Georgia police arrest couple who held eight disabled people in locked basement

Published January 23, 2022 12:00am ET



Georgia police have arrested a couple after discovering multiple disabled people locked in the basement of a church building in mid-January.

The Griffin Police Department wrote in a press release that officers had arrested Sophia Simm-Bankston, 56, on Thursday, a little less than a week after the arrest of her husband, Curtis Bankston, 55, on Jan. 14. Both have been charged with false imprisonment after an investigation found the two had held up to eight disabled people in the basement of a church in Griffin, Georgia, where Curtis Bankston claimed to serve as a pastor.

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