N.J. teen testifies to being kidnapped, held captive at Mon City house
The teen who texted police telling them she had been kidnapped and forced to perform sex acts while being held captive inside a city of Monongahela house testified that she feared for her life if she ever attempted to leave.
The 18-year-old’s hands trembled as she testified during a preliminary hearing Wednesday about how she met Nikolaus James Breland in March over an internet app, prompting him to travel to her home state of New Jersey before allegedly bringing her back to Pennsylvania.
The pair spent time in Bethlehem and nearby Center Valley, but the teen said she soon regretted her decision to strike up a relationship with Breland while trying to leave a “toxic situation” at home.
“But it ended up being a worse one,” she said. “And things were just a bad situation from there.”
Instead of allowing her to go home when she asked multiple times, the teen testified Breland forced her to have sexual intercourse against her wishes and held a knife against her neck on multiple occasions while telling her she would be harmed if she tried to leave.
They eventually traveled to Monongahela and lived there for about a month at 717 W. Main St. where the teen said she often was handcuffed to the bed and never allowed go into public without Breland. Windows were boarded shut, one of the doors was barricaded with a ladder and Breland hid her cellphone, she said. Breland also talked about prostituting her, although she said it never came to that.
On Nov. 20, she texted Washington County 911 emergency dispatchers – using Breland’s cellphone while he slept – alerting them of her situation, prompting a response from Monongahela police and the county’s SWAT team. Breland, 32, was arrested without incident and charged with promoting prostitution, sexual assault, terroristic threats, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment and simple assault. While the teen apparently was not injured physically, she appeared traumatized by the situation as she testified before District Judge Mark Wilson during Breland’s preliminary hearing.
“I was over it and worked up the courage to send this (text) message and get out of this situation because it was the only opportunity I had,” she testified.
Public defender Russ Korner questioned where the sexual assaults had occurred and whether the teen had ever been prostituted. She responded that she was never forced into prostitution and the threats with the knife happened in eastern Pennsylvania and at an unknown location near Washington. She also said she attempted to contact police in Bethlehem and Center Valley, but was unsuccessful.
“A lot of what she testified to didn’t happen in Monongahela,” Korner told the magistrate during his closing remarks. “At what point did she say I’ve had enough? I don’t know.”
But Deputy District Attorney Cassidy Gerstner responded that some aspects of the crime happened in Monongahela and that Breland’s alleged intention to prostitute the teen still fit the charges.
“The defendant preyed on this young woman,” Gerstner said.
After hearing testimony from the teen and Monongahela police Officer Jeff Toth for nearly an hour, Wilson ordered Breland to stand trial on all charges.
Breland, who appeared for the hearing through video conferencing from the Washington County jail, attempted to speak multiple times during the hearing, but was advised by Korner to remain silent. He is jailed without bond while awaiting trial.