Ariel Castro Allegedly Attacked Girlfriend, Threatened Neighbors: Police Records

CLEVELAND -- A man charged with holding three women captive for about a decade had been accused of threatening his neighbors, attacking his common-law wife and committing violations during his career as a school bus driver, according to records released Monday.

The Cleveland police reports correspond with accounts provided by relatives of suspect Ariel Castro last week that portrayed a man prone to violent outbursts, especially when it came to the mother of his children and incursions onto his property.

Castro, 52, is charged with kidnapping and rape, but prosecutors expect to file more charges. The three women whom he is accused of holding captive disappeared between August 2002 and April 2004. They were rescued last week when one of them escaped the home.

The records released Monday were produced by police officers investigating complaints against Castro. They do not track what happened to the complaints after they were taken.

Several of Castro's relatives and acquaintances have said allegations of violence are at odds with the man they knew, whom they described as polite, a "cool" bass player and a "sweet, happy person."

A veteran defense attorney now representing Castro, Craig Weintraub, did not respond to phone and email messages Monday seeking comment on the current and prior allegations. A public defender had represented Castro at his initial court appearance but said she couldn't speak to his guilt or innocence.

SEPT. 30, 1989:

Grimilda Figueroa called police and reported that Castro, her "common-law husband of nine years," attacked her after she asked him where he was going with one of his brothers. After slapping Figueroa several times, "he then grabbed her and slammed her several times against the wall and several times against the washing machine," according to the report.

Figueroa, who died of cancer last year, was treated at a hospital for a bruised right shoulder, the report said. She told police she had been assaulted by Castro several other times but didn't report it.

___Figueroa was referred to the prosecutor's office, according to the report. There is no court record of any charge having been filed.

MARCH 10, 1993:

Two parents tried to board Castro's school bus because their son had been getting assaulted, records show.

The parents told police they had begun accompanying him to the bus stop in the morning. On that day, "another such incident occurred in their presence," the report said.

"At which time, they got on the bus to stop it. However were shoved by the driver," the report said. Castro claimed that the parent shoved him back into his seat.

There were no injuries reported, according to the report, which said the case was turned over to the Cleveland city schools. There's no court record of any charges.

___

DEC. 26, 1993:

Figueroa again reported Castro, telling police he threw her to the ground, hit her about the head and face and kicked her body. Her son then fled out the front door and Castro chased him, according to the report, which said Figueroa locked the door and Castro couldn't get back in. He ran away when police arrived, and was chased by officers through a neighboring yard and arrested, the report said.

Figueroa told police that she had brain surgery a month before the attack and was prone to seizures, but then refused medical attention.

Although Figueroa told police the next day she didn't want to pursue charges, a city prosecutor filed charges of domestic violence and disorderly conduct. Records show Castro pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct on Dec. 28; a grand jury declined to charge him with domestic violence, county records show.

___

NOV. 29, 1994:

A man was checking on rental property near Castro's house and noticed his chain-link fence was missing, according to the records. He went to Castro's home to inquire about it, and Castro became upset, the report said. Castro picked up a shovel and attempted to hit the man with it, then told him that "he was going to take care of him," according to the report.

The incident was referred to prosecutors, the report said, but there is no record of charges being filed.

___

MAY 16, 1996

A man who relatives have described as Figueroa's boyfriend after she left Castro was dropping her children off at school when, the man said, Castro pulled up behind him and threatened him.

Castro drove off after the man tried to get out of his car and talk to him, the man told police, adding: "He believes that named suspect would have ran him over if he did not get out of his way."

The situation, described as "an ongoing problem," was referred to prosecutors. There is no record of any charges.

___

AUG. 17, 1996

In a 1996 report, a woman who described Castro as her ex-neighbor told police he pulled in front of her driveway and screamed a threat before driving away.

Police referred the woman to prosecutors; there is no record of charges.

___

JAN. 26, 2004

Castro was arrested for abduction and child endangerment after he drove around town with a child on the bus, according to a police report.

