Woman takes advantage of mentally disabled man, police intervene

Jon Johnson File Photo/Gila Herald

By Jon Johnson

jonjohnsonnews@gmail.com

SAFFORD – A mentally disabled man from Baltimore is safe back at home after being taken advantage of a woman in Safford.

According to a Safford Police report, on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 15, the victim’s sister informed an officer that her brother went to Safford on a week’s vacation to visit a girl named Windy Cosper but she was not letting him leave.

The sister, who lives in a house next to the victim’s in Baltimore and takes care of him, said she arranged a Greyhound bus ticket for her brother to ride to Phoenix to catch his 2:30 p.m. flight back to Baltimore. However, every time she called her brother, Cosper answered and wouldn’t let her brother speak. The woman believed Cosper was using her brother so she could have somewhere to stay. The man’s financial affairs are handled by the Veterans Administration and the pair were staying at the Quality Inn.

The officer responded to the Quality Inn and spoke with the victim alone. The victim advised he wanted to go home to Baltimore but didn’t know how he was going to get to the airport.

According to the police report, Cosper said she wanted to take the victim to Phoenix for a couple of weeks and then get him to the airport. The officer informed her that the victim wanted to go home now and he already had a flight for that day.

The officer then had the victim talk to his sister over the phone and a new Greyhound bus ticket was arranged for 10 a.m. The officer told the man’s sister that he would make sure the man got on the bus.

When the officer and the man began to leave, Cosper allegedly began acting frantic and attempted to hold onto the man so he couldn’t leave. She started crying and pleading with the man to stay because she “has nowhere to go without” him.

The officer told Cosper to keep her hands off the man and took him to the Safford Police Department to wait for the bus. The officer then took the man to the Greyhound bus pickup location and helped him board the bus to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.