In 1971, Karenga was sentenced to one to ten years in prison on counts of felonious assault and imprisonment.
[16] One of the victims gave testimony of how Karenga and other men tortured her and another woman. The woman described having been stripped and beaten with an electrical cord. Karenga's estranged wife, Brenda Lorraine Karenga, testified that she sat on the other woman's stomach while another man forced water into her mouth through a hose.
A May 14, 1971, article in the
Los Angeles Times described the testimony of one of the women:
Deborah Jones, who once was given the Swahili title of an African queen, said she and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothes. She testified that a hot soldering iron was placed in Miss Davis' mouth and placed against Miss Davis' face and that one of her own big toes was tightened in a vise. Karenga, head of US, also put detergent and running hoses in their mouths, she said. They also were hit on the heads with toasters.
[17]
Jones and Brenda Karenga testified that Karenga believed the women were conspiring to poison him, which Davis has attributed to a combination of ongoing police pressure and his own
drug abuse.
[4][18]
Karenga denied any involvement in the torture, and argued that the prosecution was political in nature.
[4][19] He was imprisoned at the
California Men's Colony, where he studied and wrote on feminism,
Pan-Africanism and other subjects. The US Organization fell into disarray during his absence and was disbanded in 1974. After he petitioned several black state officials to support his parole on fair sentencing grounds, it was granted in 1975.
[20]
Karenga has declined to discuss the convictions with reporters and does not mention them in biographical materials.
[18] During a 2007 appearance at
Wabash College, he again denied the charges and described himself as a former political prisoner.
[21]