The report says Castro told the boy, "Lay down b----," then went inside a fast-food restaurant and ate lunch, leaving the child alone on the bus. Afterward, he drove around for a while and parked the vehicle at a bus parking lot. It wasn't until about 2 p.m. that he returned the child to his home, the report said.

The child was examined at MetroHealth Hospital and released.

Castro told police he noticed the boy in his seat and took the child home after consulting with the teacher by phone, the report said.

The Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services investigated the complaint of child abuse and neglect and found it to be "unsubstantiated."

The police investigation showed there was no criminal intent in the abandoned child case, city Safety Director Martin Flask has said. Police went to Castro's home to question him, but no one came to the door, Flask said. They later interviewed Castro elsewhere, authorities have said.

In a letter dated Oct. 9, 2012, the school district's transportation director, Ann Carlson, recommended that Castro be terminated because he left his bus unattended for four hours the month before.

"Mr. Castro's explanation was that his preschool route was cancelled that day and since he only lives two blocks away, he went home," the letter said.

Cleveland Kidnapping Victims Endured Decade Of Isolation, Rape, Beatings

CLEVELAND, May 8 (Reuters) - Three young women newly freed from a decade-long kidnapping ordeal in Cleveland endured their captivity in the dungeon-like confines of a squalid house, where they were raped, starved, beaten and kept in chains by the man who abducted them, authorities said on Wednesday.

Their accused tormentor, Ariel Castro, 52, a veteran school bus driver fired from his job last fall, was formally charged on Wednesday with kidnapping and raping the women, who were rescued from his house on Monday evening shortly before his arrest.

His two brothers, initially arrested as suspects in the case, were not charged, and police said investigators had determined they had no knowledge of the abductions or captivity of the women.

The three victims, believed to have been abducted separately from the surrounding neighborhood and held prisoner for years, were found alive together when neighbors were alerted to their presence by cries for help from one of the women, Amanda Berry.

She told police that her escape two days ago was her first chance to break free in the 10 years that she was imprisoned in the house, during which time she conceived and gave birth to a daughter, now 6, and rescued along with the three women.

Additional details of their captivity emerged in a police report from the initial investigation, including that the three were held in the basement for periods of time, restrained with ropes and chains and occasionally starved, according to Cleveland City Councilman Brian Cummings, who read the report and said he was briefed by multiple sources in the police department.

Cummings said that one of the three - he did not know which - had suffered at least five miscarriages, which Castro is accused of causing by starving her for weeks and beating her in the stomach.

Freed from the house along with Berry and her daughter were Gina DeJesus, 23, and Michelle Knight, 32.

Castro, owner of the modest, two-story house, had been thought by neighbors to live there alone. Berry has said she only managed to call for help when Castro briefly left the premises on Monday.

"The only opportunity, after interviewing the young ladies, to escape was the other day when Amanda escaped," Cleveland Deputy Police Chief Ed Tomba said at the news conference. "They don't believe that they've been outside that home for the last 10 years respectively."

Authorities said the women recalled leaving the house twice, only to go to the garage on the small lot, when they were disguised in wigs and hats.

Tomba said Berry, DeJesus and Knight had been kept separately in the house, where police have found ropes and chains.

"They were not in one room, but they did know each other and they did know each other was there," he said.

Berry's daughter was born on Dec. 25, 2006 during her mother's captivity, authorities said. A paternity test will be conducted to determine the girl's father.


TELEVISED HOMECOMINGS

As authorities readied their case against Castro, Berry and DeJesus went to their families' homes on Wednesday. Knight was in a Cleveland hospital where a spokeswoman said she was in good condition.

Berry and her daughter could be seen from an aerial television camera arriving in a convoy of vehicles at her sister's house and going in the back door.

Before Monday evening, Berry had last been seen leaving her job at a fast-food restaurant the day before her 17th birthday in April 2003. Her disappearance as a teenager was widely publicized in the local media.

DeJesus was rushed into the home she had not seen in nine years, clenched in a tight embrace by her sister Mayra. DeJesus hid her face in a yellow hooded sweat-shirt but raised her hand in a thumbs-up sign to spectators chanting "Gina. Gina."

Her mother Nancy DeJesus came outside after a little while.

