Dungeon case defendants get Dec. 19 court date

Correction: The defendants did not appear in court, as reported earlier.

A judge today set Dec. 19 for a daylong preliminary hearing for Linda Ann Weston and her alleged accomplices on charges of enslaving four mentally challenged adults and holding them captive in a dank Tacony boiler room.

The defendants did not appear in court for the brief hearing and no pleas were entered.

Authorities allege that Weston, 51; her boyfriend Gregory Thomas, 47; and Eddie Wright, 50, held the four in a scheme to collect their Social Security benefits.

Expectations that the three would appear in court proved unfounded.

Instead, their lawyers met briefly with Common Pleas Court Senior Judge Felice Rowley Stack, who set Dec. 19 for the preliminary hearing for all the defendants in the case.

At the preliminary hearing, prosecutors will outline their case against Weston, Thomas, Wright and Jean McIntosh, Weston's daughter, who also is charged.

After this morning's hearing, Weston's attorney, George Yacoubian, said his client appeared "lethargic" during a brief meeting and he added that a "competency hearing might be a good idea."

The discovery of the three men and woman locked in the basement boiler room on Oct. 15 in the meantime has triggered an FBI investigation for other possible victims in at least three other states - Florida, Texas and Virginia.

Eight children and two young adults linked to the case are in protective custody.

Officials have described the case as both horrifying and complicated as they try to sort out the relationship of the children in protective custody, two of whom are believed to be son and daughter of the female captive.