Advertisement Restaurant manager accused of torturing, ‘enslaving’ mentally challenged man Bobby Paul Edwards, of Conway, indicted Share Shares Copy Link Copy

A 52-year-old South Carolina restaurant manager has been indicted after being accused of physically abusing and enslaving a mentally challenged man who worked for him.An indictment unsealed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, charges Bobby Paul Edwards, 52, of Conway, with one count of forced labor.According to the indictment, over a five-year period, between September 2009 and October 2014, Edwards used force, threats of force, physical restraint, coercion and other means, to force the victim, who has an intellectual disability, to work as the buffet cook of J&J Cafeteria in Conway. Edwards managed the restaurant at the time of the alleged incidents.Edwards’ alleged victim, John Christopher Smith, 39, talked to WMBF in 2015, and said he was abused by Edwards for years.Smith has been diagnosed with delayed cognitive development that results in intellectual functioning significantly below average.Smith said he worked at J&J Cafeteria since he was 12 years old, busing tables, cooking and doing all sorts of tasks. “I started off washing dishes after school," he said.It was a job Smith says he liked until Edwards, the restaurant owner’s brother, started physically abusing him in 2010. Court documents describe beatings with a belt, choking, slapping, punching with a closed fist and burning with tongs used in hot grease.Smith says stayed quiet about the abuse for years because he was scared.He said has scars on his back from the time Edwards burned him with tongs. WMBF reported that a doctor's assessment from the Conway Physicians Group done Oct. 20, 2014 confirmed the scars.Smith's advocate, Geneane Caines, calls what happened to Smith "total abuse." Caines says she got involved because she cares. She said she became familiar with the case because her daughter-in-law is a waitress at the restaurant. She said, “Customers that were going in there would hear stuff and they didn't know what was going on, and they would ask the waitresses, and the waitresses were so scared of Bobby. they wouldn't tell them then what it was.”.Caines reported the abuse to authorities and took Smith to the Conway NAACP meeting in October for help. She says she also contacted the Department of Social Services.A Conway police report shows on Oct. 10 of 2014, Conway police assisted the agency in removing Smith from the property. It says he was taken to an undisclosed location for his safety.A little more than a month later, Edwards was arrested and charged with second-degree assault, a misdemeanor.Abdullah Mustafa, the president of the Conway chapter of the NAACP, said the alleged abuse was not misdemeanor assault but “enslavement.”Ernest Edwards, the owner of J&J Cafeteria, told WMBF he knew nothing about the alleged abuse because he wasn't around a lot; he spent much of his time at the two other restaurants he owns in Myrtle Beach.A federal lawsuit filed against the restaurant owner and manager in 2015 alleges that Smith was not paid for his service nor allowed work breaks or time off and that he was deprived of any benefits. A news release from the McLeod Law Group said the restaurant owner and manager maintained a bank account for Smith to which he was never given access. It also alleges that Smith was kept from his family and forced to live in a “cockroach-infested” apartment behind the cafeteria that the defendants owned.If Bobby Edwards is convicted of forced labor, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and mandatory restitution.Smith said, "I want him to go to prison, and I want to be there when he go." The FBI is continuing to investigate the case.