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$8 Million Bail for Cleveland Kidnapping Suspect $8 Million Bail for Cleveland Kidnapping Suspect
(about 5 hours later)
CLEVELAND — A judge ordered the man accused in the kidnapping of three women and a young child to be held on $8 million bail, $2 million for each case, on Thursday morning. CLEVELAND — A man accused of kidnapping and raping three women later found alive in his home after a decade of captivity was ordered held on $8 million bail on Thursday.
The man, Ariel Castro, 52, appeared in court for the first time since his arrest during an arraignment hearing in municipal court in Cleveland. Mr. Castro did not speak and kept his head down and his eyes lowered during the proceedings.The man, Ariel Castro, 52, appeared in court for the first time since his arrest during an arraignment hearing in municipal court in Cleveland. Mr. Castro did not speak and kept his head down and his eyes lowered during the proceedings.
The hearing came a day after Mr. Castro was charged with the rape and kidnapping of Amanda Berry, held 10 years; Gina DeJesus, held 9 years; and Michelle Knight, held 11 years. He was also charged with kidnapping the 6-year-old daughter Ms. Berry gave birth to, and the authorities said he would undergo a paternity test. The hearing came a day after Mr. Castro was charged with the rape and kidnapping of Amanda Berry, held 10 years; Gina DeJesus, held 9 years; and Michelle Knight, held 11 years. He was also charged in the kidnapping of the 6-year-old daughter Ms. Berry gave birth to during her captivity; the authorities said he would undergo a paternity test. The judge, Lauren Moore, set his bail at $2 million for each of the four cases.
Prosecutors had requested a high bond during the hearing and described the decade of abuse as a “horrifying ordeal,” in which the women were beaten, bound, restrained and sexually assaulted. Mr. Castro’s lawyer argued for a lower bond, noting that he had lived in the city for 39 years and had no prior felony convictions. Prosecutors described the decade of abuse as a “horrifying ordeal,” in which the women were beaten, bound, restrained and sexually assaulted. Mr. Castro’s lawyer argued for a lower bond, noting that he had lived in the city for 39 years and had no prior felony convictions.
Mr. Castro’s brothers Onil Castro, 50, and Pedro Castro, 54, also appeared in court on Thursday morning to sort out prior misdemeanor charges not related to the kidnapping case. The judge, Lauren Moore, released the two brothers. Pedro Castro was fined $100 after pleading no contest to an open-container charge. The charges against Onil Castro for drug abuse and having an open container were dismissed. Mr. Castro’s brothers Onil Castro, 50, and Pedro Castro, 54, also appeared in court on Thursday morning to sort out prior misdemeanor charges not related to the kidnapping case. The judge released the two brothers. Pedro Castro was fined $100 after pleading no contest to an open-container charge; and the charges against Onil Castro for drug abuse and having an open container were dismissed.
New details have continued to emerge about the women’s years in captivity, including that they never left the house except for two brief visits to the adjacent garage, the police said. New details continued to emerge on Thursday about the kidnappings, including how the women were initially abducted. In each case, the women accepted Mr. Castro’s offer of a ride home while they were walking down the street, according to a police report that included the first statements the women gave after their rescue. The report had a chilling detail: Mr. Castro's daughter was a close friend of one of the victims.
According to a Cleveland police report obtained by The New York Times, officers who responded to a 911 call after Ms. Berry was freed checked the basement of Mr. Castro’s house, and finding no one, headed upstairs, one officer yelling “Cleveland police!” Ms. Knight “ran and threw herself” into an officer’s arms, followed by Ms. DeJesus, who “jumped into my arms,” the officer wrote. Ms. Berry was 17 when she was abducted as she left her job at a Burger King. Mr. Castro gained her trust by telling her that his son worked for the fast-food chain and offered her a ride home, according to the police report, which was obtained by The New York Times.
“All three women victims stated that Ariel chained them up in the basement, but eventually he let them free from the chains and let them live upstairs on the second floor,” the report said. Ms. DeJesus, who was only 14 when she disappeared, was friends with Mr. Castro’s daughter Arlene Castro. Mr. Castro approached her with his daughter on April 2, 2004, according to the account Ms. DeJesus gave police. Shortly after, “Ariel came back without his daughter, and told Gina he would give her a ride to his house to meet up with his daughter,” the report said.
Ms. Knight told officers that Mr. Castro had impregnated her multiple times. In each case, the report said, he starved her and then punched her repeatedly in the stomach until she miscarried. The accounts by Ms. DeJesus and the other women were made immediately after officers freed them from Mr. Castro’s sealed-up house on Seymour Avenue, as they sat in a police vehicle. Since Mr. Castro’s arrest, news accounts have focused on the connections between the Castro and DeJesus families, including reports that Mr. Castro attended a vigil for the missing girl.
