to commit forced labor and to acquire a controlled substance by deception in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 (Count 1 of the Indictment); forced labor in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1589(a) and 2 (Count 2); and acquiring a controlled substance by deception in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 843(a)(3) (Count 4). In addition, the jury found that each forced labor violation included the offense of kidnapping or attempted kidnapping within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 1589(d).1
The victims of Defendants' crimes were a cognitively impaired woman, S.E. and her young daughter, B.E.2 The jury heard extensive evidence at trial regarding the nature of the relationship between Defendants and S.E. Initially, they belonged to the same social circle in Ashland, Ohio—a group in which individuals abused illegal drugs and engaged in petty shoplifting. In May, 2010, S.E. was released from jail where she had been incarcerated for several weeks for stealing items from a local Walmart. Having no family members willing to take her in and no place to stay, S.E. turned to Defendants and joined them at 509 West Main Street as a roommate. S.E. and B.E. lived at that address—a house composed of three apartment units—until October 24, 2012. On that date, S.E. was arrested for stealing candy from a convenience store. After her arrest, S.E. revealed to authorities the details of the living conditions that she and B.E. endured while staying at the house.
In describing S.E. and B.E.'s experiences to the jury, the Government painted a grim portrait of captivity, abuse, intimidation, degradation, and exploitation. S.E. testified that Defendants locked her and her daughter in the basement and upstairs bedroom of Apartment 2 and made them live in filthy, subhuman conditions. Because neither the basement nor the upstairs bedroom had a toilet, S.E. dealt with her natural urges by soiling herself or relieving herself on the floor. Defendants released S.E. during the day to do errands and chores, such as cleaning the house, cleaning up after Defendants' pit bulls, cleaning up after Hunt's four boys, working in the yard, or picking up items at local convenience stores. B.E. was forced to remain confined in the basement or upstairs bedroom, however, and S.E. was not permitted to feed her daughter or herself until late in the evening when S.E. had completed all her housework. The Government also presented evidence showing that when S.E. and B.E. stayed in the upstairs bedroom of Apartment 2, Defendants watched them with a camera in the bedroom that fed video images to a baby monitor.
Numerous witnesses provided corroborating testimony of S.E. and B.E.'s confinement. Jamie McPheeters, a maintenance man, testified that he observed human feces on the floor of the basement when he went to perform work on the house. Allen Redmon testified that when he went to the house to service the cable system, he inadvertently turned on a baby monitor beside the television and saw a live video of a woman and a small child lying on the floor of a room. A tenant of Apartment 3, Derek Lawrence, contacted the Ashland Health Department in April, 2012, and conveyed his suspicion that a disabled woman and her child were being locked in the house, and that when Defendants let the woman out they allowed a pit bull to abuse her. Rachel Pryor, the girlfriend of Hunt's brother, testified that she once attempted to go to the upstairs bedroom but was overcome by the smell of urine and human excrement. Daniel Brown, an admitted co-conspirator,3 testified that, under Callahan's direction, he locked S.E. and B.E. in the upstairs bedroom of Apartment 2 at night, and bolted a window at a staircase landing near the bedroom, to prevent S.E. from escaping.
In addition, numerous witnesses whom encountered S.E. at 509 West Main Street, on one of her trips to the convenience store, or elsewhere, observed her dirty, sickly appearance, her foul odor, her fearful demeanor, and the marks and bruises clearly visible on her body. One convenience store clerk distinctly remembered S.E. repeatedly coming into the store without shoes or with just one shoe. On October 25, 2012, shortly after five year old B.E. was removed from 509 West Main Street, Police Officer Kim Mager observed that she appeared half her age and seriously underweight. Officer Mager testified that B.E. was in very poor condition: her hair was patchy and thin, she had no muscle tone, her stomach was distended, her rib cage was sunken in, she had dark circles under her eyes, her skin was poor, she was dirty, and an unpleasant odor emanated from her body.
