Revolting item monster mother and grandmother forced 12-year-old girl to eat while chained to bed
A Pennsylvania 12-year-old was chained to a bed and forced to eat cat food by her despicable mother and grandmother, police say.
Amanda Lynn Gregorio, 35, and Stacey Ann Louder, 52, both of Exeter, have been accused severely neglecting and beating the defenseless girl they were supposed to be caring for.
An investigation into the gut-wrenching abuse finally began in September 2024 after the child was rushed to the hospital with uncontrollable seizures.
Gregorio allegedly admitted to drugging her daughter with 50 mg of Benadryl and 60 mg of melatonin prior to the medical emergency.
Meanwhile, doctors noticed the child's malnourished body was covered in cuts, bruises and scars from being tethered, prompting them to raise an alarm to police.
Visibly battered and shaken - weighing just 50 pounds at the time - the girl was placed into the custody of Luzerne County Children, Youth and Families, a child safety organization.
When investigators spoke with the young victim, she revealed the shocking punishments and inhumane circumstances she suffered through at the hands of her mother and grandmother.
She explained the women retrained her to her bed - forcing her to relieve herself there when she had to use the bathroom, according to reports obtained by The Citizens' Voice.
A witness reportedly told police the child was chained to her mattress like 'Jesus on the cross' inside their home at the Birchwood Estates mobile home park.
Security camera watched over the terrified child to ensure she had not escaped from her confinement, investigators said.
'The abuse of this child offends the sense of decency of every mother, grandmother, and otherwise respectable person imaginable,' Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce said.
'Once again, the very people to whom this child would look to keep her safe, were her assailants.'
Another person familiar with the alleged inhumane living situation said Gregorio confessed to force-feeding her daughter cat food over the phone.
The mother also claimed she did not want to tie down her daughter, by Louder forced her to, according to police.
As the accused child abusers' facades continued to unravel, police learned of many other instances of the girl being injured over the years.
In 2023 Gregorio allegedly bashed her daughter's head with a broom - causing a large bump and gash.
Instead of seeking medical attention, Louder poured super glue over the wound, The Citizens' Voice reported.
She showed up to school around the same time with a black-and-blue eye. She allegedly lied and told her teachers she got hurt by walking into a wall.
Shortly after that, she was pulled from in-person classes and started going to school fully online.
But the pain and fear the girl suffered dates back several years, WNEP reported.
Her medical records reveal that she has been rushed to the emergency room with broken bones and fractures multiple times since 2017.
After seven months of investigating the child's safety, Gregorio and Louder were arrested on Monday night.
They were both charged with aggravated assault of a victim less than 13, conspiracy, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, endangering the welfare of children, recklessly endangering another person, simple assault and tampering with evidence.
Both women were locked up at Luzerne County Correctional Facility with bails set at $125,000. They are due in court on May 6.
'It is difficult to imagine the sense of hopelessness abused children in these situations must feel,' Sanguedolce said.
'We will seek the maximum penalties permitted by law in the hope of sending the message that this behavior deserves fierce punishment.'
