1. Judge in trial of Southington man is under scrutiny
2. AG candidates debate Utah's 'dirty little secret'
3. E-mails, X-rated photos fill last day of testimony
4. Polygamous Past, Asexual Future?
5. Local sex parties get new attention
6. Sex harassment charge leveled against Maurer
1. Judge in trial of Southington man is under scrutiny
2. AG candidates debate Utah's 'dirty little secret'
3. E-mails, X-rated photos fill last day of testimony
4. Polygamous Past, Asexual Future?
5. Local sex parties get new attention
6. Sex harassment charge leveled against Maurer
Judge in trial of Southington man is under scrutiny
by The Associated Press
via The Record-Journal (Connecticut)
September 23, 2004
HARTFORD – The state Supreme Court is deciding whether a lower court judge was wrong to mock a convict and increase his sentence after reading a story about the case in an alternative newspaper.
New Britain Superior Court Judge Kevin McMahon is accused of judicial misconduct in the sentencing of Eric Molnar in January 2002.
Molnar, of Southington, was convicted by a jury in November 2001 of first-degree kidnapping, unlawful restraint, second-degree assault and sexual assault in a spousal relationship. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison followed by 35 years of probation.
Authorities said Molnar ambushed his estranged wife in the basement of her home, bound and gagged her and sexually assaulted her over the course of five hours. He videotaped parts of the assault.
Molnar claimed the sex was consensual, and that the couple had engaged in bondage acts during their marriage. He submitted videotapes of their sexual encounters as evidence.
In the two months between Molnar's conviction and his sentencing, McMahon read a Hartford Advocate article about the case that also touched on the subjects of sadomasochism, bondage and discipline. The weekly paper quoted Molnar saying that he believed he was the real victim and suggested that his estranged wife framed him.
McMahon brought the article to his courtroom and had it marked as a court exhibit. He said he changed the range of the sentence he was considering "a little bit" after reading the article.
[cont.]
To read this article, go to:
http://www.record-journal.com/articles/2004/09/23/news/state/state05.txt
To respond, write to: letters@record-journal.com
AG candidates debate Utah's 'dirty little secret'
by Dan Harrie
The Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
September 23, 2004
Guns aren't the only wedge issue in the Utah attorney general's race. Polygamy really sets the candidates apart.
Incumbent Mark Shurtleff, a Republican, pats himself on the back for waging the most aggressive campaign in half a century against crimes within polygamous communities.
Democratic challenger Greg Skordas contends Shurtleff's record on polygamy is a flop, and says the first-term attorney general is more interested in press conferences than prosecution.
Libertarian attorney general hopeful Andrew McCullough has an altogether different take. He insists polygamy is a constitutional right.
During a debate Wednesday at Salt Lake City's Main Library, the three presented sharply contrasting stands on what has been called Utah's "dirty little secret."
[cont.]
To read this article, go to:
http://www.sltrib.com/utah/ci_2418864
To respond, write to: letters@sltrib.com
E-mails, X-rated photos fill last day of testimony
by Ken Kolker
The Grand Rapids Press
September 21, 2004
It was obvious from the series of computer e-mail messages that the customer was looking for a deal.
The man identified as Bill wanted to meet "Sasha" in the Lansing area and become a regular customer.
"Do you offer 'reduced rates' for … devoted clients?" he wrote. And, he had a coupon for $25 off.
In the messages from April 2002, Bill described what he wanted for his money — to be "kidnapped and raped, to be stripped, bound, gagged and blindfolded by my Dominatrix."
He also wanted the messages kept private.
On Monday, the e-mails were shown on an overhead projector to jurors who will determine whether Terrence Posey, 35, ran a lucrative prostitution business out of his Belmont home. The jury also saw an "X-rated" photograph of Bill, which was attached to one of the e-mails.
[cont.]
To read this article, go to:
http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ssf?/base/news-17/1095777965147870.xml
To respond, write to: pulse@grpress.com
Polygamous Past, Asexual Future?
by Jennifer Viegas
Discovery News
September 20, 2004
Three recent studies on sex reveal that polygamy holds biological benefits and dominated human history so much that it is imprinted in our genes, but that asexuality appears to be a relatively new evolutionary phenomenon that could, in the future, be favored by natural selection.
Together the studies help to explain why sexual reproduction amongst all creatures on Earth is so widespread, and yet why some animal, fish, bacteria, and insect species can reproduce asexually.
University of Arizona in Tucson scientists studied DNA from Y chromosomes, which are passed from father to son, and mitochondrial DNA, which is passed from mother to daughter. The DNA came from 389 individuals representing a number of populations worldwide, including the Netherlands and South Africa.
The researchers discovered that while more men than women are squeezed out of the gene pool, Y chromosome variations indicate that those men whose genes did survive tended to travel and to have multiple female partners.
"We may think of ourselves as a monogamous species, but we're coming from an evolutionary history that's probably slightly polygamous," said Michael Hammer, a research scientist at UA's Arizona Research Laboratories. "If we're shifting toward monogamy, it's so recent it hasn't left an imprint in our genome."
[cont.]
To read this article, go to:
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20040920/asexual.html
To respond, go to:
http://extweb.discovery.com/viewerrelations
Local sex parties get new attention
by Maureen Boyle
The Enterprise (Boston)
September 18, 2004
A curious Ed Hennessy went to his first "swingers" party 25 years ago.
Today, he leads one of the oldest "swingers" clubs around and hosts partner-swapping sex parties throughout the region.
Hennessy is one of a growing number of people hosting sex parties at homes, hotels and clubs, catering to a variety of sexual interests and preferences.
"They could be in any community," said Hennessy, who ran a swingers club in an Avon industrial park five years ago. "With the Internet, there are so many parties out there."
Sex parties in communities large and small are catching the public's attention after male-only orgies at a Brockton home, run by a former Crime Watch leader, made headlines earlier this month.
The sex parties and clubs that can be found vary from the Brockton orgies to a paddling club in Attleboro to partner swapping parties in homes.
[cont.]
To read this article, go to:
http://enterprise.southofboston.com/articles/2004/09/19/news/news/news01.txt
To respond, write to: newsroom@enterprisenews.com
Sex harassment charge leveled against Maurer
by staff reporter
The Morris News Bee (Morristown, NJ)
September 16, 2004
MORRISTOWN – The Town Council was expected to take up a sexual harassment complaint in closed session Tuesday, Sept. 14, that was leveled by a former town worker against Town Administrator Eric Maurer.
The former secretary in the Morristown mayor's office, Ann Marie Spagnola, filed a tort claim last Thursday at town hall claiming the town administrator subjected her to a hostile work environment by exposing her to sexually explicit stories on his office computer.
Spagnola, who started working at town hall in 1991 and eventually served as an IT (Information Technology) management specialist, said the problems started in 2000 when she found sexually explicit stories in a satchel holding an office laptop, according to the letter.
In November 2000, she alleges, Maurer asked her to remove a sexually explicit screen saver from his computer.
She saw a photograph of and adult man dressed like a headmaster holding a paddle in a position above the exposed male buttocks of an underage boy. Eric Mauer said the screen-saver had been e-mailed to him, the letter states.
In August 2001, when Maurer was on vacation, she also claims an assistant town attorney asked her to retrieve documents from his office and she looked on his computer and found explicit stories and a link to an alleged dominatrix-type Web site. She also alleges she found similar stories on diskettes when she was in his office at other times.
[cont.]
To read this article, go to:
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=12929197&;BRD=1918&PAG=461&dept_id=506567&rfi=6
To respond, write to:
jlent@recordernewspapers.com or click link at bottom of the article
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