Patrick Donovan, 42 and Mae Washington, 63 (
)
A Queens couple was arrested for locking a partially paralyzed woman in a room from hell for more than a year, denied her food and a took advantage of her financially, said prosecutors.
Patrick Donovan, 42 and Mae Washington, 63, were charged for convincing Maureen Murray, 58, to move out of her assisted living facility to save her some money, but instead of giving her a safe place to live they abused her and out of fear, she gave them power of attorney over her finances.
The victim’s niece, Deborah Patton, called the police when she was unable to contact her aunt for several months and was denied by Donovan to talk to her whenever she called on the telephone, said DA Richard Brown.
Murray, who is partially paralyzed on the left side of her body, told officers she was living with the deceiving pair since New Years Day 2011 until their arrest on March 22. She also told them she was repeatedly beaten with a cane and on occasion her hands and legs were bound together and tape was place over her mouth.
When officers responded to the Rockaway Beach Blvd home, they found the disabled woman in a locked room huddled on the floor in the corner without a bed, bruised and malnourished, said Brown.
Donovan and Washington were charged kidnapping, assault, unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of an incompetent or physically disabled person.
If convicted, they each face up to 25 years to life in prison.
The cold-hearted couple told police that she had fallen off the toilet the day before and refused to go to the hospital, but as she was examined by doctors they found that she had a dislocated shoulder, a broken arm, broken ribs, internal bleeding in her skull and several lacerations and bruises to her arms and legs – injuries that were inconsistent with that type of fall, according to court papers.
Murray is currently being treated in North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset.