Police: Couple Kidnaps Prostitute
Woman Was Sexually Assaulted, Held Against Her Will
POSTED: Friday, June 5, 2009
UPDATED: 4:17 pm EDT June 6, 2009
CHESTERFIELD, Mich. -- A Chesterfield couple was arraigned Friday on kidnapping and sexual assault charges.
Police said Michael Ventrella, 33, and his 21-year-old wife Jamie Rae, kidnapped a Detroit prostitute Wednesday night and then sexually assaulted her.
Both were charged with kidnapping, first-degree criminal sexual conduct and conspiracy to commit criminal sexual conduct.
Michael and Jamie Ventrella were video arraigned at the 42-2 District Court in New Baltimore. They are being held on a $200,000 bond.
Around noon on June 4, residents called police and said they saw a woman, whose hands were bound behind her back and a gag tied around her mouth, running toward Jefferson Avenue.
A 911 caller told dispatchers that when she removed the gag, the woman told her she was abducted from Detroit and sexually assaulted at a home on Bayshore Road.
The Detroit woman told police that the Ventrellas approached her on Mack and Sylvester streets in Detroit the night before and she willingly got into their tractor-trailer.
She told police that without notice, while they were driving, she was bound and forced into the rear sleeping area of the rig and brought to their Chesterfield home.
The woman directed officers to the couple's home and they were awakened and arrested.
During a search of the couple's home, detectives seized evidence that was consistent with the woman’s account of her ordeal.
The Ventrella's will be back in court on June 11 for a preliminary exam.
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