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Prosecutors have charged five people in Los Angeles in the torturing and robbing of two men who operated a loan modification business. Apparently the two men had promised to save their home and when these promises failed, they sought revenge.
Daniel Weston and Mary Ann Parmelee, both 52, allegedly sought loan modifications from Lamond Dean and Luis Garcia, two people who portrayed themselves as loan modification specialists, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.
Police said the homeowners thought the were swindled out of thousands of dollars and these so called specialists had taken their money and done nothing to help them.
Weston and another man, who previously served time for assault, are accused of carrying out the beatings in front of their three co-defendants, who prosecutors say had prior business ties with the two victims by having funneled loan-modification referrals to them.
Each count of felony torture, defined as inflicting “great bodily injury” for the purpose of “revenge, extortion, persuasion and for a sadistic purpose,” carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. Defense lawyers were not immediately available for comment.
Prosecutors claim the victims were lured to Glendale on Oct. 20, held for hours, beaten and robbed before one escaped.
All five suspects are in the Los Angeles County Jail on about $1 million bail each.
