ST. LOUIS 鈥 A woman police say was assaulted and held hostage in the basement of a south city church had actually been living in the church for several months, said lawyers for the men charged with kidnapping her.
Defense attorney Chris Combs said the woman was living in Kansas City and was brought here by her parents last May to avoid being committed to a psychiatric facility.
He said the woman鈥檚 family supports the men charged with assaulting her and that the woman was having a 鈥渕ental health issue鈥 on the night she was found bound by ropes and bleeding from the head outside Mount of Olives Ministry.
鈥淚t鈥檒l all shake out at trial,鈥 Combs said after a bond hearing Monday.
Police were called just before 1:30 a.m. Feb. 24 after a passerby found the woman outside the church in the city鈥檚 Patch neighborhood. She told officers she had been beaten and held against her will inside the church.
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The woman showed officers the room where she said she was held, and it had a bucket full of urine and feces, according to charging documents. The woman was still in protective custody Monday.
Police arrested three men at the scene: 32-year-old Pasi Heri of the city鈥檚 Dutchtown neighborhood, 28-year-old Grace Kipendo of Arnold and 25-year-old Canadian Mmunga Fungamali.
All three were charged with one count of second-degree kidnapping and one count of third-degree assault.
The men were denied bonds on Monday. Heri and Fungamali鈥檚 hearings had been delayed a week so the court could provide a Swahili interpreter. Kipendo, who can speak English, was denied bond last week and again on Monday.
Mount of Olives Ministry is a Pentecostal church that caters to African refugees settling in St. Louis, according to the church reverend. The congregation mostly speaks English as a second language.
The city鈥檚 building division condemned the church two days after the arrests. Sgt. Charles Wall said Friday the building was not permitted for residential occupancy but authorities found people living there.
Defense lawyers said there was an event at the church on the night of the arrests, so about 40 people were there. About a dozen church members attended Monday鈥檚 hearings in support of the men.
Arlie Singleton, pastor at the Friendship Assembly of God in Lemay, also attended the hearings. Singleton wrote a character letter in support of Kipendo.
He told the Post-Dispatch he sold the church building to Mount of Olives Ministry a few years ago and has gotten to know Kipendo while helping the church of refugees with the building and figuring out how to make connections in the community as immigrants.
鈥淗e鈥檚 the most gracious, pleasant and personable person and I was very impressed with him,鈥 Singleton said.
He said the charges seem bizarre because they don鈥檛 fit what he knows about Singleton.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not a cult. It鈥檚 simply culture,鈥 he said, noting that the church pastor, Rev. Anna Nyassa Samuel, does not speak English and has not been able to defend her congregation.
At Monday鈥檚 bond hearings, defense attorneys focused on the support the men have from members of the church and the woman鈥檚 family.
Lawyer Susan McGraugh said Heri came here from the Democratic Republic of Congo with his brother.
鈥淗e has a home plan, the ability to work and has no criminal history,鈥 she said.
Justin Summary, Fungamali鈥檚 attorney, said he believes the charges against the Canadian citizen are a case of mistaken identity because of a language barrier between police and the congregants.
He noted how many people were at the church when the arrests were made and that Fungamali was identified through a description of clothing.
Fungamali was arrested the same day he landed in the U.S. from Canada, Summary said.
But prosecutors pointed to the body camera footage, which they said showed the men trying to intimidate the victim, and they argued that her account of what happened matched her injuries.
Combs, Kipendo鈥檚 lawyer, said the officers鈥 investigation was 鈥渟loppy鈥 and 鈥渟hortsighted鈥 and the police documents were filled with errors, including that the date in court documents says the incident happened Feb. 21, when it happened the morning of Feb. 24.
Combs asked the judge to provide a bond for Kipendo so he could go home to his pregnant wife 鈥渦ntil we can hear from the victim and get to the bottom of this.鈥