Three men were in jail last night on kidnapping charges after police say they kept another man hostage in an apartment on Cleveland's West Side and forced him to watch them urinate and mutilate themselves.
Dillon Sell, 23, of the 10400 block of Clifton Blvd., and Michael LeFever, 24, and Todd Payne, 23, of the 3800 block of Riveredge Ave. were arrested earlier this month and appeared for a hearing yesterday in Cleveland Municipal Court. Judge Kathleen A. Keough ordered that the case be turned over to a Cuyahoga County grand jury.
The men have been unable to post $50,000 bond.
Police say the suspects were inspired by G.G. Allin, a punk musician who died in 1993 of a cocaine and heroin overdose. Allin was a performance artist who defecated on stage and smeared excrement and blood on himself.
The victim, 18, told police he was forced to sit naked for several hours Jan. 5 at the apartment building where Payne and LeFever live. He eventually escaped, without his clothes.
The victim and two of his friends had gone to the apartment at 1:30 a.m. to pick up a cat. The victim did not know the suspects, but one of his friends considered them acquaintances, according to police.
They talked and drank beer for an hour when one of the suspects started making fun of the victim because of his race. The victim has a black parent and a white parent.
The suspects started stripping as they taunted the victim and demanded that he also strip. He refused, and, as he and his friends tried to leave, the suspects blocked the door, according to the report. In court yesterday, the victim told Keough the suspects said they would beat him or push him out the window if he did not comply.
Police said the suspects cut themselves, discussed bizarre sexual activity and suggested that the victim perform a bizarre act.
On a ruse of buying more beer, the victim's two friends left and called 9-1-1. They told police that they were afraid the victim also had been cut.
Meanwhile, the victim broke away from the suspects and ran through the kitchen door and into the street, according to the report. He approached a couple coming from the Finast supermarket, but the man hit him, the report said.
The victim escaped that assault and ran to a gas station, where an attendant offered him a coat but refused to allow him inside or to call police. The victim ran into a bakery, where a clerk gave him some pants and called police. The victim later was treated for frostbite.
Police found blood, feces, urine and "other unspecified filth" on the walls and floor of the apartment, the report said.
At the hearing yesterday, Keogh also ordered LeFever to undergo HIV testing because of comments he made about his health to officers.
Karin Scholz
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