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Daily Mail
24-04-2025
- Daily Mail
Revolting item monster mother and grandmother forced 12-year-old girl to eat while chained to bed
A Pennsylvania 12-year-old was chained to a bed and forced to eat cat food by her despicable mother and grandmother, police say. Amanda Lynn Gregorio, 35, and Stacey Ann Louder, 52, both of Exeter, have been accused severely neglecting and beating the defenseless girl they were supposed to be caring for. An investigation into the gut-wrenching abuse finally began in September 2024 after the child was rushed to the hospital with uncontrollable seizures. Gregorio allegedly admitted to drugging her daughter with 50 mg of Benadryl and 60 mg of melatonin prior to the medical emergency. Meanwhile, doctors noticed the child's malnourished body was covered in cuts, bruises and scars from being tethered, prompting them to raise an alarm to police. Visibly battered and shaken - weighing just 50 pounds at the time - the girl was placed into the custody of Luzerne County Children, Youth and Families, a child safety organization. When investigators spoke with the young victim, she revealed the shocking punishments and inhumane circumstances she suffered through at the hands of her mother and grandmother. She explained the women retrained her to her bed - forcing her to relieve herself there when she had to use the bathroom, according to reports obtained by The Citizens' Voice. A witness reportedly told police the child was chained to her mattress like 'Jesus on the cross' inside their home at the Birchwood Estates mobile home park. Security camera watched over the terrified child to ensure she had not escaped from her confinement, investigators said. 'The abuse of this child offends the sense of decency of every mother, grandmother, and otherwise respectable person imaginable,' Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce said. 'Once again, the very people to whom this child would look to keep her safe, were her assailants.' Another person familiar with the alleged inhumane living situation said Gregorio confessed to force-feeding her daughter cat food over the phone. The mother also claimed she did not want to tie down her daughter, by Louder forced her to, according to police. As the accused child abusers' facades continued to unravel, police learned of many other instances of the girl being injured over the years. In 2023 Gregorio allegedly bashed her daughter's head with a broom - causing a large bump and gash. Instead of seeking medical attention, Louder poured super glue over the wound, The Citizens' Voice reported. She showed up to school around the same time with a black-and-blue eye. She allegedly lied and told her teachers she got hurt by walking into a wall. Shortly after that, she was pulled from in-person classes and started going to school fully online. But the pain and fear the girl suffered dates back several years, WNEP reported. Her medical records reveal that she has been rushed to the emergency room with broken bones and fractures multiple times since 2017. After seven months of investigating the child's safety, Gregorio and Louder were arrested on Monday night. They were both charged with aggravated assault of a victim less than 13, conspiracy, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment, endangering the welfare of children, recklessly endangering another person, simple assault and tampering with evidence. Both women were locked up at Luzerne County Correctional Facility with bails set at $125,000. They are due in court on May 6. 'It is difficult to imagine the sense of hopelessness abused children in these situations must feel,' Sanguedolce said. 'We will seek the maximum penalties permitted by law in the hope of sending the message that this behavior deserves fierce punishment.'
The Independent
13-12-2024
- The Independent
Biden's commutation in 'kids for cash' scandal angers some Pennsylvania families
A judge who helped orchestrate one of the worst judicial scandals in — a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks — was among the 1,500 people whose sentences were commuted by President Joe Biden this week. Biden's decision to commute the 17-year prison sentence of Michael Conahan angered many in northeastern Pennsylvania, from the governor to the families whose children were victimized by the disgraced former judge. Conahan had already served the vast majority of his sentence, which was handed down in 2011. 'I do feel strongly that President Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in northeastern Pennsylvania,' Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said during an unrelated news conference in Scranton on Friday. The scandal 'affected families in really deep and profound and sad ways,' he added. Conahan 'deserves to be behind bars, not walking as a free man.' A message seeking comment was sent to an attorney who recently represented Conahan, the former president judge of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas. In what came to be known as the kids-for-cash scandal, Conahan and Judge Mark Ciavarella shut down a county-run juvenile detention center and accepted $2.8 million in illegal payments from a friend of Conahan's who built and co-owned two for-profit lockups. Ciavarella, who presided over juvenile court, pushed a zero-tolerance policy that guaranteed large numbers of children would fill the beds of the private lockups. The scandal prompted the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to throw out some 4,000 juvenile convictions involving more than 2,300 children. Sandy Fonzo, whose son killed himself at age 23 after Ciavarella locked him up as a teen, called Conahan's commutation an 'injustice.' 'I am shocked and I am hurt,' Fonzo said in a statement provided to The Citizens' Voice of Wilkes-Barre. 'Conahan's actions destroyed families, including mine, and my son's death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power. This pardon feels like an injustice for all of us who still suffer. Right now I am processing and doing the best I can to cope with the pain that this has brought back.' The Juvenile Law Center, which represented plaintiffs in a $200 million civil judgment against Conahan and Ciavarella, said in a statement that it 'supported President Biden's actions" but wants to see the 'same kind of compassion and mercy' extended to juvenile defendants around the country. Conahan was a powerful figure in northeastern Pennsylvania before his arrest, regularly meeting for breakfast with the reputed boss of an area Mafia family. When he pleaded guilty in 2010, Conahan apologized to the youths he had hurt. 'The system is not corrupt,' Conahan said at the time. 'I was corrupt.' In 2020, Conahan was released to home confinement with six years left on his sentence as part of an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 in federal prisons. Ciavarella, who went to trial and was convicted of some of the charges, is serving a 28-year sentence.
