3 months ago
STOCKTON, CA - The four people arrested for allegedly torturing a teenager for about a year will stand trial on those charges next fall.
Superior Court Judge Terrence Van Oss scheduled that trial to begin October 12, 2010, nearly two years after the victim in the case escaped from a Tracy home and his treatment was discovered.
Michael Schumacher, his wife Kelly Lau, Caren Ramirez, and Anthony Waiters are charged with the brutality of a 16-year-old boy known as "Kyle."
Ramirez was a former caretaker of the boy, who was allegedly kept against his will and chained to a fireplace at the home of Schumacher and Lau. Waiters is a neighbor. All have entered pleas of not guilty to more than 15 charges of violence.
Authorities said Kyle escaped from the couple's home in Tracy by unlocking an ankle chain and stumbling emaciated, half-naked and bruised into a health club last December.
Prosecutor Angela Hayes said Van Oss encouraged attorneys in the case to have "conversations about plea negotiations." Hayes said it was too early to know if those negotiations would end in a plea by the defendants.
Van Oss said if a trial does happen, it would last about two months.
By Tim Daly, tdaly@news10.net
News10/KXTV
