A Silver Spring woman was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison yesterday for forcing a girl from Cameroon work as a domestic servant for two years in the late 1990s, beginning when the girl was only 11 years old.
Theresa Mubang was convicted by a federal jury in November of involuntary servitude and harboring an alien. Prosecutors said she forced the girl to cook, clean and take care of Mubang’s young children for no pay. Mubang also beat the girl with a high-heeled shoe, broomstick and television cable, prosecutors said.
Mubang fled shortly after her conviction and was not in court in Greenbelt yesterday. Her attorney, Peter Goldman, said Mubang’s use of a domestic servant was part of the “cultural norms” that Mubang brought from her native Cameroon.
But U.S. District Judge Deborah Chasanow rejected that argument while sentencing Mubang to 17 years in prison.
The offenses “went well beyond any differences in cultural norms,” Judge Chasanow said. “One simply cannot take advantage of young girls from other cultures.”
According to prosecutors, the girl, Evelyn Chumbow, now 18, lived with Mubang from November 1996 until November 1998. Miss Chumbow slept on the floor, worked long hours and cared for Mubang’s children. Mubang never enrolled her in school and sometimes forced Miss Chumbow to stand all night as a form of punishment. Miss Chumbow eventually fled the home.
During yesterday’s sentencing hearing, another Cameroonian woman testified she was abused by Mubang and forced to work in the house in 1995. Mubang was not charged with crimes in that case.
The woman, Cecilia Nkolo, now 19, was just 10 years old when she was brought to the United States using another person’s passport. Miss Nkolo said she suffered abuses similar to those suffered by Miss Chumbow before Mubang sent her back to Cameroon.
While beating her on the head and knees with the heel of a high-heeled shoe, Mubang would try to claim she was helping Miss Nkolo by giving her work and bringing her to the United States.
“You come from a poor family. Don’t you see I’m helping you?” Miss Nkolo testified Mubang once said to her.
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