"I want to thank everybody that believed," she said. "Even the ones that doubted, I still want to thank them the most because they're the ones that made me stronger, the ones that made me feel the most that my daughter was out there."

Neither Berry nor DeJesus, who vanished while walking home from school at age 14 in 2004, spoke publicly. Knight was 20 when she disappeared in 2002.

Castro, who is not a suspect in any other cases, faced arraignment on Thursday morning, the prosecutor said.

Investigators took some 200 pieces of evidence from his house, which Tomba said was "in quite a bit of disarray," but found no human remains on the site. Police were still searching a second house.

The three brothers were arrested on Monday evening within hours of the women's escape. However, there was no evidence Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, were involved, the prosecutor said.

The two brothers would be appearing in court on Thursday on unrelated outstanding misdemeanor warrants.

"There is nothing that leads us to believe that they were involved or had any knowledge of this, and that comes from statements of our victims, their statements and the brothers' statements," Cleveland city prosecutor Victor Perez said at a news conference, adding, "Ariel would have kept everybody at a distance."

Berry can be heard naming Ariel Castro as the man she was fleeing on the frantic emergency call she made to a 911 operator after a neighbor heard her scream and helped her break through a locked screen door.

Born in Puerto Rico, Ariel Castro played bass in Latin music bands in the area. Records show he was divorced more than a decade ago and his ex-wife had since died. He is known to have at least one adult daughter and son.

In 2005, Castro was named in a complaint of domestic violence in a custody dispute with his ex-wife that accused him of breaking her nose twice, knocking out her tooth, dislocating her shoulder twice and threatening to kill her and her daughters several times.

The complaint was eventually dismissed. (Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta and Barbara Goldberg; Writing by Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by Paul Thomasch, Bernard Orr and Eric Walsh)

Ariel Castro Allegedly Kept Sexually Abused Kidnap Victims In 'Chains And Ropes'

The three kidnapped women who endured a decade inside a rundown Cleveland home were bound by ropes and chains and rarely let outside, according to Cleveland's police chief.
"We have confirmation that they were bound and there was chains and ropes in the home," Police Chief Michael McGrath said Wednesday morning on the "Today" show. He also said they were "very rarely" permitted in suspect Ariel Castro's backyard.
McGrath provided few other details about how long the women were restrained, saying, "We'll have a better feel for that question once the interviews with the victims is completed later today."
Other media reports included gut-wrenching details about how the women -- Michelle Knight, 32, Amanda Berry, 27, and Gina DeJesus, 23 -- were treated.
WKYC reported that the kidnap victims were repeatedly raped by their captors and were beaten savagely when they became pregnant.
According to Fox News, Police interviews with Knight raised the possibility of a fourth victim, another girl imprisoned in the house roughly 10 years ago. She disappeared.
Law enforcement officers were at the dilapidated home on Cleveland's west side Tuesday, searching for evidence.
The sexual abuse among the three known victims resulted in as many as five pregnancies, according to WKYC, but the babies didn't survive the beatings.
One of the women allegedly suffered three miscarriages, said the New York Post, which also reported that Knight might have hearing loss from the beatings.
A 6-year-old girl was rescued on Monday from the now infamous home and Berry has said the child is her daughter, WEWS reported.
It's assumed that the father is Ariel Castro or one of his brothers, who are in police custody. They were held on suspicion of rape and kidnapping, USA Today reported.
Formal charges against Ariel Castro, 52, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, are expected to be filed soon.
A neighbor told USA Today that he called police after other neighbors reported seeing naked women on dog leashes crawling in Castro's backyard.
Others reported calling police after seeing disturbing things at Castro's home. A woman reported seeing a naked women in Castro's backyard and a man said his sister heard noise from the house, then saw a woman holding up a baby near a window covered by wooden plank.
Neighbors said that several times police showed up at the house, but never went inside. On other occasions, police allegedly didn't investigate the calls.
Cleveland police officials have said they have no record of calls about criminal activity at Castro's home. They acknowledge that Castro once called about a fight on the street and that officers visited his home while investigating reports that he left a child unattended on the school bus he drove. He was fired from his job as a school bus driver last year.