Couple indicted on federal charges of enslaving African teenager
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RICHARD LEE/DETROIT FREE PRESS
Defendants Evelyn, left, and Joseph Djoumessi listen to their attorneys address the judge at the conclusion of a hearing in
Michigan. The couple has been indicted on new federal charges that they used a Cameroonian girl as a slave.
By ADRIENNE SCHWISOW
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DETROIT — A couple convicted in state court
of abusing an African teenager have been indicted
on federal charges alleging they brought the girl
to the United States illegally and used her as a
slave.
“Too often human traffickers bait young girls
with promises of the American dream only to
then force them into involuntary servitude.
Civilized society cannot tolerate this,” Justice
Department attorney R. Alexander Acosta said in
announcing charges Tuesday.
The indictment accuses Joseph and Evelyn
Djoumessi of bringing the then-14-year-old girl
from Cameroon in 1996 and using her as an
unpaid domestic servant for more than three
years.
Federal authorities said the couple made false
promises to get her here, didn’t enroll her in
school, and made her clean, cook and tend their
children without pay. They say the couple
physically abused her by hitting her with hands, a
belt and shoes, and threatened to send her back to
Africa if she tofd anyone.
The indictment also accuses Joseph Djoumessi
of sexually abusing the teen; it charged Evelyn
Djoumessi allegedly falsely claimed in
immigration documents the girl was her
biological child.
A jury convicted the couple, also natives of
Cameroon, in 2001 of child abuse, and also
found the husband guilty of criminal sexual
conduct. He was sentenced to nine to 15 years in
prison, and his wife was put on probation for
three years. The jury acquitted them of charges
including kidnapping.
If convicted of the federal charges, the couple
could face up to 35 years.
The girl was given permanent resident status
in the United States.
At the state trial, the teen testified the couple
made her bathe without hot water and sleep in a
basement room that flooded. She also said she was
forced to have sexual contact with the husband
three times and that he beat her with a belt.
Evelyn Djoumessi has been freed on $10,000
bond, ordered to surrender her passport and
barred from leaving the state, a spokeswoman for
the U.S. Attorney’s office said Tuesday. A
message was left with Djoumessi’s lawyer, Byron
Pitts.
No hearing date has been set for Joseph
Djoumessi in federal court, and it was unknown
Tuesday who is representing him.
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