CONCORD - In a first-of-its kind case in New Hampshire, two Litchfield residents are charged with forcing Jamaican men to work for their tree-cutting business and keeping them in line by confiscating their passports, threatening them, beating them, and turning a dog loose on one of them.
Timothy Bradley, 43, and Kathleen O?Dell, 48, are charged with recruiting four men in Jamaica and bringing them to New Hampshire to work for Bradley Tree Service. Two of the men worked in the spring and summer of 2000. The others worked the following summer, and are the subject of most of the charges in the 21-count federal indictment.
The indictment alleges that after those two men, David H. and Andrew F., came to New Hampshire, Bradley and O?Dell told them if they did not work for them, they would be seriously harmed.
"It was a part of the conspiracy that (Bradley and O?Dell) used threats of harm, deception, physical force, psychological coercion and isolation from others to maintain discipline and to ensure the continued work of David H. and Andrew F.," the indictment said.
The official charges include violations of the federal peonage (servitude) and slavery laws, conspiracy, wire fraud and making false statements to federal investigators.
"I?m not aware of another case of this nature being brought in New Hampshire in the past," Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Zuckerman said, though others have been prosecuted around the country.
The indictment said the two traveled to Jamaica to recruit the two by promising to pay them $11 an hour, and that as soon as the men arrived, confiscated their passports so they could not leave and made them live in a shed and trailer on their property without adequate heat or plumbing.
Zuckerman said the two also charged the men $50 a week in rent, while paying them only $8 an hour, and did not pay them for all the hours they worked.
Andrew F. suffered unspecified injuries on the job, but was denied medical treatment, the indictment said.
"The injuries were certainly serious enough to have required medical attention," Zuckerman said.
Further, the indictment said O?Dell and Bradley refused to let the men leave their property without permission, refused to let them be away for extended periods and threatened them by saying they were going to hire someone in Jamaica to kill or seriously hurt a former employee who had escaped.
On one day, O?Dell allegedly beat David H., and Bradley allegedly choked him, beat him and ordered his dog to attack him, the indictment said.
O?Dell and Bradley also were charged with recruiting two men the previous spring and summer by promising to pay them $15-$20 an hour, but not paying them more than $8.
Federal agents arrested Bradley and O?Dell on Thursday without incident. They have been released on personal recognizance bail pending trial in June.
The indictment followed a 17-month investigation that involved the FBI, Litchfield police, the State Department and the U.S. attorney?s office. Zuckerman said authorities learned of the situation in the late summer or early fall of 2001.