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Men Accused of Enslaving Indian College Student Want Out of Jail | St. Louis

Published

10 months ago

December 15, 2023

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click to enlarge Courtesy St. Charles County Jail Booking photo for Venkatesh R. Sattaru, who is being held without bond in the St. Charles County Jail.

Three men accused of keeping a 20-year-old college student from India in slave-like conditions at a home in Defiance, Missouri, appeared in court today. Their attorneys had the difficult job of arguing that their clients facing a combined 17 felonies — human trafficking-related charges among them — ought to be allowed out of jail pending their day in court.

The charges stem from last month when police responded to the home of Sravan Penumetcha and Nikhil Penmatsa on rural Highway D after being asked by a neighbor to perform a welfare check. Officers were initially denied entry to the home, but then the 20-year-old, whose name is not being made public, ran outside “yelling, screaming for help,” according to St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney Joseph McCulloch. The young man had wounds over much of his body as well as broken bones.

Penumetcha and Penmatsa, as well as the purported ringleader of the abuse, Venkatesh Sattaru, have been charged with a litany of crimes, including abuse through forced labor, armed criminal action and kidnapping.

McCulloch said that Sattaru was the “main target” of the investigation as well as the 20-year-old’s cousin. He would allegedly call Penumetcha and Penmatsa and instruct them to beat the 20-year-old over a livestream. If the victim did not scream loud enough, Sattaru would tell them to beat him harder. “I don’t know how much more animalistic type of behavior you can get than that,” McCulloch said at a press conference following the three men being charged.

click to enlarge Courtesy St. Charles County Jail Booking photo for Nikhil Penmasta, being held without bond in the St. Charles County Jail.

However, the defense attorneys all aggressively pushed back against what one of them, William Goldstein, called “the narrative that has been reported in the news.”

They were adamant that no human trafficking had taken place.

Goldstein, who is representing Sattaru, cited multiple instances during the time of the alleged trafficking when the 20-year-old was pulled over by police or got into a car accident while driving alone. Goldstein questioned how an alleged human trafficking victim was able to drive alone in his alleged captor’s car on his alleged captor’s insurance. In one instance, Goldstein said, when police attempted to pull the 20-year-old over, he called Sattaru for help.

In the latter half of November, the 20-year-old victim was also seen at the DMV renewing his driver’s license and shopping at a Bass Pro Shop. Goldstein submitted to the court photos of Sattaru with the 20-year-old at events spaces in St. Charles as well as at a carnival, dinners and out shopping.

Goldstein theorized that human trafficking was “a narrative this young man is trying to sell to the news” as a way for him to attain citizenship.

About the apparent severe injuries to the 20-year-old, Goldstein admitted: “We don’t deny there was some disciplining going on.” He added that Sattaru had “some proclivities,” but that those were a separate case entirely from human trafficking. “It’s not the line this [20-year-old] wants everyone to believe, that he is some human slave, some human trafficking victim,” Goldstein said.

However, St. Charles County prosecutor Lawrence Chrum said that the photos showing apparent happy times between Sattaru and the victim were a calculated fraud to make Sattaru look like a “good guy.”

“Who takes 75 photos of a man over a period of time who isn’t your child?” he asked.

Chrum had photos and videos of his own to show Judge Jeffery Sandcork — photos of the bruised and battered victim.

click to enlarge Courtesy St. Charles County Jail Booking photo for Sravan Penumetcha, currently in the St. Charles County Jail.

At one point in the hearing, the attorneys and Sandcork went into the judge’s chambers to view a video that purportedly showed the 20-year-old being beaten with a crowbar in the build-out of a restaurant. Elsewhere during the hearing, Goldstein stated that Sattaru was in the process of opening two restaurants when he was arrested. He previously operated the Absolute BBQ Indian Wish Grill in Chesterfield.

Chrum said that even though the 20-year-old did have access to a car, he was still under the full control of Sattaru and the car could only be used to run errands for him. If the 20-year-old was late in getting back, he would be beaten. He called the arguments made by Goldstein and the other two attorneys as examples of “gaslighting.”

The 20-year-old victim was asked if he wanted to be present at the bond hearing today, to which Chrum said that the young man replied, “I think it is a million times better for me to kill myself than for me to see their faces or for them to get out of jail.”

Chrum added that not long before the police responded to the house in Defiance for the welfare check, the 20-year-old and the three men now charged with holding him captive were all out a restaurant together when a concerned diner secretly passed the 20-year-old a note that said, “Are you OK. Call me if you’re not.”

The attorneys for the three men said they were willing to surrender their passports and remain on GPS monitoring, if allowed out on bond. Sandcork said he will make his ruling on their bond at a later date.

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Fenton Man Charged in Sword Attack on Roommate

Published

5 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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A warrant is out for a Fenton man’s arrest after he allegedly attacked his roommate with a sword.

Police say that on Sunday, Angelus Scott spoke openly about “slicing his roommate’s head” before he grabbed a sword, raised it up and then swung it down at the roommate.

The roommate grabbed Scott’s hand in time to prevent injury. When police arrived at the scene, they found the weapon used in the assault.