As Ms. DeJesus, now 23, and Ms. Berry, 27, returned joyfully to their families’ homes on Wednesday, other details of their ordeal emerged. But in a description of Ms. DeJesus’s disappearance that Arlene Castro gave a year later in 2005, she apparently did not mention that her father spoke with Ms. DeJesus that day while she was present.
A cousin of Ms. DeJesus, last seen in 2004 at age 14 while walking from school, confirmed that the women were “kept in the basement like dogs.” In an interview with the television show “America’s Most Wanted,” Ms. Castro told of walking from school with her friend Gina. The two girls planned to spend the afternoon at Ms. DeJesus’s home. Ms. Castro said she borrowed 50 cents from her friend to call and ask for permission from her mother, who did not live with her father. “Mom said no, that I can’t go over to her house,” Ms. Castro said in the interview. The two girls parted. Ms. DeJesus disappeared shortly after.
The cousin, who asked not to be named to protect the family’s privacy, said relatives spoke by speakerphone with Ms. DeJesus before her return. Although she asked relatives not to inquire about her captivity, she described the way Mr. Castro marked the anniversaries of the kidnappings by serving dinner and a cake. “He would celebrate their abduction day as their new birthday,” the cousin said. The different accounts seemed to raise an important question: Did the police task force searching for Ms. DeJesus ever hear that Mr. Castro might have been one of the last adults to interact with her before she vanished?
Neighbors of the Castro family — which owns at least two other homes in the Tremont district of Cleveland — recalled visits by Mr. Castro accompanied by a young girl they suspected was Ms. Berry’s daughter. Ed Tomba, the deputy police chief in Cleveland, said at a news conference on Wednesday that police had never interviewed Mr. Castro before his arrest on Monday. A request for further comment from the police was not immediately returned.
The police report said that Ms. Berry delivered her baby in the house into a plastic pool and that Ms. Knight acted as the midwife. According to the report, Ms. Knight told the police that Mr. Castro warned that he would kill her if the baby died. Ms. Knight stated that the baby stopped breathing at one point “but she breathed into her mouth and ‘breathed for her’ to keep her alive.” The child was never told the names of the two other women in the house in case she uttered the names in public. On Wednesday, Ms. DeJesus, now 23, and Ms. Berry, 27, returned joyfully to their families’ homes. A day later, a half dozen news crews and photographers lingered across the street from Ms. Berry’s house, their cameras at the ready for any sighting of Ms. Berry or her child. At the DeJesus home, a blue tarp had been strung from the house to the adjacent garage, blocking the side yard from public view.
Nelson Martinez, 54, a cousin of Mr. Castro, said Mr. Castro visited him in Parma, Ohio, with a child he introduced as his granddaughter two or three years ago. Ms. Knight, the oldest of the women and the longest held, was the only one who had not been released to relatives yet. She remained hospitalized in the MetroHealth Medical Center
“She looked healthy and happy and looked as though she liked being with her ‘granddaddy,’ ” Mr. Martinez said. “She had on clean clothes, like a normal little girl, and she seemed alert and talked.”
Ms. Knight, the oldest of the women and the longest held, was the only one who had not been released to relatives yet. She remained hospitalized in the MetroHealth Medical Center.
The city of Cleveland on Wednesday released segments of audiotape from the dispatch call that sent a police cruiser to Seymour Avenue in response to Ms. Berry’s 911 call after being freed by neighbors who had heard her cries. The dispatcher said a woman had called saying that she was Amanda Berry and had been kidnapped for 10 years.
Soon after the cruiser arrived at the house where Ms. Berry was waiting, an officer was heard to say, “This might be for real.”
A few minutes later, in another tape segment, the officers’ voices took on urgency. “There might be others in the house,” an officer said, sounding stressed and somewhat bewildered. Then, “Gina DeJesus might be in this house, also.”
In a later segment, an officer was heard to say: “We found them. We found them.”

Trip Gabriel reported from Cleveland, and Serge F. Kovaleski and Emma G. Fitzsimmons from New York. Steven Yaccino contributed reporting from Cleveland, and Erica Goode from New York. Research was contributed by Jack Begg, Kitty Bennett and Sheelagh McNeill.

Trip Gabriel reported from Cleveland, and Serge F. Kovaleski and Emma G. Fitzsimmons from New York. Steven Yaccino contributed reporting from Cleveland, and Erica Goode from New York. Research was contributed by Jack Begg, Kitty Bennett and Sheelagh McNeill.