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WVEC.com
Posted on May 13, 2014 at 12:04 AM
Updated
Monday, May 19 at 5:25 PM
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5/19 UPDATE:
The brothers each requested court-appointed attorneys Monday. The judge will not let them discuss the case or enter pleas until they meet with their attorneys.
Erik Jackson and Matthew Jackson appeared together in court; John Mark Jackson and Matthew Jackson appeared together; Aaron Jackson and Benjamin Jackson appeared together.
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HERTFORD, NC -- Six brothers from Perquimans County have been charged with sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl for more than a decade.
Eric, 27, Jon, 25, Matthew, 23, Nathaniel, 21, Benjamin, 19, and Aaron Jackson, 18, were arrested last week. They are charged with crimes related to rape of a child.
Deputies also charged the brothers' parents, John Jackson, 65, and Nita Jackson, 54, with felony child abuse, saying the couple knew what was happening but did nothing to stop it.
One of the brothers supposedly told investigators his mother witnessed the alleged abuse on at least one occasion and walked away.
"It's disgusting that you would think, that parents knew that something like this was going on and just let it go," Sheriff Eric Tilley told 13News Now. "That's disgusting."
Tilley said his office's investigation began in December of 2012 after a Jackson brother reported the alleged abuse at the urging of the brother's pastor.
"Said, you know, that's not a normal situation. That's not the way a normal family lives, you know, this is absolutely wrong and to do the right thing, you need to go and talk with the authorities," Tilley explained.
"When he came in and told us that, our initial belief was that we probably wouldn't get far with this case. We probably knew we were gonna get some resistance because this family is, like I said, they're close-knit. They stay to themselves, you know, they didn't go to school, so they're not really out socially," Tilley said.
Instead, Tilley told 13News Now, after deputies began their investigation, 2 other brothers corroborated the claims.
When investigators spoke to the victim in March of this year, she, too, said the allegations were true.
Tilley said the abuse took place beginning when she was 4 until she was about 14.
Although the brothers supposedly were home-schooled, their level of education seemed low. The oldest, Eric, had difficulty writing his name when he spoke to investigators.
When deputies went to the family's property on Chapanoke Road, they denied them access. Tilley said by mid to late 2013, the parents moved much of the family to Colorado.
The six brothers and their parents were indicted April 24, 2014.
"Never suspected anything," said Bette Butler who lives next door to the Jacksons' home and whose son grew up with the boys.
"They first moved here, we did have them to dinner a couple times. They seemed like really normal people, normal children," Butler offered. "There wasn't a lot of interaction between the Jacksons and people in the area much. I mean, they pretty much kept to themselves."
Another neighbor told 13News Now the children always seemed friendly. He added there were some odd things about the family, including the collection of junk they accumulated on the property.
"We reached out, couple of times to help 'em out when they first got here, but to no avail," the neighbor said. "To have something like this, and for the parents to be able to allow something like that to happen, you know, it's just really heartbreaking, really heartbreaking."
"The only thing that can come out of this -- good -- is that, you know, this young lady gets some kind of closure, and, hopefully, she's strong enough and with a support group put it behind her and go on with her life," Tilley said.
The defendants returned to North Carolina rather than be arrested in Colorado and await extradition. Tilley told 13News Now the parents are not cooperating with deputies and that they returned to Colorado after they posted a $15,000 secured bond.
The brothers are being held in Albemarle District Jail under secured bonds of up to $150,000. They are scheduled to be in court Monday, May 19.
http://www.wvec.com/news/Six-brothers-charged-with-258936601.html#
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