Daughter Charged, Forced Labor, Puerto Rico Tuesday — Mother and Daughter Charged with Forced Labor in the District of Puerto Rico | United States Justice Department.
announcement Mother and Daughter Charged with Forced Labor in the District of Puerto Rico Tuesday, October 21, 2025 Share Facebook X LinkedIn Email For Immediate Release Office of Public Affairs Defendants are alleged to have physically and psychologically abused the victim, exploiting her intellectual disability to compel her to panhandle, engage in fraudulent and criminal activities, and perform domestic chores for the defendants A federal grand jury in the District of Puerto Rico returned an indictment charging Luz Maria Peña Lopez, 55, and her daughter, Tatiana Correa Peña, 36, of Carolina, Puerto
Rico, with forced labor and conspiracy to commit forced labor, announced Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico W. Dhillon of the Justice Department Civil Rights Division.The indictment specifically notes that as part of their coercive scheme to compel the victim’s labor, defendants Peña Lopez and Correa Peña threatened the victim with violence and death; physically beat the victim, sometimes using objects such as belts, broomsticks, and cables; restricted the victim’s ability to leave the residence by
forcing her to sleep in a space formerly used to house goats and roosters, at times locking her inside overnight; and used the victim’s Social Security disability benefits for their own personal use, denying those funds to the victim for even basic hygiene items such as clothes, toothbrushes, deodorant, and sanitary pads.The maximum penalty for the offense of forced labor is 20 years in federal prison. The maximum penalty for misprision of a felony is three years. The case is being investigated by the FBI. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Stephen Muldrow. Peña Lopez was