SFGate: Shackled Tracy boy stumbled on means of escape

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Thursday, February 5, 2009 (SF Chronicle)
Shackled Tracy boy stumbled on means of escape
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

(02-04) 12:17 PST TRACY --
The 16-year-old boy who was allegedly tortured, beaten and chained to a
fireplace in a Tracy home escaped his captors when he found a key that
unlocked his shackles, according to court documents released today.
The boy had been imprisoned for more than a year until Dec. 1, when he
found the key while being driven by his alleged tormentors in an SUV,
Tracy police Detective Ryan Knight wrote in an affidavit filed in San
Joaquin County Superior Court.
When they got home, the boy freed himself with the key, leaped over an
8-foot-wall from the backyard of the home on Tennis Lane in central Tracy
and limped into the In-Shape Sport fitness club. He had cuts and sores and
was covered in soot, employees said. A 3-foot chain was attached to his
right ankle.
Four people have been charged with a litany of felonies, including
kidnapping, aggravated mayhem, child endangerment, false imprisonment and
corporal injury to a child.
Michael Schumacher, 34; his wife, Kelly Layne Lau, 30; Caren Ramirez, 43,
a houseguest who stayed in their home and the boy's former guardian; and
next-door neighbor Anthony Waiters, 29, are being held at San Joaquin
County Jail. If convicted, each could face life in prison.
According to court documents, the boy told police that he had been forced
to live inside a fireplace, had been repeatedly beaten on the head with a
baseball bat and had been given pills, alcohol and marijuana to keep him
lethargic.
He also reported that he had once been cut with a knife and "strangled
with a belt until he lost consciousness," police Detective Nathan Cogburn
wrote in a statement that outlined grounds for the search of the home.
The boy told police that on one occasion he had been asleep in - and
chained to - the fireplace when one of the suspects lit a blaze on
purpose, burning his left arm, Cogburn wrote.
The boy was never allowed to leave the home alone, was denied food for
days at a time, was repeatedly beaten and was always chained to either the
fireplace or a "heavy, practically unmovable table," the detective wrote.
Among the items seized from the home were knives, bottles of Jack Daniels
and Southern Comfort, and chains attached to a sports punching bag hanging
in the garage, where the boy also apparently stayed, authorities said.

E-mail Henry K. Lee at hlee@sfchronicle.com. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2009 SF Chronicle

Killed the other two

Georgina is not comfortable being a young adult. She had a fling with it, even smoked part of a cigarette after the act, but it was not an experience that she felt a compulsion to repeat. She clearly demonstrates an affinity for children, and a wonderful way to interact with them in creative and nurturing ways. She is clearly the ideal mother in this picture. Compare Georgina to the other female characters portrayed in the movie. There's the frigid hypochondrical wife, and the abrupt serviceable butler's housekeeper/spouse. Charlotte Rampling's character is musically talented as well as beautiful, and popular, and much too eager to meet you for a drink after her 2pm d&c. Georgy Girl wants more than anything to be a mother. A mother needs a husband and a father for the child. Learnington has always wanted to be a father, and has always loved Georgina chastely but with far-off lust. Georgy Girl has always known that she's less attractive and less talented than her sister, but the sister attracted the delicious Alan Bates who is also seemingly blessed in the genetics department. Best possible outcome of combinations has most beautiful and talented two persons of the opposite sex copulate and conceive, with absolutely no unpleasant outcome for anyone involved. Georgy gets a baby more beautiful and talented, she must feel, than any baby that she could have conceived in her own body.

Question about Slavery

I see people with children, pets and other dependents every day. What would it be like to have a slave to not only look after you, but for whose needs you would be forced to provide. Human livestock need to be fed, clothed, and housed, in the same way as the other kinds. It would be great to have someone under your control who would cut the corn or pick the cotton, but where would they find the time to earn subsistance wages from a job outside of slavery to support themselves and their family? Oh, it would become the responsibility of the slave owner to directly provide for the needs of the slave's family. Consider having a houseboy. If anybody asks personal questions, just tell them that you have a [italic]gentlemens' agreement.[/italic] Is there really a crime in being someone's [italic]willing[/italic] slave? As long as they treat you well? So you get bored with the gig, and you decide to strip down to your tattered underthings, shackle yourself around the ankles, and shuffle-step down to the nearest police station to report your abuse?