Prison for NYC duo accused of abusing partly paralyzed woman

Source: Associated Press

Prison for NYC duo accused of abusing partly paralyzed woman
| January 30, 2015 | Updated: January 30, 2015 9:00pm

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York City couple accused of battering a partially paralyzed woman and controlling her finances for more than a year has been sentenced to over a decade in prison.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said Friday that Patrick Donovan was sentenced to 12 years in behind bars and Mae Washington to 11 years. Brown says both pleaded guilty earlier this month to assault.

Their lawyers haven't immediately responded to messages Friday night.

Brown says the victim was bleeding from her head and had broken bones when found huddled on the floor in a locked room in the couple's home in March 2012. Prosecutors say the room had no mattress or bed.

Brown has said the victim turned over all her income to Washington because she feared the couple.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Prison-for-NYC-duo-accused-of-abusing-partly-6052428.php

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Queens pair gets prison time for abusing, confining, stealing Social Security money from disabled woman

Patrick Donovan received a 12-year sentence and Mae Washington, 11 years after pleading guilty to the assault of Maureen Murray, 61, who was badly bruised and weighed less than 100 pounds when she was found in their Rockaway Park house in March 2012. The couple kept her captive in an 11-foot-by-8-foot room while stealing her Social Security checks, authorities said.

BY Oren Yaniv /

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS /

Friday, January 30, 2015, 5:42 PM

A Queens couple who kept a disabled woman locked up in a dungeon for over a year while they helped themselves to her cash were sentenced to more than a decade in a cage, prosecutors said Friday.

Patrick Donovan, 45, and Mae Washington, 66, have pleaded guilty to the inhumane assault of 61-year-old Maureen Murray, who was badly bruised and weighed less than 100 pounds when she was found in their Rockaway Park house of horrors in March 2012.

Donovan received a 12-year sentence Thursday and Washington got 11 years in prison.

“The defendants pleaded guilty to the assault and have now been sentenced to prison time to punish them for their despicable actions," Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

More:
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/queens-pair-prison-abusing-disabled-woman-article-1.2098295

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Earlier story:

Queens couple busted after allegedly locking up and abusing disabled woman, taking her money for over a year
By Christina Carrega-Woodby
March 28, 2012 | 12:59pm

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.

More:
http://nypost.com/2012/03/28/queens-couple-busted-after-allegedly-locking-up-and-abusing-disabled-woman-taking-her-money-for-over-a-year/