Feds: Pot farmers kept rape victim in box

Authorities said a 15-year-old girl was forced to work on a marijuana grow and sexually abused by two men in Northern California who allegedly locked her in a metal toolbox for days Authorities said a 15-year-old girl was forced to work on a marijuana grow and sexually abused by two men in Northern California who allegedly locked her in a metal toolbox for days Photo: CBS San Francisco Photo: CBS San Francisco Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Feds: Pot farmers kept rape victim in box 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

A 15-year-old kidnap victim was held in a metal toolbox fitted with breathing holes by two Lake County marijuana growers, who sexually assaulted the girl and forced her to trim their plants, federal prosecutors allege.

According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, one of the men, 30-year-old Ryan Alan Balletto, kidnapped the girl from Los Angeles sometime before late April. He allegedly took her to his rural property near Clear Lake, where he kept an arsenal of weapons and a collection of sexual bondage gear.

The girl told a federal investigator that Balletto and Patrick Steven Pearmain, 24, twice put her in a 4-foot-long, 2-foot-wide and 2-foot-tall box for a total of three days. The girl said Balletto called her a "trouper" because she didn't scream, records show.

The complaint was filed July 16. Both men, who are being held without bail, face federal charges that they conspired to distribute 1,000 or more plants of marijuana, used a minor in drug operations, and possessed a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. The men also face state charges of rape and kidnapping.

"Unfortunately, this case illustrates what we in law enforcement see - marijuana grow operations that include heavily armed, violent individuals, motivated by profit, carrying out abuses of vulnerable victims," said Melinda Haag, the U.S. attorney in San Francisco, who has been criticized after some marijuana busts by advocates for medical pot.

Haag said evidence at the scene suggested "additional victims may have been subjected to similar treatment," but did not elaborate.

Federal investigators had been preparing to raid Balletto's property for months when, on April 29, Los Angeles police told Lake County sheriff's deputies that they suspected the girl was being held against her will on Balletto's property.

The girl called police the next day and told them she was OK and "with someone named Ryan," wrote Andrew Jensen, a U.S. Homeland Security agent assigned to contraband smuggling, in a court affidavit. Police traced the cell phone to a West Sacramento hotel room, where the girl and Pearmain were found, Jensen said.

Agents raided the Lake County property a day after that, on May 1, and found more than 1,300 marijuana plants, two rifles, three pistols, tactical vests, night-vision goggles and body armor, Jensen said.

In Balletto's trailer, the agent said, were objects "consistent with sexual bondage and sadomasochism. ... Among the items was a homemade 'rack,' which consisted of a large wooden frame with eyebolts at the corners, presumably to attach a human to the device and immobilize them."

According to the complaint, the girl said the men repeatedly had sex with her and locked her in the box - which was marked with her first initial - to "prove a point." The girl said the men would wash her and the box down by inserting a hose into it.