MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Authorities say a West Virginia man tortured and enslaved his wife for much of the past decade, forcing her to endure two pregnancies and deliveries in shackles.
The criminal complaint against Peter Lizon, 37, says one of those babies was stillborn and buried on the family farm in Leroy. The other survived but apparently has never had any medical care.
Lizon was in jail Wednesday on $300,000 bond. He was scheduled for a preliminary hearing on a malicious wounding charge Friday morning in Jackson County Magistrate Court.
Chief Deputy Tony Boggs said 43-year-old Stephanie Lizon endured more suffering than virtually any domestic violence victim he's seen.
"This appears to go beyond abuse to what I would consider torture," he said. "Her injuries are much more than just getting pushed up against the wall. She's been abused almost to the point of slavery and torture."
The complaint says the wife was burned on her back and breasts with irons and frying pans, and had her foot smashed with a piece of farm equipment, among other things.
Shawn Bayliss, Peter Lizon's attorney, said the allegations made by an acquaintance of Stephanie Lizon are "the fabrication of a fertile imagination or a feeble mind, one of the two."
"The wife had a conversation with someone, and that person has taken that story and turned it into something completely different," he said. "Stephanie would say this story is absolutely untrue, and the charges levied against her husband are blatantly false."
He compared it to the childhood game of "telephone," where something whispered from one person to another ultimately bears no resemblance to reality.
"This is a situation where a person has taken a nugget of information, taken an acorn and tried to turn it into a tree," he said. "And the tree won't support this story."
The details of the wife's alleged abuse came out after she fled from her husband July 2 and took refuge at a Family Crisis Intervention Center in Parkersburg. Her husband had taken her to a rental store to return a rototiller. The wife fled to a Zumba dance center nearby, hiding until shelter workers could get her.
At the shelter, she told another woman about the abuse she'd suffered at the hands of her husband, a native of the Czech Republic. The wife said her family was from Alexandria, Va.
Stephanie Lizon's father declined to discuss the case when contacted by The Associated Press. Relatives of her husband, meanwhile, didn't immediately return messages.
The witness described Stephanie Lizon as "gaunt and filthy," and covered in scars, bruises and burns. She had scar tissue on her wrists and ankles, "mutilated and swollen" feet, a scar in the shape of a clothes iron on one breast, and burns on her back that the victim said came from a hot frying pan.
The witness said the wife was called a "slave" and ordered to kneel before her husband every time she entered a room.
The wife also told the woman she delivered a fully developed, stillborn child while in shackles, and her husband buried the corpse on their farm. Another child survived a similar delivery, but Stephanie Lizon said it had never received medical attention.
Boggs said state child-welfare authorities have been notified, but Peter Lizon's attorney said the child remains with his mother.
The sheriff's department had no history of contact with the family, Boggs said, but investigators confirmed that the wife was treated in the emergency room of St. Joseph's Hospital in June.
The complaint also says the evidence includes 45 color photographs taken to document his wife's injuries during her stay at the shelter. A Sunbeam iron was among the items seized during a July 5 search of the couple's home. Lizon was arrested that day.
Both Peter and Stephanie Lizon were arrested in Maryland in 2004, accused of cutting up Bush-Cheney campaign signs with a bayonet. The couple was apparently living in Randallstown, Md., at the time.
The Baltimore Sun reported that Peter Lizon was sentenced to a year of probation and 32 hours of community service, and ordered to pay $328 in restitution to the Howard County Republican Party.
Wayne Kirwan, a spokesman for the Office of State Attorney, said Stephanie Lizon entered a plea agreement that resulted in 40 hours of community service, plus restitution and fines.
Kirwan said Maryland court records also show that Stephanie Lizon was arrested on drug charges a few months later in Baltimore County, in December 2004. She pleaded guilty to a drug manufacturing and distribution charge in May 2005 and got probation.
The West Virginia Division of Corrections said it had no history of criminal actions by either spouse, and Boggs said the sheriff's department had no previous contact with them, either.
Boggs also said he hopes that the wife's escape will give courage to other people who may be trapped in abusive relationships.
"There's all kinds of people out there who are willing to help," he said.
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Online:
W.Va. Coalition Against Domestic Violence: http://bit.ly/LfiY0i
