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The Cleveland man accused of holding three women captive in his home for more than a decade pleaded not guilty Wednesday on an expanded indictment charging him with 512 counts of kidnapping and 446 counts of rape, among other crimes. 
 The charges returned Friday by a grand jury against Ariel Castro expanded on a 329-count indictment filed earlier that covered only part of the time frame of the alleged crimes. He previously pleaded not guilty to that indictment. 
 Castro, 53, has been jailed since his arrest on May 6 shortly after the women escaped to freedom. As in past court appearances, he kept his head down Wednesday, typically responding to a judge's questions with one-word answers. 
 Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Pamela Barker repeatedly told Castro to raise his head and keep his eyes open during the brief court appearance. 
 "Sir, please keep your eyes open so I make sure that you are listening to me and understanding what I'm saying, OK," the judge asked. 
 "I'm trying," said Castro, who in past court appearances has kept his head down and his chin tucked on his chest. 
 The judge continued his bond at $8 million. 
 Besides kidnapping and rape, the new 977-count indictment also charges him with seven counts of gross sexual imposition, six counts of felonious assault, three counts of child endangerment and one count of possessing criminal tools. 
 He previous was charged with two counts of aggravated murder related to one act, charges alleging that he purposely caused the unlawful termination of the pregnancy of one of the women. 
 The women appeared in a YouTube video last week to thank people who donated to a fund created to benefit them. They otherwise have sought to stay out of sight and have appealed for privacy. 
 Castro is scheduled for trial on Aug. 5, a date that could be delayed if the defense requests more preparation time. His legal team has hinted Castro would plead guilty if the death penalty was off the table. 
 Defense attorney Craig Weintraub said after the arraignment that he didn't expect a trial postponement. 
 "We have a trial date of Aug. 5, so either we're going to have a plea or we're going to trial Aug. 5," he said. 
 The prosecution has said it would be ready for that date. 
 Castro is accused of repeatedly restraining the women, sometimes chaining them to a pole in a basement, to a bedroom heater or inside a van. The charges say one of the women tried to escape and he assaulted her with a vacuum cord around her neck. 
 Amanda Berry, Gina Dejesus and Michelle Knight disappeared separately between 2002 and 2004, when they were 14, 16 and 20 years old. Each said they had accepted a ride from Castro, who remained friends with Dejesus' family and even attended vigils over the years marking her disappearance. 
 Berry has a 6-year-old daughter fathered by Castro, authorities said. 
 The Associated Press does not usually identify people who may be victims of sexual assault, but the names of the three women were widely circulated by their families, friends and law enforcement authorities for years during their disappearances and after they were found.

kidnapping

Ariel Castro, Ohio kidnapping and rape suspect, pleads not guilty 

Ohio kidnap case - cropped

Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight - the three women who endured years of captivity, and gothic horrors, in a Cleveland house - have made a heart-warming thank-you video. They all express gratitude to family, friends, and the people who donated money to help them. They all talk about building new lives. But they also hit three distinct themes that reveal different paths to recovery, different forms of resilience. 
 Berry goes first and is best able to look into the camera. She emphasizes her gratitude for the privacy she's been given since her release in May - and asks for more of it. I always wonder how people who have become unwittingly famous for enduring brutality deal with the attention. It can't be what anyone wants to be known for. Some women who have gone through similar ordeals, like Elizabeth Smart and Jaycee Dugard, seem to find a way to meet it with grace. But that must take time. Berry is asking for more of it. 
 DeJesus appears flanked by her father on one side and her mother on the other. Her parents talk more than she does. The theme here is family: how much it means when they stand by you no matter what you have been through and how long you've been gone. 
 It was Knight who made me cry when she began speaking. She frequently ducks her head to look at her notes, and her voice is high and a little singsong. From what we know of the women's imprisonment, it seems that Knight suffered the most serious violence and torture. Her way forward now, she tells us, is through God. "We have been hurt by people, but we need to rely on God to be the judge," she says. "I'm in control of my own destiny, with the guidance of God." Knight also says that she has suffered so that she can help other people like her. 
 By making this video, which seems to be entirely in their control, these three women are already starting on that project. Here they are, alive and unbowed. I wonder, though: Does it mean anything that they don't appear on screen together? 
 Bazelon is a Slate senior editor and writes about law, family, and kids. Her new book is "Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Empathy and Character."

