Maryland Man Sentence in Human Trafficking Case

George Udeozor, held the 14-year-old female Nigerian teenager captive in involuntary servitude also secretly using the girl as a sex slave.

October 9, 2008

WASHINGTON DC NEWS -- The sentence in a human trafficking case involving a Montgomery County, Maryland man holding a 14-year-old female Nigerian teenager in involuntary servitude, was handed down by U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte in federal court in Washington DC on Tuesday. George Udeozor, 52, formerly of Darnestown, Maryland, was sentenced to 97 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Udeozor was also ordered to pay $110,249.60 in restitution to the young girl.

Judge Messitte enhanced Udeozor's sentence because George Udeozor knew or should have known that:

• Victim was a "vulnerable victim"
• The victim was held in a condition of involuntary servitude for over one year
• The offense of harboring an illegal alien was committed during the offense of involuntary servitude
• The victim sustained serious bodily injury

According to George Udeozor plea agreement, in September 1996, he traveled to Nigeria and, using the passport of his oldest daughter, smuggled the young Nigerian girl to his home in Maryland. He and his then-wife, Dr. Adaobi Stella Udeozor, used the girl as an unpaid domestic servant and child care provider for their six children for approximately five years, from October 1996 to Oct. 28, 2001. The victim cooked, cleaned the home, did laundry and took care of the Udeozor children. During that time, the victim was physically abused.

Moreover, when the victim was just 15 years old, until the time George Udeozor left the United States in late 1999, returning to Nigeria, Udeozor secretly used the girl as a sex slave. Udeozor had sexual relations with the young girl in the Udeozor home warning the teenager not to tell anyone about the episodes.

Additionally, the Udeozors did not send the young girl to school and did not pay the victim or her family for her work. At times, the victim also worked in Adaobi Stella Udeozor's medical offices, for which she did not receive compensation. The Udeozors compelled their victim to labor by inflicting verbal and physical abuse on her, including when she purportedly did not do her work correctly. They threatened the teenager with arrest and deportation if she left the home. On October 28, 2001, the then grown woman called the police, who took her to a homeless shelter. Meanwhile George Udeozor was extradited from Nigeria in February 2008.

This human trafficking case involving the involuntary servitude and sexual assault of a teenager was investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mythili Raman of the District of Maryland and Trial Attorney Kathleen Monaghan of the Criminal Section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, which all did an outstanding job.

Finally, Dr. Adaobi Stella Udeozor, 49, of Darnestown, Maryland, was convicted in November 2004 by a federal jury following a six-week trial and sentenced to 87 months in prison for conspiracy to commit involuntary servitude and harboring an alien for financial gain. Since George Udeozor has been tried, convicted, and sentenced in federal court, for his role in holding a 14-year-old Nigerian teenager in involuntary servitude, will not be eligible for parole, but may receive early release for good behavior after severing 85% of his 97-month imprisonment.

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