A Gary couple were arrested Wednesday at their home, 4690 Delaware St., in the city’s East Glen Park neighborhood. (Tracy Albano / The Times)
BY MARK KIESLING Times Staff Writer
CROWN POINT -- Following nine months of investigation, a Gary couple have been charged with taking money in exchange for allowing people to view their children performing real and simulated sexual activity.
The man and woman were arrested by Gary police Wednesday afternoon and each is being held in Lake County Jail on a $190,000 bond.
The children, now ages 4 to 8, have been removed from their home and are in the custody of the Child Protective Services division of the Department of Public Welfare. The abuse is alleged to have taken place between June 4, 1999, and Aug. 31, 2001.
Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter said in cases involving children, particularly those in state custody, delays in filing charges are not uncommon and that this case did not take an unusual amount of time to file.
He said the children were taken from the house Aug. 31 and were not returned. They remain in state custody, Carter said.
In addition to the four counts of vicarious sexual gratification filed against the two, they also have been charged with having repeatedly molested and beaten the children, officials said. The charges, when taken together, carry a maximum term of 200 years in prison for each.
Police were tipped to the abuse in August by a teacher who noticed marks and bruises on one of the children and called Child Protective Services. All four children were removed from the home and taken to St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Centers in Hammond for treatment and interviews by child clinical psychologists.
Gary Police Juvenile Division Detectives Nelson Otano and Darlene Breitenstein also interviewed the children and eventually arrested Sedrick Lamont Curtis, 28, and Shakima Lewis, 25, both of 4690 Delaware St., in the city's East Glen Park neighborhood.
Police said the court documents filed Wednesday report the four children gave statements at the hospital to the Lake County Children and Family Assistance Bureau and to Otano and Breitenstein, all of which implicated the two in the abuse.
According to those documents, Curtis and Lewis made the children view pornographic videos, drink wine coolers and smoke marijuana, and that the children were beaten for refusing to watch "naked movies" and simulate what they saw in the films.
One of the children said people paid money to see the "show," as the children called their forced activity, and according to a psychologist "they had to imitate other sexual acts as well, and that they were also made to watch pornographic movies."
Each of the children detailed the types of activity they were forced to perform for the audiences, including oral and simulated vaginal sex as well as having one child urinate on another child. The audiences paid between $10 and $20 to view this activity, two of the children said, while a third mentioned that money was paid but did not disclose an amount.
Some of the "shows" also featured Curtis having sexual intercourse with one of the children, who said her mother would accept money from people who "would start clapping and laughing" at the "shows."
In addition to the "shows," the children said they were each sexually abused by both Lewis and Curtis, sometimes singly and sometimes together. The children reported various kinds of sexual acts were performed on them and that they were in turn forced to perform acts upon Lewis and Curtis.
The children all reported being "whooped a lot" by both Curtis and Lewis, mostly with extension cords but also with belts and sticks, and that food was withheld from the children as punishment.
Police said they spoke with Curtis, who allegedly admitted using his hands and a belt to whip the children and that his beatings had left welt marks on them, and also said he had pornographic movies in the house and said he only watched them with his girlfriend "but the kids were asleep." He said the children had seen him smoke marijuana and that he and Lewis would walk around the house nude.
Lewis said the three older children were "disciplined" with an extension cord and belt, and that she and Curtis would walk around the house nude, police said, and that she, Curtis and their friends would smoke marijuana while the children were in the room.
A Triple Sicx copycat couple?
