Queens couple plead guilty to keeping children as slaves

Sook Yeong Park and Jeong Taek Lee held two Korean kids as slaves in their home for several years.



This week in New York, a Flushing couple admitted to holding two Korean children as slaves in their home for several years, forcing them to work long hours and withholding contact with their parents.

Couple Who Kept Korean Teens as 'Slaves' at Flushing Home Plead Guilty

50-year-old Sook Yeong Park pleaded guilty to two counts of labor trafficking. Park was sentenced to six months in prison followed by five years probation, after taking a plea deal. The 60-count indictment against her included grand larceny, forcible touching and assault for her treatment of the two children. Her husband, 54-year-old Jeong Taek Lee, was sentenced to five years probation.

The two victims, a 9-year-old brother and 11-year-old sister from Korea, were brought to stay with the couple in January 2010. Shortly afterwards, Park confiscated their passports and effectively enslaved them.

Queens woman kept Korean kids as slaves for six years

42-year-old Sook Yeong Park is accused of abusing and enslaving two children in her house since 2010.



This is horrific. In Queens, a woman is accused of keeping two Korean children in her house as slaves for more than five years, forcing them to do housework and give her massages, manicures and pedicures, beating them and making them sleep on the floor, while cutting off all communication with their parents.

Queens Woman Allegedly Kept Two Korean Children As Slaves

42-year-old Sook Yeong Park is charged with labor trafficking, third-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child. According to the district attorney, Park brought a 10-year-old girl and her 8-year-old brother to the United States in 2010, confiscated their passports and effectively enslaved them.

Restaurant owner arrested for enslaving cook

Pradeep Kumar is accused of enslaving and abusing an Indian restaurant worker for three years.



Damn. Been hearing way too many stories like this lately... In Southern California, a restaurant owner has been arrested for allegedly enslaving an Indian employee and holding him in servitude for several years.

Valencia restaurant owner accused of slavery, beating employee

47-year-old Pradeep Kumar was arrested this week on suspicion of mayhem, assault with a deadly weapon, human trafficking and holding a person in involuntary servitude. Police say the victim, an unnamed 55-year-old Indian national, endured three years of slavery and physical abuse.

The victim was lured to the United States in 2012 to work as a chef at Tandoori Grill in Valencia. But Kumar confiscated his passport, barred him from contact with the outside world, and forced the cook to work seven days a week, about 12 to 14 hours each day without pay. When he made mistakes, Kumar would beat him.

So... guess which state finally got around to abolishing slavery? Like, last week.

Did you know that Mississippi was the last state to officially ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery? On February 7, the state finally submitted the required documentation to ratify the amendment. That means on February 7, slavery was officially banned in Mississippi. I'm talking about February 7, 2013: Mississippi Officially Abolishes Slavery, Ratifies 13th Amendment.

And it might have stayed that way on the books, if not for an amateur history buff named Ranjan Batra, professor of Neurobiology and Anatomical sciences at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, who was inspired to look into the Thirteenth Amendment and his state's history after watching the movie Lincoln. Imagine his surprise when he found out Mississippi never got around to actually ratifying the amendment: