Woman charged as accessory ordered to trial
The case of a woman charged in connection with the abduction of a Ferndale High School girl last month was bound over for trial to Oakland County Circuit Court on Monday.
Jessica Quick, 45, of Ferndale is charged with kidnapping, and aiding and abetting her boyfriend, Kahlil Floyd, 44, after he is accused of the armed robbery and unlawful imprisonment of the 16-year-old girl on Nov. 17.
Floyd is the main suspect in the case, facing eight life felonies, including counts of first-degree sexual assault, unlawful imprisonment, torture, and two counts of armed robbery.
Ferndale 43rd District Judge Joseph Longo on Monday ordered Quick’s case up to circuit court for trial.
It appears a plea deal is in the works between Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor Tricia Dare and defense attorney Bradley Friedman. Quick waived her right to a preliminary examination Monday in Ferndale court.
Dare also waived the preliminary exam “conditional on some form of resolution in circuit court,” she said.
Quick appeared for Monday’s hearing by video from the Oakland County Jail, where she is being held on $750,000 cash bond.
Longo said the prosecutor and Friedman are “both hopeful they can negotiate some kind of resolution in (Quick’s) case.”
If negotiations fail, the case will move back to Ferndale for a preliminary examination.
Since Quick’s and Floyd’s arraignment Nov. 19, Friedman has sought to portray Quick as a victim of Floyd’s control and abuse who feared for her life.
The suspects started living together in Ferndale in August. Friedman has said Quick has no criminal record and worked as a therapist for mentally challenged children until her arrest.
At an earlier hearing, Friedman said Quick’s relatives and co-workers told him in interviews she became a completely different person after she started living with Floyd.
Dare during that hearing noted that Quick made no comments to police after her arrest that she was in fear for her life, or had ever reported any domestic abuse or injuries.
Floyd last month was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation to determine his criminal responsibility and competency to stand trial.
Longo is awaiting a report from psychiatrists that is expected in about a month or more from the state Center for Forensic Psychiatry.
News of the abduction and sexual assault of the Ferndale High School girl shocked the community after authorities released some details of her ordeal on the day the suspects were arraigned on charges.
Quick and Floyd were arrested the same day of the incident, police said, and the girl escaped.
She was abducted from a Sunoco gas station at gunpoint while on lunch break from classes. Friends alerted her mother when she failed to return to school, police said.
Floyd at one point went back to the gas station to retrieve a car left there. Her mother was pinging her daughter’s cell phone and came upon Floyd at the gas station, authorities said.
Floyd is accused of robbing the girl’s mother at gunpoint, taking her car keys, and telling her he would kill her daughter if anything happened.
He is also accused of showing the girl her mother’s car keys and threatening to kill her mother and family, Dare said at a court hearing Nov. 29.
The girl was sexually assaulted in a shed outside the house where Floyd and Quick lived, according to police, before he took her to an empty apartment in Farmington Hills and assaulted her again. She escaped after Floyd drove with her back to Ferndale, according to authorities.