Federal Authorities Charge Dallas-area Couple With Slavery

By EMILY SCHMALL , Associated Press

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — U.S. authorities have arrested the son of a former president of the West African country of Guinea and his wife for allegedly enslaving a countrywoman in their Texas home.

Prosecutors say Mohamed and Denise Cros-Toure were being held in a federal detention facility Friday pending a probable cause hearing Monday in Fort Worth on a forced labor charge.

Toure's attorney, Brady Wyatt, told The Associated Press that his client is the son of late Guinean President Ahmed Sekou Toure.

Cros-Toure's attorney Scott Palmer denies the allegations and told AP that the woman, whose name has not been released, was a distant relative sent from Guinea as a child to be raised alongside the couple's three children.

The maximum penalty for a forced-labor conviction is 20 years in a U.S. prison.