Charges: Man abducted, assaulted, shackled 19-year-old
Published 10:43 am Friday, November 27, 2015
ST. PAUL — A 55-year-old man was being held on $1 million bail Thursday after authorities said he grabbed a 19-year-old man from a Minneapolis street, took him to his St. Paul home, then kept him chained up in a basement and sexually assaulted him over four days before the younger man could escape.
Wilbert Glover, of St. Paul, was charged Wednesday with kidnapping and criminal sexual conduct. Prosecutors say he is scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday. Online court records don’t list an attorney to comment on Glover’s behalf.
Records from the Illinois Department of Corrections records show Glover was convicted in the 1980s of kidnapping and attempted murder. He was released from prison in 2008.
According to the criminal complaint, the victim was walking in north Minneapolis on Friday night when someone grabbed him from behind and strangled him until he passed out. The teen woke up blindfolded and didn’t know where he was. When he took the blindfold off, his kidnapper sprayed him with a chemical irritant and told him to keep the blindfold on, the complaint said.
The 19-year-old told police he was raped repeatedly and couldn’t see his attacker.
On Tuesday, when the kidnapper was away, the victim took off the blindfold and realized he was in a basement. He freed himself from chains and shut off the power by switching off the circuit breakers. He then found a fire extinguisher and used it to break a window and escape, the complaint said.
He found help at a neighbor’s house a few doors away.
Christina Muedeking said the victim had a handcuff on one wrist and shackles on his ankles. He was carrying a chain and a fire extinguisher and had bruises on his wrists and a raised red line around his neck, she said. The neighbors called police, who found home security cameras around the yard and basement windows “covered with boards,” the complaint said. Authorities say Glover was renting the home, but he denied living there.