Haverhill Police rescued a 16-year-old teen they say was kidnapped and drugged by a city man who kept the boy in his basement and performed oral sex acts on him before being arrested Monday night.
Forty-six-year-old Mitchell George of 35 Leyland Ave., remains behind bars after being charged with kidnapping a juvenile reported missing from another state earlier this month.
Police rescued the teen when Haverhill Police Officer Zachary Phair conducted a traffic stop at the intersection of White and Winter Streets before 9 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 23. A brown Toyota Camry registered to a 54-year-old Haverhill woman and driven by George was pulled over for failing to signal before making a turn. Once Phair approached George, his passenger—the missing juvenile—ran from the car and was located by police several blocks away. The teen was taken to Lawrence General Hospital for treatment.
The case’s lead Det. Rick Welch said the teen was “physically and mentally exhausted and possibly under the influence of drugs” when officers caught up with him.
He was introduced to George by a mutual friend and was invited to stay at George’s house for several days. During that stay, the teen said George “climbed on top of him several times” and on one occasion, he said he awoke to the man sexually assaulting him.
After that encounter, the boy returned to his home state and, after reaching out to George on Facebook, George agreed to visit him. Once there, George took the teen for a drive and allegedly gave him a Sprite bottle filled with a cough syrup-like liquid he said was “homemade chocolate milk.”
The next thing the teen remembered after drinking it was waking up in Haverhill in George’s bedroom. He could not remember the date he was picked up or the amount of days that had passed since, Welch said. He also alleged George gave him drugs, which he believed to be “meth,” purchased from a “white boy in a nice car” from a spot on Washington Street.
According to police, the teen—who was kept in the basement during the day and slept in George’s bed at night—also recounted several graphic incidents of oral sex, including when he was asleep. Once such encounter resulted in George allegedly threatening to kill the boy after he tried to defend himself.
During his interview with police, George denied any sexual contact with the victim. He also seemed surprised he was being charged with kidnapping. “Kidnapping? Jesus! I thought it was going to be drugs!” he allegedly said out loud to himself before speaking with Welch at the Bailey Boulevard station.
At arraignment, Haverhill District Court Judge Patricia Dowling held George without bail until his next court appearance in October.