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AP
Michael Mendez, here in an undated photo provided by the New Jersey State Police, allegedly kept his 44-year-old girlfriend captive in a padlocked room. Police found the woman during a drug raid.
New Jersey state troopers say a woman may have been padlocked in the bedroom of her boyfriend's northern New Jersey home for as long as 10 years.
Members of the State Police Street Gang unit were searching the home in Paterson, N.J. for drugs on Thursday when they entered the locked bedroom in the third-floor walk-up and found Michael Mendez’s 44-year-old girlfriend.
There was a pail in the room, apparently used as a chamber pot. Police said the woman also had a television and a telephone inside her padlocked room, and Mendez would let her out of the room when he was home.
Neighbors in the public housing complex said they had no idea the woman was being held captive.
"That's something new to me," said Stephanie Ramos. "It's scary. It doesn't make sense, not coming from him."
Read the original story at NBCNewYork.com
"She came outside once in a blue," said another neighbor of Mendez's girlfriend. She was always with him, the neighbor said, "but they go to the car together sometimes."
Others said they sometimes saw the woman outside by herself, but only on rare occasions.
New Jersey State Police spokesman Brian Polite said investigators believe the woman was kept in the bedroom for extended periods of time for the last two years and up to 10 years.
State Police said they also found what they were looking for: 4,200 prescription pills worth $100,000 and $22,000 in cash.
Mendez has been charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment, among other crimes.
The woman is receiving a medical evaluation.
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IF this is "true",.....hang the bastard but castrate him first and take a pair of pliars and pull his ear rings out first. Oh I get it,....some of you lawyers out there want "your" welfare check to DEFEND him. The depths we've come to and are going.
another indication of the backwards slide of our society.
Damn druggies.
This drug dealer was living in Public Housing that we tax payers were paying for for more than 10 years, Why do people feel entitled to live in public housing for more than a year? This women was obviously abused and the posters on here don't have a clue about battered wife syndrome, this case being pretty severe. We need to hang this scum not for dealing drugs, or kidnapping and torture, but for living in public housing for more than 10 years.
I'm with you Larue! When are we going to wake up and start drug testing people receiving government aid? If you can buy drugs, you don't need my tax dollars.
God buddy. Jerk. I hope the lady will be ok.
Maybe he was afraid she would wander off when she was high on drugs.
So she had a phone and went out alone once in a while, then how was she a hostage??? That he treated her badly by not wanting her out alone is one matter, hostage is another. Doesn't sound like she was being held at gunpoint. Maybe she has mental issues? Maybe a drug problem that he would supply? Who knows.
I trust the corrupt NJ Police about as much as I trust the dealer in question.
If you knew anything about abusive relationships or people who take hostages, it's all about control. He either had her so scared or so brainwashed that she wouldn't even have thought running or calling the cops was an option. He probably put the phone in there to boost his own ego. He knew he had her under his control to the point that she wouldn't use the phone. He might have even told her he had it tapped so he'd know if she used it. You have no idea what these creeps do and say to their victims to enforce control.
If this is in fact true,then his punishment should fit the crime.Starting with a whipping- a real one with the historically accurate whips that remove tissue.Goddamn bastard
Public housing?
In the South if you are living in public housing, the manager of the housing development can walk into your apartment/house any time without warning (and they do so) to inspect your place to see that you are complying with regulations.
You are not allowed to have pets. You are not allowed to have anyone visiting or sleeping over without permission. No convicted felons are allowed on the premises.
The rules are very stringent and the housing manager is queen of the castle. Your own immediate family can't even spend the night without permission.
Or maybe it depends on who you are.
In the SOUTH, it is a Free for All = NO inspections.
If there were inspections, half the people living in Public Housing would not pass inspection.
This Generational welfare - w Public Housing - has to be ENDED.
And Please note the nationality of the last name of the DRUG KING PIN uh ahem.......kick them all to the curb at once and out of THE LAND OF MILK, HONEY, and PRIVLEDGE....................................Cut off his balls, lock him up,. and throw away the key and let him become one of the girls in THE JOINT...........oh yeah......there is NOTHING TOO GOOD FOR THIS SCUM OF THE EARTH.....................SICK DEMENTED PIG!
But your name sounds the same as his!!! Lol, are you blond or what?
Wow, Bionda, racist much? You can't tell anything from someone's last name anymore. For example, I have a Mexican last name, but I'm (mostly) German and super white (seriously, I can barely tan). How could that possibly be? Oh yeah, because I married a half Mexican. Seriously, if you're so ignorant you judge people based on their last name, I'm very worried for... pretty much everyone you will ever meet.
Looking at her name, I'll take a guess that she is hispanic, and is trying to be white in order to fit in. But she just elected to boot herself out of the country by saying ".......kick them all to the curb at once and out of THE LAND OF MILK, HONEY"
Lol, thus I have to ask if she is blond. Not a very well thought out post for a hispanic.
