Two Indiana Women Convicted for Beating and Holding Man Hostage in Basement

FORT WAYNE, Ind. – Two women accused of tying a man to a pole in their basement will serve prison time.

Shawn Dean was sentenced to 10 years in prison and two years probation on a single charge of criminal confinement causing injury. As part of a plea agreement, charges of battery and strangulation were dismissed.

Desiree Harth was sentenced to six years in prison and two years of probation on a single charge of criminal confinement causing injury.

Dean and Harth were arrested in March after the man, wearing only a T-shirt, flagged down a passing motorist for help.

According to court documents, Dean smacked the man in the shoulder with a pan, held him on the ground and began choking him from behind. She then struck him in the face and told Harth to get a knife. Dean allegedly tied his wrists behind his back with an extension cord and "hog tied" his wrists, ankles and neck.

The women allegedly dragged the man to the basement. He chewed through a cord and freed himself, but Dean and Harth caught him again and took him back down, documents say. The women forced him to remove most of his clothing, tied his ankles to a pole in the basement and put a dog collar around his neck, according to court documents.

It wasn't clear why the man was attacked.