Self-styled minister charged in addict abuse

A self-styled minister who claimed to run a transitional housing program in Harrisburg held at least five drug addicts against their will, forcing them to steal expensive video-game systems and provide sex in exchange for crack cocaine and heroin, a prosecutor said Friday.

Edward Edmonds, 31, of Harrisburg, and a second man were charged with five counts of involuntary servitude after a seven-month investigation into Edmonds' organization, the Beyond Your Limits Ministries Church.

"It was no church. There was never any praying," Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico said. "Instead, what occurred at that location was really a house of horrors for these addicts."

Edmonds and Daerell Holmes, 20, also of Harrisburg, forced addicts who lived at Beyond Your Limits' rowhouse to commit retail theft by stealing Xbox and PlayStation gaming systems, which they would turn around and sell, authorities said.

Female victims were forced to trade sex for drugs, and a 16-year-old was videorecorded in a sex act, prompting a child pornography charge against Edmonds, Marsico said.

Victims who could not pay their drug debts were beaten with a belt or shot with a BB gun, primarily in the legs and knees, Marsico said. Edmonds also confiscated driver's licenses and other forms of ID, and would not return them until the victims came back with stolen merchandise, the prosecutor said.

Edmonds and Holmes were charged under Pennsylvania's anti-human trafficking law. They were arraigned Thursday night and were being held on $250,000 bail each. Neither man had a lawyer who could comment on his behalf.

Edmonds maintained accounts on Facebook and LinkedIn, promoting himself as an ordained minister, a youth and young adult chaplain, a "certified technology solutions specialist," and a "spiritual social worker" who helps people going through financial difficulties to get back on their feet.

He wrote that he wanted to "open transitional housing programs throughout the United States of America."

Prosecutors believe there are more victims and asked for the public's help in locating them.