Bionda is French...............
If you say so, but those are spanish words. "del" is spanish, not french. Bionda is latin, so could be spanish or italian. The bname does not have french sounds.
I'm sorry........... I was being sarcastic! Bionda means blonde, it's Italian! Maybe you can figure out what Bombe means without a clue. Jeez!
there are no 4200 prescription pills worth $100,000.
Well either she was brainwashed or liked it then, any person of sound mind that was being held captive is going to try to escape anyway they can. The article said she was seen outside on occasion alone, why didn't she run? Only other reason i can come up with, is she was a junkie and he was supplying her.
@ skrewdworld
Why mention the phone access in the article if it didn't work?
A dead phone connection wouldn't have ACCESS would it.
Amanda, well said. I was thinking the same thing. After a while, a person held captive truly believes that this "manly man" is her only hope for survival. There have been many instances where the captive has gone outside or has been seen in public but with the threat hanging over him/her that if they run or tell, they will die or they won't survive without them and nobody would believe them anyway. Some of these posts are very cruel. I hope he gets what he deserves and is held "captive" for the rest of his life and isn't given a pot to p*** in. Thank you for your well written post.
I an interview with local news, the woman who was allegedly held hostage told the news this is all a lie and she was never held against her will.
Most likely brainwashed, which isn't much different than holding her against her will. If she wasn't held against her will, then why was there a bucket in the room instead of her going to use the bathroom? Makes no sense to me.
Why didn't she call for help? & what is her statement on this.
If she had a telephone... I can't believe she was a "captive"...
@ John:
this also seems like bullshyt to me. She was his hooker.
Anyone else irked by the fact that this drug dealer was living in public housing?! with 4,200 prescription pills worth $100,000 and $22,000 in cash! All this back and forth over whether the damn telephone was working is stupid. Who cares if it was working or not, the few details in the article state that this woman was sometimes seen outside WITH HIM, or sometimes they go (sic) to car TOGETHER! Yeah, sounds like she had a ton of free time/will there.
Yes another jerk-off out of circulation!
I hope she gets a mental health evaluation as well. Most likely this guy was threatening harm to her and /or her family, if she attempted to escape. Possibly he had her brainwashed as well. After all, this scumbag is a gang member. They didn't mention any children so lets hope that there were none!!
"Neighbors in the public housing complex said they had no idea the woman was being held captive.
......State Police said they also found what they were looking for: 4,200 prescription pills worth $100,000 and $22,000 in cash."
**********
We need WELFARE Reform - along with INSPECTIONS of the premises in Public Housing Units.
Allowing Public Housing as a Free For ALL -- is CRIMINAL.
There used to be a time frame - for access to Public Housing = one to Two years - not generational. There were also inspections of the premises every Six Months.
Pathetic - and is the reason we have deadbeats of society - selling DRUGS in the Public Housing complexes.
A: we don't know the whole story. B: Its possible she was so emotionally broken she was to affraid to ask for help.
AAwwwww.... you guys are all so nice to each other.
I'm eating a cheeseburger for dinner right now, and watching all of your bloodpressure raise as you read posts that infuriate you and make you wonder if the world's gone crazy.
Now you will take that pent up anger and it will release itself in small doses on those that you truly care for, and I pity them, because they will not understand what they did to deserve it.
Personally, I blame the posts, media, and general attention to things that dont really concern you. Are YOU going to defend or prosecute the people involved? Do YOU know these people? Are you REALLY going to make someone say "By God, my viewpoint all this time has been wrong"?
No.
Then get on with your world. Me, I'm going to check my hives and then call my kids.
Goodnight.
Let's all hope he be out in time to vote for President Obama, again!
Learned Helplessness,
That is a very good description of how women in general are conditioned to even embrace such domination. I have known grown women as a social worker that would provide their own daughters to her father, the grandfather for the purpose of sex. In the public's eye, the family looked normal, but in truth both she and the father were monsters. The Children will grow up thinking this behavior is true love and the cycle will continue.
Muslim women are another good example as they are willfully mutilated by the caregivers and treated as property throughout their lives.
The freedoms women have in western culture is abnormal as compared to many parts of the world. Chinese culture used to bind the feet of infant and young girls as a form of beautification even though the child's life will be filled with pain. China can be commended for its progressive changes in the last century.
I read so many case histories where women are willfully dominated by insecure men wanting to hug their mommy. The Islamic culture still embraces the tortures of the culture of the ancient times as upheld in the text of the Old Testament. They rewrote the Hebrew texts and renamed it the Koran, but it is just another version of the ignorant hate and brutality of the times three thousand years ago.
Women will accept the death of themselves and their children because of their dedication to the culture and person that dominates their life. Much like the "Honor Killing" practice where a woman will allow their children to be murdered in the name of a hateful culture and in the name of God.
Lazarus