Graphic Testimony in Brooklyn Torture Case

By ELIZABETH COLUCCIO AND SARAH ALLAM

A Brooklyn police sergeant testifying on Tuesday about the alleged three-month kidnapping and torture of a mother and her baby gave graphic details of the ordeal, describing their emaciated appearances and the wounds on their bodies.

Yohannes Anglin was charged with kidnapping and torturing his girlfriend and her then two year-old daughter in July 2012. He allegedly kept them in the basement of a three-story rooming house in East New York from February 23 to May 29, 2012.

“I saw how battered and bruised the baby was and how skinny she was,” Sergeant Colleen Price said. “She was totally emaciated, I could see all her bones.”

Price also said that the baby had unusual striations on her feet. “The stroller had duct tape on the side and the bottom. It became apparent that the child was duct-taped to the stroller.”

Anglin’s girlfriend was found tied to the bed, with wounds on her wrists, ankles, and neck. Anglin allegedly bound and raped her.

“She was shaking, her eyes were bulging out of her head,” Price said. “Her whole body was shaking, When she did move, it was labored.”

Price described the basement as “filthy” and testified that she found three scarves, a dirty, ripped comforter, towels with duct tape on them, and a stroller at the scene. Anglin also forbade his victims from using the bathroom, forcing them to urinate in bottles, the indictment charges.

Earlier Anglin’s attorney, Harold Baker, argued that the DNA samples used in the case were inaccurate and deteriorated because they were taken three months after the arrest. The defense’s request to omit all the evidence and testimony based on the DNA samples was denied by Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge John G. Ingram.

Judge Ingram also accused Anglin of “malingering,” or deliberately slowing down court proceedings by showing up late to court.