Two Longmont residents accused of confining a woman with severe disabilities in a dirty basement storage room were formally charged Thursday at the Boulder County Jail.
Johanes Lapian and Joice Mamesah, both 54, now each face a felony count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and misdemeanor counts of neglect of an at-risk victim, false imprisonment and reckless endangerment charges, court records show.
They are out on $25,000 bonds and due back in court Sept. 7, when a Boulder County judge will decide if the case has enough evidence to proceed to district court.
The pair turned themselves in to police on June 30 after a warrant went out for their arrest alleging that they had been keeping a 37-year-old woman with severe disabilities inside a small storage room barricaded from the outside with a chair.
A real estate agent showing the house Mamesah and Lapian had been renting to a prospective renter discovered the woman when they turned on the lights and heard someone start screaming, according to the arrest affidavit warrant.
Defense attorney Brandon Marinoff, who is representing Mamesah, said Thursday after the charges were formally filed that the situation was misunderstood for being something worse than it was.
“I think in the final analysis when all the facts come out, I think it’ll be pretty clear there was no abuse here,” Marinoff said.
According to the affidavit, the potential renter fled from the home, the real estate agent called the home’s owners and the police were called once the three discovered the woman. She had been wearing a face-guarded helmet and chewing on a pair of women’s underwear.
Police responded to the house in the 1400 block of Frontier Avenue, where they said Mamesah and Lapian admitted to keeping the woman inside the room — which smelled strongly of urine — when she screamed and because she wandered.
The couple’s 17-year-old son, also living with them, was sometimes directed to look after the woman, who does not speak and is disabled to the point that she requires 24-hour care and supervision.
The woman was relocated, police previously said. Mamesah and Lapian are prohibited from contacting the woman and two other people named in court Thursday.
Prior to the discovery, Boulder County Adult Protective Services had an open investigation into an allegation that the woman was not being properly supervised and had gagged on a fabric knee brace, according to the affidavit.
Amelia Arvesen: 303-684-5212, arvesena@times-call.com or twitter.com/ameliaarvesen