The jury heard eyewitness accounts of the abuse and humiliation that Defendants levied on S.E. and B.E at 509 West Main Street. Brown and another admitted co-conspirator, Dezerah Silsby,4 both testified that they saw Hunt strike B.E. for soiling herself. According to Brown, Callahan also “whipped” B.E. Silsby saw one of Hunt's four boys, D.H., hit B.E. on the head in front of Hunt and S.E. S.E., likewise, testified that she observed Hunt's boys hit, kick, and throw B.E. Brown witnessed Callahan terrorize B.E. by throwing a snake on her.
The evidence showed that S.E. also suffered substantial abuse. Glenn Stackhouse, a frequent visitor to the house in May, 2012, saw Hunt push S.E.'s face into dog excrement before ordering her to clean it up. Stackhouse also observed Callahan grab S.E.'s neck and scream at her for failing to feed a baby squirrel that Defendants were caring for. On another occasion, according to S.E., Callahan ordered her to wear a dog collar, go into a dog cage, and eat dog food while Hunt and her boys watched.
S.E. testified about incidents in which: (1) Hunt struck her in the face and head when she purchased items from the store that were not on the list provided by Defendants; (2) Hunt beat S.E. with a wooden plank after S.E. took food intended for Hunt's boys; (3) Silsby, in Defendants' presence, slammed S.E.'s hand in a door and with a large rock so Defendants could acquire the pain pills prescribed for S.E.'s injuries; (4) Callahan kicked S.E.'s hip with steel toe boots for the purpose of obtaining prescription pain pills; (5) Hunt's son, D.H., shot S.E. in the arm and leg with a B.B. gun after S.E. soiled herself; (6) Hunt ordered S.E. to wipe her face in her own excrement when S.E. defecated in her pants; (7) Brown, in Defendants' presence, shaved S.E.'s hair into a mohawk and wrote “[w]hore, tramp, slut, bitch” on her head and chest; and (8) upon Defendants' discovery of S.E.'s written plans to escape, Callahan kicked S.E. in the face, Hunt threw soda at her, and Brown slammed her face into the kitchen sink. S.E.'s testimony was corroborated, in part, by the testimonies of Silsby—whom admitted slamming S.E.'s hand with a rock after Defendants had a discussion about acquiring prescription pain mediation; Brown—whom admitted shaving S.E.'s hair into a mohawk and writing obscenities on her face when Hunt discovered S.E.'s escape plans; Justin Young, Hunt's brother—to whom Defendants admitted that Callahan kicked S.E. in an attempt to obtain the pain medication that would be prescribed to S.E.; and Pryor—whom witnessed Defendants punch S.E. after she used a shirt belonging to one of Hunt's boys to clean the house.
The jury reviewed evidence that Defendants controlled S.E. not just through the infliction of physical and psychological torment, but by creating a climate of fear and intimidation. McPheeters witnessed Callahan loudly yelling at S.E. and threatening to beat her up. S.E. testified that Defendants threatened to beat her up if she exceeded her time limit for going to the store; that Callahan thrust a knife at S.E.'s hand when she took too long at the store and when he suspected her of talking to anyone there; and that Callahan had pointed one of his guns at S.E. and B.E. for, again, taking too long to purchase items for Defendants. According to the testimonies of S.E., Silsby, and Brown, both Defendants threatened to hurt B.E. if S.E. did not punish her child by hitting her.
The Government introduced three videos taken with Callahan's cell phone that showed S.E. hitting B.E. S.E. and Brown each testified that Defendants ordered S.E. to hit B.E., then recorded the abuse on video. Brown admitted that he and Defendants, using their cell phones, video recorded S.E. striking B.E. with a belt in the bathroom after Callahan ordered S.E. to commit the act. On that occasion, Brown testified, he and Defendants directly recorded the incident with their phones. Brown testified that, on other occasions, Callahan used his cell phone to record images of S.E. hitting B.E. from the baby monitor screen. Then, too, S.E. had hit B.E. on Defendants' orders. According to both Brown and S.E., Defendants threatened to show the videos of S.E. abusing B.E. to the...
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