NBC News
13-12-2024
- NBC News
He faked his own death in 2020. A trail of rape and fraud allegations finally caught up to him.
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND An impressive start for a young advocate For a time, the man born Nicholas Alahverdian went by Nicholas Rossi, after his adoptive stepfather. After ending up in foster care,Alahverdian began working as a page, then a legislative aide, at the Rhode Island statehouse in the 2000s. His initiative and intellect impressed lawmakers — 'He would read bills that most reps and senators wouldn't read,' one former representative told 'Dateline' — and with their help, he later began advocating for reforms to a foster system that he said had failed to protect him from being beaten and tortured. Alahverdian led rallies, held news conferences and filed a federal lawsuit accusing state officials of conspiracy and other allegations. The Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth and Families denied the allegations and settled the suit, court records show. The details of that settlement have not been disclosed. DAYTON, OHIO In January 2008, Alahverdian, then 21, had left Rhode Island for college and was living in Dayton. There, he reached out to a woman on Myspace and told her he was new in town and looking for friends, the woman, Mary Grebinski, told 'Dateline.' While walking Grebinski to class at a local community college, she said that he cornered and sexually assaulted her — then apologized and pleaded with her not to speak to authorities. Alahverdian, who said the encounter was consensual, was charged with public indecency and sexual imposition, a misdemeanor crime indicating sexual contact against a person's will, court records show. After a trial, Alahverdian was fined and ordered to register as a sex offender. He later sued Grebinski in federal court for defamation and other allegations, alleging in part that she 'targeted' him with 'criminal litigation because of her unfaithful relationships and infidelity.' A judge dismissed the suit with prejudice, saying there was no basis to Alahverdian's claims. OREM, UTAH A rape kit backlog and a charge a decade later In September 2008, Alahverdian was accused of raping his 21-year-old ex-girlfriend, a probable cause affidavit shows. The woman, identified in the document as K.P., told authorities that she'd met Alahverdian via Myspace and dated him briefly, but broke it off after he became increasingly aggressive and borrowed money without paying her back, according to the affidavit. On Sept. 13, she went to his home after he told her he'd pay her what he owed her, the affidavit alleges, but instead he raped her. K.P. had a sexual assault kit completed the next day, but a backlog in testing meant that Alahverdian was not identified as a suspect until a decade later, authorities said. In 2020, Utah County prosecutors charged him with rape. Alahverdian pleaded not guilty. A trial is set for September 2025. SOUTH SALT LAKE, UTAH A marriage proposal, a disputed loan and an alleged attack In December 2008, a woman identified in court documents as M.S. accused Alahverdian of raping her at his home after they argued about breaking up. They'd met online, dated briefly and he'd bought wedding rings after proposing, according to a probable cause declaration. But the woman described him as manipulative and said she'd loaned him money that he refused to pay back. At his home in South Salt Lake, the declaration alleges, he refused to let her leave and threw her on the bed and held down her wrists while forcing himself on her. He was charged in the alleged attack after his identification in the earlier sexual assault case. Alahverdian pleaded not guilty and a trial is set for April 2025. PAWTUCKET, RHODE ISLAND A crying baby triggers an assault In November 2010, days after Alahverdian returned to his home state and got married, he was arrested after allegedly assaulting his wife. A police report shows the alleged assault happened during an argument over a crying baby. She accused him of knocking her to the ground, holding her down, grabbing her neck, striking her in the face and refusing to let her leave, according to the report, which noted that an officer photographed the woman's injuries. Alahverdian denied the assault, according to the report, and when he was taken into custody officers pepper sprayed him when they say he refused to stop banging his head into the police car's back window. He pleaded no contest to misdemeanor domestic assault and was sentenced to probation, court records show. The couple later divorced. DAYTON, OHIO Another relationship sours and more allegations emerge By 2015, Alahverdian had returned to Ohio and established the Community Progress Institute, a nonprofit that aimed to revitalize downtown Dayton, according to his ex-wife, Kathryn Heckendorn. They'd met at church and married in October 2015. But in a divorce complaint filed months later, Heckendorn accused him of 'extreme cruelty' and 'gross neglect of duty,' saying he'd borrowed $52,000 and failed to pay her back. In an interview with 'Dateline,' Heckendorn said he once