The sword in question was a katana, which is a Japanese sword recognizable for its curved blade.

This isn’t the first time a samurai-style sword has been used to violent effect in St. Louis. In 2018, a man hearing voices slaughtered his ex-boyfriend with a samurai sword. His mother said he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

As for Scott, 35, the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office was charged yesterday with two felonies, assault first degree and armed criminal action. The warrant for his arrest says he is to be held on $200,000 bond.

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Caught on Video, Sheriff Says He’s Ready to ‘Turn It All Over’ to Deputy

Published

5 months ago

May 22, 2024

Natural Bridge

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Video of St. Louis Sheriff Vernon Betts taken by a former deputy suggests that the sheriff has a successor in mind to hand the reins of the department over to, even as Betts is in an increasingly heated campaign for reelection.

“I ain’t here for all this rigmarole,” Betts says in the video while seated behind his desk at the Carnahan Courthouse. “The Lord sent me here to turn this department around and I’m doing the best I can and I think I’ve done a good job. I’ve got about eight months and I’m going to qualify for my fourth pension.”

He goes on, “Right now I can walk up out of here and live happily ever after and forget about all this…and live like a king.”

The sheriff then says his wife has been in Atlanta looking at houses and that the other deputy in the room, Donald Hawkins, is someone Betts has been training “to turn it all over to him.”

Asked about the video, Betts tells the RFT, “My future plans are to win reelection on August 6th by a wide margin and to continue my mission as the top elected law enforcement official to make St. Louis safer and stronger. Serving the people of St. Louis with integrity, honor and professional law enforcement qualifications is a sacred responsibility, and I intend to complete that mission.”

The video of Betts was taken by Barbara Chavers, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 2016 after 24 years of service. Chavers now works security at Schnucks at Grand and Gravois. Betts’ brother Howard works security there, too.

Chavers tells the RFT that she was summoned to Betts’ office last week after Betts’ brother made the sheriff aware that she was supporting Montgomery. It was no secret: Chavers had filmed a Facebook live video in which she said she was supporting Betts’ opponent Alfred Montgomery in the election this fall. “Make the judges safe,” she says in the video, standing in front of a large Montgomery sign on Gravois Avenue. “They need a sheriff who is going to make their courtrooms safe.”

In his office, even as Chavers made clear she was filming him, Betts told Chavers he was “flabbergasted” and “stunned” she was supporting Montgomery.

“I don’t know what I did that would make you go against the preacher man,” he says, referring to himself. He then refers to Montgomery as “ungodly.”

Betts goes on to say that not long ago, he was walking in his neighborhood on St. Louis Avenue near 20th Street when suddenly Montgomery pulled up in his car and, according to Betts, shouted, “You motherfucker, you this, you that. You’re taking my signs down.”

Montgomery tells the RFT that he’s never interacted with Betts outside of candidate forums and neighborhood meetings.

“I don’t think anyone with good sense would do something like that to a sitting sheriff,” Montgomery says.

Montgomery has had campaign signs missing and on at least two occasions has obtained video of people tearing them down. (Chavers notes that the sign that she filmed her original Facebook video in front of is itself now missing.)

One man who lives near Columbus Square says that he recently put out two Montgomery signs, which later went missing. “If they keep taking them, I’ll keep putting them up,” he said.

Betts says he has nothing to do with the missing signs. In the video Chavers filmed in Betts’ office, Betts says that his campaign isn’t in a spot where it needs to resort to tearing down opponents’ signs.

“If you sit here long enough, a man is getting ready to come across the street from City Hall bringing me $500, today,” Betts says. “I’m getting that kind of support. I don’t need to tear down signs.”

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St. Louis to Develop First Citywide Transportation Plan in Decades

Published

5 months ago

May 21, 2024

Natural Bridge

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The City of St. Louis is working to develop its first citywide mobility plan in decades, Mayor Tishaura Jones’ office announced Tuesday. This plan seeks to make it easier for everyone — drivers, pedestrians, bikers and public transit users — to safely commute within the city.

The plan will bring together other city projects like the Brickline Greenway, Future64, the MetroLink Green Line, and more, “while establishing new priorities for a safer, more efficient and better-maintained transportation network across the City,” according to the release.

The key elements in the plan will be public engagement, the development of a safety action plan, future infrastructure priorities and transportation network mapping, according to Jones’ office.

The overarching goals are to create a vision for citywide mobility, plan a mixture of short and long-term mobility projects and to develop improved communication tools with the public to receive transportation updates. In recent years, both people who use public transit and cyclists have been outspoken about the difficulties — and dangers — of navigating St. Louis streets, citing both cuts to public transit and traffic violence.

To garner public input and participation for the plan, Jones’ office said there will be community meetings, focus groups and a survey for residents to share their concerns. The city will also be establishing a Community Advisory Committee. Those interested in learning more should check out at tmp-stl.com/

“Everyone deserves to feel safe when getting around St. Louis, whether they’re driving, biking, walking or taking public transit,” Jones said in a news release. “Creating a comprehensive transportation and mobility plan allows us to make intentional and strategic investments so that moving around St. Louis for jobs, education, and entertainment becomes easier, safer and more enjoyable.”

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