Disabled Hate Crime

From Disability Scoop:

"Life Sentence In Disability Hate Crimes Case"

 

Linda Weston — the Philadelphia woman charged with enslaving and torturing adults with disabilities for years in a basement so she could steal their benefit checks — pleaded guilty Wednesday in a deal that spared her a potential death sentence. Instead, she agreed to accept a life term plus 80 years after admitting to all 196 federal counts filed against her including charges of murder, kidnapping, sex trafficking, hate crimes, forced labor and benefits fraud. Weston, 55, appeared addled and confused through much of Wednesday’s hearing, at one point loudly proclaiming she wanted to enter a “not guilty plea” before quietly reversing herself. Her decision ends years of internal Justice Department debate over whether to seek her execution for a gut-churning series of crimes. “This is a sufficient sentence to mete out justice here,” U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe said, signaling that she intends to adopt the sentence Weston and prosecutors have agreed upon at a formal sentencing hearing Nov. 5. She and the other members of what prosecutors have dubbed the “Weston family” lured, confined and controlled their targets with mental disabilities, while seeking to make money off of them in any way they could. Together, the documents say, the group stole more than $200,000 in Social Security benefits from their captives by pressuring them to sign documents naming Weston their designated payee. They forced others, including Weston’s 17-year-old niece, into prostitution. To keep the costs of care low, they locked their wards naked in basements, attics, cupboards and closets. They fed them with depressant-spiked beans and Ramen. And when supplies ran low, they forced their victims to eat their own and other people’s waste. “The mentally disabled individuals were targeted and in large part were estranged from their families,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Faithe Moore Taylor. “The Weston family offered them a place to stay.” The group shuttled their captives from Philadelphia to Texas, Virginia, Florida and back again to avoid detection and left in their wake the bodies of those who did not survive malnourishment and beatings with sticks, bats, guns and hammers. All the while, Weston admitted Wednesday, they continued to add victims to their menagerie by snatching them off of street corners, proposing romantic relationships and even forcing their captives to have children together so Weston could file new government benefit claims. Authorities rescued four of the family’s victims in October 2011 after discovering them emaciated, covered in filth and chained in an apartment basement in the Tacony section of Philadelphia. The captives begged police not to take them away for fear that they would be punished for disobedience. But even as prosecutors detailed that depravity in court, it was hard to reconcile the crimes they described with the timid woman who sat before them in court. The decision to offer a plea deal, he said, came after a “very deliberate process” in consultation with Weston’s defense team and U.S. Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch. All of Weston’s victims and their families were notified in advance of the plea deal and none objected, Barrett said.

 

 

^ This woman is beyond vile. Jail is too good for her. This also shows that the justice system in the US is failing. Everyone talks tough about breaking the laws and how you will be punished, but when people do horrendous crimes like this one they are given a very weak sentence. Being given a Life Sentence (even without a chance for parole) does not mean what it once did. A person can get out after several years (with good behavior, appeals, etc.) This woman needs to be given a much harder sentence to show her and others that you can not treat the disabled (or anyone) like wild beasts. They are human beings and deserve much better. ^

http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2015/09/10/life-sentence-hate-crimes-case/20784/