Bobby Paul Edwards is an American Restaurant Owner known for being indicted by a federal grand jury after being accused of enslaving a worker for more than 5 years. ^[0]

Sometime in November, 2015, a federal civil lawsuit filed in U.S.

District Court was filed against Bobby Paul Edwards and his brother, Ernest Edwards.

The two brothers were accused of enslaving Christopher Smith, a black handicapped man for almost 5 years.

The two brothers would often beat Smith in front of people at the restaurant and made him work 18 hours a day, 7 days a week - without pay.

According to the court lawsuit documents, the two brothers only paid a total of $2,842 yearly.

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On October 12th, 2017, Bobby Paul Edwards was arrested after an indictment by the Federal Grand Jury for a charge of force labor - attempt to establish peonage, slavery, involuntary servitude or human trafficking.

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Federal prosecutors say Bobby Paul Edwards used “force, threats of force, physical restraint, and coercion” to compel John Christopher Smith to work as a buffet cook at J&J Cafeteria in Conway, S.C., for more than five years.

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Edwards has pleaded not guilty.

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The charges carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

If convicted, Edwards will have to pay restitution to Smith.

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In 2010, when Bobby Edwards became manager, Christopher Smith, an African American worker who had worked for more than 2 decades for J&J Cafeteria - has said that the job turned into a nightmare. ^[4]

Smith described Edwards like a slave driver.

He said the manager would call him racial slurs, and threaten to “stomp” his throat and beat him “until people would not recognize him.”

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Edwards assaulted him regularly according to Christopher Smith.

Bobby Edwards would sometimes taking Smith into the restaurant’s freezer or back office to keep others from noticing, the lawsuit said.

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Edwards dipped a pair of tongs into hot frying grease and scalded the back of his neck.

On another occasion, when Smith didn’t bring food out to the buffet fast enough, Edwards took Smith into the back of the restaurant and whipped him with a belt buckle, according to the complaint.

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Smith lived in squalor behind the restaurant in a roach-infested apartment owned by Edwards, according to the complaint.

Smith’s attorneys described the conditions there as “sub-human,” “deplorable” and “harmful to human health.”

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prosecutors alleged Edwards held Smith captive from September 2009 to October 2014, an even longer period than Smith’s attorneys outlined in their lawsuit.

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