(updated) CLEVELAND (AP) — A mentally disabled woman and her youngchild were enslaved for more
than a year, sometimes denied food andthreatened with a pet python and pit bulls, and the woman was beaten
andforced to get pain medication for her captors, authorities said Tuesdayin announcing federal charges
against three suspects.The threeinvited the woman and her child, whose names were withheld, to live withthem
and, beginning in early 2011, forced the mother to do housework bythreatening to hurt her and the girl,
described as 5 or 6, federalauthorities and Ashland police said.The mother and child werefreed in October
after police investigated an abuse allegation one ofthe suspects made against her, authorities said, and
they are doingwell."The victim in this case is slowly recovering," U.S. Attorney Steve Dettelbach
said.JordieCallahan, 26, Jessica Hunt, 31, and Daniel J. "DJ" Brown, 33, all ofAshland, were
charged with forced labor. They were being held, pending afederal court hearing. Callahan also was charged
with tampering with awitness in the investigation.No attorneys were listed for them in court
records.Accordingto an FBI affidavit, the mother and child were denied food at times orgiven leftovers; on
one occasion when they hadn’t eaten all day, themother was given a plate of food and ordered to feed the pet
dog.Thetrio looted the woman’s bank account and public assistance and onseveral occasions injured her and
ordered her to go to the emergencyroom for pain medication, according to the affidavit.The womantold
investigators the trio learned of her plan to try to escape andpunished her by shaving her hair into a
Mohawk and using a marker towrite "slut," ”tramp" and "whore" on her face and
chest. She was forcedto clean up the hair without a broom or dust pan, according to theaffidavit. The woman
was forced to do house work and shop for hercaptors and clean up after pets, authorities said."They
treatedher with such cruelty that it is hard to comprehend," Dettelbach said."They tried to take
away her human dignity."Police first gotinvolved when the woman was charged with shoplifting a candy
bar andasked to be jailed because the three suspects "had been mean to her,"said Ashland police
Lt. Joel Icenhour.Police checking into herclaim went to the apartment after one of the suspects said it was
thewoman who was abusive. Authorities said the allegation was a rusecomplete with a video staged by the
suspects.Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.