Victim Gets $45 Million In Philadelphia 'Basement Of Horrors' Case
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A Philadelphia woman held captive for more than a decade in an alleged disability-benefit scheme has won a $45 million civil judgment.
Tamara Breeden's lawyer acknowledges that defendants Linda Ann Weston, Gregory Thomas and Eddie Wright might never pay up. But he says Thursday's verdict sends a strong message.
Breeden and three other mentally disabled people 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 in jail and awaiting trial next year on federal kidnapping charges. Prosecutors say they moved Breeden and the others to various states to avoid capture.
The defendants didn't respond to the civil lawsuit.
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