Couple Indicted in African Teen Abuse

[Rose Siding]

DETROIT -- A couple convicted in state court of abusing an African teenager have been indicted on federal charges alleging they brought the girl to the United States illegally and used her as a slave.

"Too often human traffickers bait young girls with promises of the American dream only to then force them into involuntary servitude. Civilized society cannot tolerate this," Justice Department attorney R. Alexander Acosta said in announcing charges Tuesday.

The indictment accuses Joseph and Evelyn Djoumessi of bringing the then-14-year-old girl from Cameroon in 1996 and using her as an unpaid domestic servant for more than three years.

Federal authorities said the couple made false promises to get her here, didn't enroll her in school, and made her clean, cook and tend their children without pay. They say the couple physically abused her by hitting her with hands, a belt and shoes, and threatened to send her back to Africa if she told anyone.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-immigrant-slave,0,3438263.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines