Detective describes teen’s alleged captivity, torture

Three people accused of kidnapping and torturing a 16-year-old boy appeared in a Stockton courtroom Monday as more details surfaced about the abuse he allegedly suffered for more than a year.

In court documents, a Tracy, Calif., police detective said the teenager was kept chained in a fireplace, choked with a belt, and forced to drink and take drugs during his year in captivity.

Det. Nate Cogburn described in a sworn affidavit details of the alleged abuse that emerged during an interview with the boy, who fled a Tracy home last week with a chain around his ankle and sought help at a local gym.

Michael Schumacher, 34; his wife, Kelly Layne Lau, 30; and the teen’s onetime guardian, Caren Ramirez, 43, face charges of torture, kidnapping and child abuse.

Ramirez was arraigned Monday in San Joaquin County Superior Court in Stockton, keeping her head down for most of the hearing.

The three have not yet entered pleas and are due back in court Jan. 5. Each is being held in lieu of more than $2.2 million bail at San Joaquin County Jail.

The teen told investigators that he had been seriously burned on his left arm when someone lit a fire in the fireplace while he was chained there and sleeping. Authorities who later searched the home where the boy allegedly was held reported finding a blanket inside the fireplace, Cogburn said.

According to the affidavit, the three defendants had held the boy captive since mid-2007, beating him frequently, denying him food for days at a time and keeping him chained to the fireplace or a heavy table. The boy also recounted being choked with a belt until he lost consciousness, according to the affidavit.

“Though currently 16 years old, he appeared much younger due to malnourishment, and his body was predominantly covered with soot, sores and scars,” Cogburn said.

The boy said he was regularly hit on the head with a baseball bat and was once cut with a knife, according to the detective. Cogburn said the boy had an injured ankle that seemed permanently indented from the chain.

The boy said the defendants also forced him to take unknown pills, drink alcohol and smoke marijuana to keep him lethargic, the detective said.

In court Monday, attorneys for the defendants requested that future affidavits be sealed from public view. Judge Cinda Fox did not rule on the request but extended an earlier gag order prohibiting both sides from discussing the case.