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Bazelon: Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight speak out

A man suspected of keeping three women captive inside his decrepit house for a decade was charged Wednesday with kidnapping and rape, accused of holding them under conditions so oppressive they were allowed outside for only a few moments in disguise and never saw a chance to escape until this week. 
 Investigators said the women apparently were bound with ropes and chains, and a city councilman briefed on the case said they were subjected to prolonged sexual and psychological abuse and suffered miscarriages. 
 Ariel Castro, a 52-year-old former school bus driver, was charged with four counts of kidnapping — covering the captives and the daughter born to one of them — and three counts of rape, against all three women. 
 The women, now in their 20s and 30s, vanished separately between 2002 and 2004. At the time, they were 14, 16 and 20 years old. 
 Prosecutors brought no charges against Castro's two brothers, who were arrested along with him on Monday, saying there was no evidence they had any part in the crime. 
 Castro owns the run-down home where the women were rescued on Monday after one of them, Amanda Berry, broke through a screen door to freedom while he was away. The discovery electrified <a href="/topics//Cleveland,_OH">Cleveland</a>, where many people had come to believe the missing young women were dead. 
 Police Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said it was the only opportunity they ever had to escape. 
 "Something must have clicked, and she saw an opportunity and she took that opportunity," he said. 
 Tomba said the women could remember being outside only twice during their time in captivity. 
 "We were told they left the house and went into the garage in disguise," he said. 
 The women were not kept in the same room but knew about one another, he said. 
 He also said a paternity test on Castro was being done to establish who fathered Berry's 6-year-old daughter. 
 At a news conference, authorities would not discuss the circumstances of the women's kidnappings or give further details about their ordeals. But City Councilman Brian <a href="/topics//Cummins_Inc.">Cummins</a> said: "We know that the victims have confirmed miscarriages, but with who, how many and what conditions we don't know." 
 "It sounds pretty gruesome," he added. 
 Castro was in custody Wednesday and couldn't be reached for comment. A brother-in-law has said the family was shocked after hearing about the women at the home. 
 Neighbors said that over the years, Castro took part in the search for one of the women, Gina DeJesus, helped pass out fliers, performed music at a fundraiser for her and attended a candlelight vigil, at which he comforted her mother. 
 None of the women said anything that indicated Castro's brothers, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50, were involved, Tomba said. 
 "Ariel kept everyone at a distance," he said. 
 A court hearing for Ariel Castro was set for Thursday morning. 
 The deputy chief also said there was no evidence to indicate any of the women had been outside without clothes, despite claims from a neighbor who said a naked woman was seen crawling around the backyard. 
 <a href="/topics//Cleveland,_OH">Cleveland</a> police have disputed claims by neighbors that officers had been called to the house before for suspicious circumstances. They said nothing in their records supports that. 
 Earlier Wednesday, Berry, 27, and DeJesus, who is in her early 20s, were welcomed home by jubilant crowds of loved ones and neighbors with balloons and banners. Family members protectively took them inside, past hundreds of reporters and onlookers. 
 Neither woman spoke. 
 "Give us time and privacy to heal," said Sandra Ruiz, DeJesus' aunt. Ruiz urged the public not to retaliate against the Castros or their families. 
 DeJesus' father pumped his fist after arriving home with his daughter and urged people across the country to watch over the children in their neighborhoods, including other people's kids. 
 "Too many kids these days come up missing, and we always ask this question: How come I didn't see what happened to that kid? Why? Because we chose not to," he said 
 The third captive, Michelle Knight, 32, was reported in good condition at Metro Health Medical Center, which a day earlier had reported that all three victims had been released. There was no immediate explanation from the hospital. 
 The Associated Press does not usually identify people who may be victims of sexual assault, but the names of the women were widely circulated by their families, friends and law enforcement authorities for years during their disappearances and after they were found. 
 Castro also was questioned about 14-year-old Ashley Summers, who disappeared near his house in 2007. But Tomba said there was no new information linking that case to Castro. 
 While prosecutors announced charges against Castro, federal agents searched a vacant house near where the women had been held. Officials would not say why they were there. 
 A 2005 domestic-violence filing in Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court accused Castro of twice breaking the nose of his children's mother, knocking out a tooth, dislocating each shoulder and threatening to kill her and her daughters three or four times in a year. 
 The filing for a protective order by Grimilda Figueroa also said that Castro frequently abducted her daughters and kept them from her. Figueroa died a year ago.

