Cocaine dealer describes torture
He says gang poured hot chicken grease on him
By JOHN DIEDRICH
[email protected]
Posted: May 7, 2008
Seconds after he walked into the house, Leoporium Ford heard the words "You know what time it is" and saw a TEC-9 gun pointed in his face.
A major cocaine dealer for years in Milwaukee, Ford, 36, knew it was time for him to get robbed. What he didn't expect is that he would be beaten and tortured for hours, including with boiling chicken grease, as a gang calling itself the Body Snatchers tried to extort more money and drugs from him.
That's the chilling tale told by Ford on Wednesday in a Milwaukee courtroom. Ford, who is facing federal drug conspiracy charges in a separate case, testified that he handed over about a pound of cocaine, worth about $12,000, on that day in May 2002, but his captors demanded more.
According to his testimony:
The captors bound his wrists, ankles, eyes and mouth with duct tape and twisted wire hangers around his feet and hands. They began kicking him in the head and body, but he wouldn't give them any more.
They told him they knew where he lived, where his children's mother lived and where they went to school.
Then, Ford said, he smelled chicken grease. Someone cut his clothes and started dripping the scalding grease on him one drip at a time.
For a longtime player in Milwaukee's drug game, Ford said this crossed a line and he told his assailants, "This ain't right."
One of the kidnappers told him, "You know who we are? We are the Body Snatchers. This is what we do. We torture people and kill people if they don't comply."
Ford said he was let go after his cousin delivered $3,000 and Ford himself promised to get more money, which he never did.
His testimony came in the third day of the trial of Donald Cooper, who if convicted faces up to life in prison for his alleged roles in that torture and the killing of a different drug dealer in 2000.
Witnesses have said Cooper, 42, was the muscle in a criminal organization run by Michael Lock that dealt drugs, robbed and killed people, ran prostitutes and engaged in mortgage fraud. Testimony concluded Wednesday without Cooper taking the stand. Closing arguments are set for today.
Cooper is charged in the 2000 homicide of Eugene "Mickey" Chaney, whose body was found under a concrete slab in 2005.
Earlier Wednesday, one of Cooper's best friends testified against him.
Trenton Gray, 32, once a member of the Body Snatchers, testified Cooper told him that in 2000 he killed Chaney after robbing him.
Chaney's remains, as well as another man's body, were found under two concrete slabs in a yard at 4900 W. Fiebrantz Ave.
Gray said he and Cooper grew up together and he once asked Cooper where Chaney was.
"He looked at me and smiled and said, 'You walk past him every day,' " said Gray, who at the time lived a couple blocks from the Fiebrantz house, which was owned by Lock.
On Tuesday, Lock's uncle testified he saw Cooper put a plastic bag over Chaney's head while he was bound with tape.
Under defense questioning, Gray admitted he lied to detectives two years ago when they asked about the 2000 murder and the chicken grease torture in 2002.
"My focus was on protecting my friends. Coop's like blood. I love him to death," Gray said, at times glancing at Cooper. "But it was time for me to protect myself."
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=748391
He says gang poured hot chicken grease on him
By JOHN DIEDRICH
[email protected]
Posted: May 7, 2008
Seconds after he walked into the house, Leoporium Ford heard the words "You know what time it is" and saw a TEC-9 gun pointed in his face.
A major cocaine dealer for years in Milwaukee, Ford, 36, knew it was time for him to get robbed. What he didn't expect is that he would be beaten and tortured for hours, including with boiling chicken grease, as a gang calling itself the Body Snatchers tried to extort more money and drugs from him.
That's the chilling tale told by Ford on Wednesday in a Milwaukee courtroom. Ford, who is facing federal drug conspiracy charges in a separate case, testified that he handed over about a pound of cocaine, worth about $12,000, on that day in May 2002, but his captors demanded more.
According to his testimony:
The captors bound his wrists, ankles, eyes and mouth with duct tape and twisted wire hangers around his feet and hands. They began kicking him in the head and body, but he wouldn't give them any more.
They told him they knew where he lived, where his children's mother lived and where they went to school.
Then, Ford said, he smelled chicken grease. Someone cut his clothes and started dripping the scalding grease on him one drip at a time.
For a longtime player in Milwaukee's drug game, Ford said this crossed a line and he told his assailants, "This ain't right."
One of the kidnappers told him, "You know who we are? We are the Body Snatchers. This is what we do. We torture people and kill people if they don't comply."
Ford said he was let go after his cousin delivered $3,000 and Ford himself promised to get more money, which he never did.
His testimony came in the third day of the trial of Donald Cooper, who if convicted faces up to life in prison for his alleged roles in that torture and the killing of a different drug dealer in 2000.
Witnesses have said Cooper, 42, was the muscle in a criminal organization run by Michael Lock that dealt drugs, robbed and killed people, ran prostitutes and engaged in mortgage fraud. Testimony concluded Wednesday without Cooper taking the stand. Closing arguments are set for today.
Cooper is charged in the 2000 homicide of Eugene "Mickey" Chaney, whose body was found under a concrete slab in 2005.
Earlier Wednesday, one of Cooper's best friends testified against him.
Trenton Gray, 32, once a member of the Body Snatchers, testified Cooper told him that in 2000 he killed Chaney after robbing him.
Chaney's remains, as well as another man's body, were found under two concrete slabs in a yard at 4900 W. Fiebrantz Ave.
Gray said he and Cooper grew up together and he once asked Cooper where Chaney was.
"He looked at me and smiled and said, 'You walk past him every day,' " said Gray, who at the time lived a couple blocks from the Fiebrantz house, which was owned by Lock.
On Tuesday, Lock's uncle testified he saw Cooper put a plastic bag over Chaney's head while he was bound with tape.
Under defense questioning, Gray admitted he lied to detectives two years ago when they asked about the 2000 murder and the chicken grease torture in 2002.
"My focus was on protecting my friends. Coop's like blood. I love him to death," Gray said, at times glancing at Cooper. "But it was time for me to protect myself."
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=748391
