Mom and daughter beat woman to force her to work in Puerto Rico, feds say
A mother and daughter used beatings, death threats, psychological abuse and other tactics to force an intellectually disabled woman to panhandle and work for them in Puerto Rico, while also taking her Social Security benefits, federal prosecutors said.
Luz Maria Peña Lopez, 55, and Tatiana Correa Peña, 36, of Carolina, Puerto Rico, took advantage of the woman’s intellectual disability as she lived inside their shared home, where they forced her to sleep in a space once used to keep goats and roosters, according to the Justice Department.
The FBI is investigating the mother and daughter, as well as Peña Lopez’s husband, Enrique Gutierrez Rivera, 54, a police officer in Carolina, the Justice Department said in a news release on Oct. 21, when they were arrested.
Now, a federal indictment charges Peña Lopez and Correa Peña with forced labor and conspiracy to commit forced labor, according to prosecutors. Peña Lopez is also charged with document servitude.
Gutierrez Rivera is charged with misprision of a felony in connection not reporting the theft of the woman’s disability benefits, prosecutors said. He is also accused of taking steps to hide the theft.
Information on the family’s legal representation was not immediately available Oct. 22.
“The Justice Department condemns the appalling abuse and forced labor inflicted on this disabled victim,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon, of the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.
In addition to panhandling and having the woman do domestic labor at their home, Peña Lopez and Correa Peña, according to prosecutors, had her take part in “criminal and fraudulent activities for their financial benefit.”
They would beat the woman, sometimes with different objects, including belts, broomsticks and cables, prosecutors said.
Peña Lopez and Correa Peña also prevented her from leaving the home by confining her to the room previously used for goats and roosters, the Justice Department said.
At times, they would lock the woman in the space overnight, according to prosecutors.
They also denied her basic hygiene, medical care and supplied her with drugs or unprescribed medication as part of their scheme, prosecutors said.
Peña Lopez and Correa Peña kept her Social Security benefits and would not let the woman use the money for necessities including “clothes, toothbrushes, deodorant, and sanitary pads,” according to the Justice Department.
Peña Lopez and Correa Peña are facing up to 20 years in prison for the charge of forced labor, the Justice Department said.
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