It's been three weeks since cab driver Tedoro Pacheco was reported missing. But while he hasn't been found, his vehicle - a gold Geo Prism - was found at a home in the Fresh Pond area of Burrell Boom on Tuesday. That discovery led to the arrest of a mother and her two sons. Today 44-year-old Tricia Young, 22-year-old Devin Young, and 18-year-old Imari Young were arraigned on a joint charge of handling stolen goods.
The mother,Tricia Young is the first to exit the van. And her two sons are numbers four and five in the line, wearing a white shirt and blue sweater.
In court, they were represented by attorney Richard "Dickie" Bradley. And while all three pleaded not guilty to the charge, Bradley told the court that they were unlawfully detained for longer than 48 hours. In addition, the two men alleged that they were beaten by police while in custody. Bradley spoke more in detail about this today after the proceedings.
Richard "Dickie" Bradley, Attorney
"I am holding brief for another attorney who is at the high court but you heard what transpired in court #6 in front of the senior magistrate that these three persons, a mother and two sons, have been held in custody way beyond the 48 hours that is the maximum under the constitution. The police have no authority to be holding people three days, in front they have no authority to hold you, if they are not going to charge you but the disturbing thing is that in the case of the two sons, you heard them individually explain to the senior magistrate the ordeal that they suffered. In the case of the second accused, I won't call his name, because you already got the charge sheet, in the case of the second accused, he was badly beaten at the police station in Burrell Boom where in addition to the, as he said, being "whapped" several times with a 2x4, a plastic bag was put over his head that he had to be fighting while handcuffed to try to get some air and he was punched and kicked. And the younger brother who is only 18, he also suffered some beating at the hands of the police to end up with a charge that they were handling a stolen vehicle which was not found in their yard. It is a serious matter for the police in the sense that the vehicle is said to be owned by a person who has gone missing so we can understand that they're trying to break through with an investigation but that is no excuse for what we heard in court this morning, the commissioner of police and the minister responsible for the police who are in government for three years need to have some written guidelines so that the public knows and don't tell us about no make any report at Raccoon Street, nothing ever comes out of that, we need an independent investigative arm that deals with."
At the arraignment, the trio were granted bail of $2,000 each plus one surety of the same amount. They met the bail and will be back in court on April 24th.
