A Rockaway Park couple has been charged with kidnapping a 58-year-old partially paralyzed woman, assuming control over her finances and holding her against her will for more than a year.
According to the Queens District Attorney, the victim had been residing at an assisted living facility when one of the defendants, a former neighbor, convinced her to rent a place with them in order to save money.
District Attorney Richard Brown said, “The defendants are accused of turning the victim’s life into a living nightmare. Once out of the safe and secure environment of her assisted living facility, the victim was allegedly betrayed by the defendants whom she thought she could trust. When a niece of the victim called 911 after being unable to contact her aunt for several months, police found the victim locked in an empty room that could only be opened from the outside, lying huddled on the floor, bleeding from the head and malnourished. Taken to a local hospital, medical personnel discovered she also had multiple broken ribs, a broken arm, a dislocated shoulder and other injuries.”
The defendants were identified as Patrick Donovan, 42, and Mae Washington, 63, both of 112-32 Rockaway Beach Boulevard in Rockaway Park. They were arraigned on Saturday before Queens Criminal Court Judge Gene Lopez on a criminal complaint charging them with first-degree kidnapping, first andsecond-degree assault, first-degree unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person.
The defendants, who face up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted, were ordered held without bail and to return to court on April 5.
According to the charges, on the afternoon of March 22, the victim’s niece called 911 because she feared for the safety of her aunt, who she had been unable to contact for several months and that when she attempted to contact her aunt by telephone, Donovan and Washington did not permit her aunt to speak to her.
It is alleged that when police responded to the apartment at 112-32 Rockaway Beach Boulevard, Donovan and Washington took the officer to a room locked from the outside, and that when he entered, he observed the victim lying huddled on the floor in a corner of the room, which contained no mattress or bed and had only sheets of fabric covering the windows. In examining the victim, the officer allegedly observed blood on the back of her head and bruising on her arms and legs.
It is additionally alleged that both Donovan and Washington stated that the victim fell off the toilet the night before and did not want to go to the hospital. But when the victim was taken to a local Queens hospital for treatment, she said she’d been living with the defendants since Jan. 1, 2011, and that the defendants had repeatedly beaten her with both their fists and a cane. She also stated that the defendants repeatedly locked her in her room and refused to allow her to leave, and that on several occasions they would bind her hands and legs with tape and place tape over her mouth.
It is believed that Donovan and Washington permitted the victim to leave the apartment only with one of them. The defendants presumably purchased all of the food and prepared all of the meals for the victim but they did not feed her enough, thereby causing her to lose a substantial amount of weight. Although the victim is partially paralyzed on the left side of her body, it is alleged that the defendants forced her to clean up after their dog and multiple cats.
According to the charges, the victim gave all her income from social security and other sources to Washington, who she had given power of attorney over her financial affairs because she feared both her and Donovan, and that both defendants used her income to purchase things for themselves.
In examining the victim at the hospital, it is thought that medical personnel discovered that she was undernourished, and had a dislocated shoulder, a broken arm, broken ribs, internal bleeding in her skull and several lacerations and bruises to her arms and legs – injuries that were inconsistent with those that would have been suffered from a fall from a toilet but which were more consistent with injuries inflicted by a beating. It is further alleged that X-rays of the victim indicated that she had suffered several fractures in the past that were never properly treated or set and that those injuries would cause her substantial pain.
Finally, it is alleged that while the victim was being held in the apartment by the defendants between Jan. 1, 2011 and March 22, 2012, Washington only took her once to a doctor – and not the victim’s doctor but one Washington chose. Sources say the doctor did not treat the victim’s injuries but rather prescribed drugs to increase her weight. The defendants never filled the prescription.