locked her in a bathroom for two days and had raped her when she refused to have sex with him. In a divorce filing, Alahverdian denied the cruelty allegation and said the money was not a loan — it was a gift — but agreed that a divorce should be granted. In an interview with 'Dateline,' he denied sexually assaulting anyone. MONTREAL A professional deal goes belly-up In February 2020, TV personality Nafsika Antypas hired Alahverdian to help market her vegan cheese company and A&E television show. Alahverdian identified himself as Timothy Arthur Nicholas Knight Brown, and he described himself as an Ireland-based Ivy League graduate with a background in public relations and international law, Antypas told 'Dateline.' She paid him $30,000, Anytpas said, but he never delivered. When Antypas cut off his access to her website, she said, he began sending threatening messages telling her to pay him another $40,000 or make what he described as a 'reasonable counteroffer.' Otherwise, she recalled him saying, he'd ruin her reputation. When Antypas told him he was fired, she said, social media posts appeared claiming her vegan cheese was fake, as did a 'fraud alert' website that had her passport photo framed as a mug shot. Antypas said she called the police and hired a private investigator to learn more about the man she'd hired, but the investigator found nothing under the name Alahverdian had provided, she said. It wasn't until two years later, when Alahverdian was arrested on the rape charges from Utah, that Antypas learned his real identity. Alahverdian — who completed one extension course at Harvard — disputed Antypas' account in an interview with 'Dateline.' Antypas paid him for 'work that was performed,' he said. 'I did not scam her out of money.' PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND Alahverdian is reported dead On March 3, 2020, a local news station announced Alahverdian's death, saying he'd died after a long battle with cancer. On the statehouse floor, a lawmaker remembered him as a 'very, very smart individual' who'd been a powerful advocate for change for the state's foster youth. An online obituary said Alahverdian died Feb. 29, 2020, at age 32 from non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He was cremated, the obituary stated, and his ashes were scattered at sea. GLASGOW, SCOTLAND A new identity and a new accent In January 2022, authorities in Utah announced that they were seeking to extradite a man believed to be Alahverdian after he was arrested in Scotland under the name Arthur Knight. He'd fled the United States to avoid prosecution, the Utah Public Safety Department said in a statement, and was a suspect in that state in connection with one of the 2008 rapes. But in interviews with 'Dateline' and other media outlets, Alahverdian denied sexually assaulting anyone and insisted he was not Alahverdian or Nicholas Rossi. Speaking with a British accent and appearing in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank and mask that he said were necessary after a recent bout of Covid, he claimed he was Arthur Knight, an Irish orphan who'd become a businessman and was married to a woman whom he'd met at a London museum in 2011. EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND Two names, one U.S. rape suspect In November 2022, the Scottish judge overseeing the extradition case ruled that Arthur Knight and Nicholas Alahverdian were the same person — a conclusion he reached after reviewing photographs and fingerprints, according to the judge's order. Yet, Alahverdian wasn't extradited to the United States for more than a year, as his lawyer appealed and claimed in part that the case should be dismissed because Alahverdian was wanted for questioning in connection with an alleged rape in England, according to the U.K. wire service PA Media. No charges were ever filed in the case. PROVO, UTAH Facing trial Two months ago, on Oct. 16, 10 months after Alahverdian was extradited to Utah and booked into jail, he testified during a bail hearing for the Utah County case that he was, in fact, Nicholas Alahverdian. He'd moved to the U.K. and changed his name, he testified, partly because there were two 'credible threats' against his life made by people in Rhode Island over his foster youth advocacy. To protect himself, he testified, he changed his name to Arthur Knight Brown — a name he said he'd always respected. Alahverdian would not identify the people he said were threatening him in open court. That, he said, would 'stoke the fire they've had to continue their actions against me.' The judge held a closed hearing on the matter and did not discuss those details in his ruling, though he noted that when Alahverdian left the U.S. in 2017, he was being investigated for fraud and told an FBI agent that he was moving to a country without an extradition treaty. (In an interview with 'Dateline,' Alahverdian said he had not defrauded anyone. The FBI's Utah field office would not comment.) The judge ruled that Alahverdian had strong incentives to flee the area and denied him bail. Alahverdian pleaded not guilty and remains in custody in Utah County.