Ohio man charged with kidnap, rape as women found

Ariel Castro charged with kidnap, rape in Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, Michelle Knight case

Missing Women Found--cropped

Amanda Berry, who was held captive for about a decade before being rescued from a house along with two other women, arrived at her sister's home Wednesday morning to the cheers of hundreds of neighbors and swarms of journalists. 
 Berry's sister, Beth Serrano, spoke briefly to the crowd after their arrival, thanking the community for their support but asking for privacy during this difficult time. 
 Her homecoming comes as more details about the women's years-long ordeal were revealed, including that chains and ropes were found in the home where they had been imprisoned. 
 The owner of that home, Ariel Castro, and his two brothers are in custody after a frantic 911 call led police to his run-down house, where authorities say Berry and the two other women missing for about a decade were held captive. 
 Authorities have until Wednesday evening to bring charges against the men. 
 Berry, 27, Michelle Knight, 32, and Gina DeJesus, about 23, had been held in the house since their teens or early 20s, police said. 
 Police would not say how the women were taken captive or whether they were sexually assaulted. Police spokesman Sammy Morris confirmed on Wednesday that the ropes and chains were among evidence collected inside the house by law enforcement officials. 
 Police Chief <a href="/topics//Michael_McGrath">Michael McGrath</a> told NBC's "<a href="/topics//Today_(NBC_Program)">Today</a>" show on Wednesday that the women were restrained and "released out in the back yard once in a while." 
 McGrath said he was "absolutely" sure police did everything they could to find the women over the years. He disputed claims by neighbors that officers had been called to the house before for suspicious circumstances. "We have no record of those calls coming in over the past 10 years," he said. 
 As word of Berry's homecoming spread, a large crowd swelled in the street outside the home decorated with dozens of balloons, and homemade signs, one reading "We Never Lost Hope Mandy." 
 A 6-year-old girl believed to be Berry's daughter also was found in the home Monday, police Deputy Chief Ed Tomba said. He wouldn't say who the father was. 
 About a week ago, Castro took the 6-year-old girl to a nearby park, where they played in the grass, said Israel Lugo, a neighbor who lives down the street. "I asked him whose kid was it, and he told me his girlfriend's daughter," Lugo said. 
 The women were rescued after Berry kicked out the bottom portion of a locked screen door and used a neighbor's telephone to call 911. An officer showed up minutes later and Berry ran out and threw her <a href="/topics//ARMS_(band)">arms</a> around the officer, a neighbor said. 
 Police identified the other two suspects as the 52-year-old Castro's brothers, Pedro Castro, 54, and Onil Castro, 50. Calls to the jail went unanswered, and there was no response to interview requests sent to police, the jail and city officials. 
 A relative of the three brothers said their family was "totally shocked" after hearing about the missing women being found at the home. 
 Juan Alicea said the arrests of his wife's brothers had left relatives "as blindsided as anyone else" in their community. He said he hadn't been to the home of his brother-in-law Ariel Castro since the early 1990s but had eaten dinner with Castro at a different brother's house shortly before the arrests were made Monday. 
 Investigators also are talking with relatives of at least one other missing woman from the neighborhood. 
 The aunt of a 14-year-old girl who disappeared in 2007 near the house where the missing women were found says the girl's mother has spoken with the <a href="/topics//Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation">FBI</a> about her niece. 
 "We're hoping for our miracle too," said Debra Summers, who described her niece, Ashley Summers, as not the type of girl who would leave without coming back. 
 Ariel Castro owned the home where the three girls were found in a neighborhood dotted with boarded-up houses just south of downtown. 
 His son, Anthony Castro, said in an interview with London's Daily Mail newspaper that he now speaks with his father just a few times a year and seldom visited his house. He said on his last visit, two weeks ago, his father wouldn't let him inside. 
 "The house was always locked," he said. "There were places we could never go. There were locks on the basement. Locks on the attic. Locks on the garage." 
 Anthony Castro, who lives in Columbus, also wrote an article for a community newspaper in Cleveland about the disappearance of Gina DeJesus just weeks after she went missing, when he was a college journalism student. 
 "That I wrote about this nearly 10 years ago — to find out that it is now so close to my family — it's unspeakable," he told The Plain Dealer newspaper. 
 Most everyone in the neighborhood knew Ariel Castro. 
 Neighbors say he played bass guitar in salsa and merengue bands and gave neighborhood children rides on his motorcycle. 
 Tito DeJesus, an uncle of Gina DeJesus, played in bands with Castro over the last 20 years. He recalled visiting Castro's house but never noticing anything out of the ordinary. 
 Juan Perez, who lives two doors down from the house, said Castro was always happy and respectful. "He gained trust with the kids and with the parents. You can only do that if you're nice," Perez said. 
