A 15-year-old girl testified Monday that she was too afraid to say anything when a Brownsville man shackled her legs, handcuffed her and put a ball gag in her mouth at his home.
“I was shaking, and I didn't say anything because I was kind of frightened,” she said during a preliminary hearing for her alleged attacker, Christopher Wiley Brown, 30.
Kidnapping, false imprisonment and related charges against Brown were held for court Monday by District Judge Richard Kasunic.
Brown did not say anything to reporters as he left district court with his fiancee after the hearing.
Police allege that Brown held the girl as collateral for a loan he made to her father, then sexually assaulted her. The girl's father had agreed to have her care for Brown's disabled fiancee and said he would make repairs at Brown's Front Street home to repay the debt, according to police.
On Feb. 10, the girl had planned to stay at Brown's home overnight to help his fiancee. After the woman went to sleep, the girl testified, she was lying on a couch in the living room, texting friends on her phone and watching television.
“(Brown) told me that he was going to put the feet chains on me,” the girl testified.
“When he said that to you, how did you feel?” asked District Attorney Richard Bower.
“Kind of scared,” she replied.
It was something he had done previously when the girl was at Brown's house with a few relatives, she said on cross-examination.
This time, she said, he handcuffed her arms behind her back and placed a ball gag in her mouth.
“He left them on me for maybe about five minutes, then he took the handcuffs and ball gag off me,” she said.
Brown allegedly left the room and then returned wearing only his boxer shorts, she testified. He made her touch his genitals while she remained in the leg shackles, she said.
He left the room again, and she was able to free herself from the shackles and call her father and police, she testified.
“Did you agree to allow him to do any of this?” Bower asked.
“No,” she said.
Trooper Craig Spisak testified that state police took the shackles, handcuffs and ball gag from Brown's home. The items were sent to a crime lab. Results of the forensic investigation were not complete, Spisak testified.
Brown is charged with kidnapping, indecent assault, false imprisonment, corruption of minors and unlawful restraint.
Defense attorney Vincent Tiberi argued that there was not enough evidence to support kidnapping charges against Brown because the girl was not confined for a substantial period of time, nor was she isolated.
“Neither of those things were testified to,” Tiberi argued.
Kasunic disagreed and ordered the charges held for trial. Brown is free on $100,000 bond.
Renatta Signorini is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-837-5374 or rsignorini@tribweb.com.