 Castro also worked until recently as a school bus driver. 
 He was friends with the father of Gina DeJesus, one of the missing women, and helped search for her after she disappeared, said Khalid Samad, a friend of the family. 
 "When we went out to look for Gina, he helped pass out fliers," said Samad, a community activist who was at the hospital with DeJesus and her family on Monday night. "You know, he was friends with the family." 
 Antony Quiros said he was at the vigil about a year ago and saw Castro comforting Gina DeJesus' mother. 
 One neighbor, Francisco Cruz, said he was with Castro the day investigators dug up a yard looking for the girls. 
 Castro told Cruz, "They're not going to find anyone there," Cruz recalled. 
 Cleveland officials said an internal review of police communications records found that officers went to the house twice since 2000 on unrelated calls. 
 "Media reports of multiple calls to the Cleveland Police reporting suspicious activity and the mistreatment of women at 2207 Seymour are false," city spokeswoman Maureen Harper said in a statement. 
 Two neighbors said they called police to the Castro house on separate occasions. 
 Elsie Cintron, who lives three houses away, said her daughter saw a naked woman crawling in the backyard several years ago and called police. "But they didn't take it seriously," she said. 
 Another neighbor, Israel Lugo, said he heard pounding on some of <a href="/topics//The_Doors_(band)">the doors</a> of the house in November 2011. Lugo said officers knocked on the front door, but no one answered. "They walked to side of the house and then left," he said. 
 "Everyone in the neighborhood did what they had to do," said Lupe Collins, who is close to relatives of the women. "The police didn't do their job." 
 Police did go to the house twice in the past 15 years, but not in connection with the women's disappearance, officials said. 
 Michelle Knight's mother, Barbara Knight, told the "<a href="/topics//Today_(NBC_Program)">Today</a>" show that she hasn't seen her daughter yet, but hopes she knows she loves and missed her. She said they had a tense relationship before Michelle's disappearance and at the time thought her daughter maybe just didn't want to see her family anymore. She said Michelle Knight's child had been removed from the home just before her disappearance, and thought perhaps she had vanished because she was upset about "the baby." 
 "I know she's probably angry at the world because she probably thought she'd never be found," she said. 
 Knight added that she hopes their past tension can heal, and she wants to take her daughter back to Florida, where she now lives. 
 In 1993, Castro was arrested two days after <a href="/topics//Christmas">Christmas</a> on a domestic-violence charge and spent three days in jail before he was released on bond. The <a href="/topics//Case_Western_Reserve_University">case</a> was presented to a grand jury, but no indictment was returned, according to court documents, which don't detail the allegations. It's unclear who brought the charge against Castro, who was living at the home from which the women escaped Monday. 
 Four years ago, in another poverty-stricken part of town, police were heavily criticized following the discovery of 11 women's bodies in the home and backyard of Anthony <a href="/topics//Anthony_Sowell">Sowell</a>, who was later convicted of murder and sentenced to death. 
 The families of Sowell's victims accused police of failing to properly investigate the disappearances because most of the women were addicted to drugs and poor. For months, the stench of death hung over the house, but it was blamed on a sausage factory next door. 
 Following public outrage over the killings, a panel formed by the mayor recommended an overhaul of the city's handling of missing-person and sex crime investigations. 
 Many of the women's loved ones and friends had held out hope of seeing them again, 
 For years, Berry's mother kept her room exactly as it was, said Tina Miller, a cousin. When magazines addressed to Berry arrived, they were piled in the room alongside presents for birthdays and Christmases she missed. Berry's mother died in 2006. 
 Just over a month ago, Miller attended a vigil marking the 10th anniversary of Berry's disappearance. 
 Over the past decade or so, investigators twice dug up backyards looking for Berry and continued to receive tips about her and DeJesus every few months, even in recent years. The disappearance of the two girls was profiled on TV's "<a href="/topics//America's_Most_Wanted">America's Most Wanted</a>" in 2005. Few leads ever came in about Knight. 
 Knight vanished at age 20 in 2002. Berry disappeared at 16 in 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a <a href="/topics//Burger_King">Burger King</a>. About a year later, DeJesus vanished. 
 Jessica Aponce, 24, said she walked home with DeJesus the day the teenager disappeared. 
 "She called her mom and told her mom she was on her way home and that's the last time I seen her," Aponce said. "I just can't wait to see her. I'm just so happy she's alive. It's been so many years that everybody thinking she was dead." 
 The National Center for Missing &amp; Exploited Children's CEO, John Ryan, said Berry, DeJesus and Knight likely would be honored by his group. 
 "I think they're going to be at the top of the list," he said.

Suspect in Ohio helped neighbors look for missing

Ariel Castro, suspect in Cleveland kidnapping of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, Michelle Knight helped search for girls, neighbors say

Missing Women Found

When the news broke about the three women held hostage in Cleveland for a decade and set free Monday, the revulsion and anger I felt were so strong that, emotionally, it seemed I was learning of a tragedy.
But this is good news, the best possible outcome, unexpected and unlikely, and for some, perhaps, no longer even dreamed of at this late date: Alive, they are alive. And how many parents or siblings or friends would have ever still hoped for it, really?
Amanda Berry, now 27, disappeared after a shift at a Cleveland <a href="/topics//Burger_King">Burger King</a> in April 2003. On Monday, a neighbor -- Charles Ramsey, heard Berry crying for help and along with another neighbor, Angel Cordero, assisted in kicking out the door, then called 911.
Soon the police arrived, went into the house, and emerged with Gina DeJesus, 23, who disappeared in 2004, and Michelle Knight, not seen since 2002, 20 years old when she vanished. A 6-year-old girl, believed to be Berry's daughter, is also safe.
There is something universal in Ramsey's shock at learning there were captive women in the "normal" neighbor's home, and his attempt to explain it: "I barbecued with this dude. We eat ribs and whatnot, and listened to salsa music."
The ogres who stalk our children aren't noticeably monstrous. They barbecue, eat ribs, listen to salsa and are expert in hiding twisted proclivities.
I don't remember, even growing up with the standard maniacally paranoid mother, the phobia that me or my sister might be taken captive and held as slaves. I recall the fear that we would be killed, by anything from a speeding car to lightning to a razor hidden in an apple. But the trend of kidnapping young women and keeping them endlessly, like <a href="/topics//Elizabeth_Smart">Elizabeth Smart</a>, <a href="/topics//Jaycee_Dugard">Jaycee Dugard</a> and now, these three, feels like it has suddenly mushroomed.
All these women being found alive makes a strong argument for not losing hope, and DeJesus' mother claims she never did, but my instinct has always been that, at some point, people ought to give up.
In Columbia, S.C., when I was in my 20s, Dail Dinwiddie was the poster child for disappearing women, and endless hope. Dinwiddie was 23 on Sept. 24, 1992, when she attended a <a href="/topics//U2">U2</a> concert with 30,000 other people, went to a bar afterward, then vanished.
Her parents' tireless aggression in trying to find Dail was inspiring, and exhausting. After five years, and 10, still there were the vigils and fliers: "Have you seen this girl?" Eventually, I started thinking, "I respect their pain, but her parents might be better off if they let it go. The girl's dead, and buried somewhere." 
But the Dinwiddies have never quit. Last year, police and the Dinwiddies released an age-adjusted photo, showing what Dail might look like at 43, still hoping against hope.
Tuesday I called her dad, Dan Dinwiddie, just to get a little insight. "I'm so glad for those girls," he said. "I'm so glad for their families."
Does he think Dail is alive? "I really . . I don't know. My wife and I don't talk about that. I honestly don't have a sense if she's alive or not."
Dan Dinwiddie understands why some people think they should have given up, but said, "It's different when it's your child. We've discussed it and we feel like we can't give up. Dail wouldn't give up on us."
How could she be alive, yet not found, after all these years? 
"It's on the off chance that . . . she got hit in the head and has <a href="/topics//Amnesia">amnesia</a>, or . . . you can imagine all sorts of things that could have happened."
I once thought him deranged by grief. Two decades later, with a child of my own, I think he was right all along, whether his daughter's alive or not. 
Lane Filler is a member of the Newsday editorial board.

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