1. Cybersex suspect sues the city
2. Couple face charges after nude boat display
3. The Sweetheart of S. and M.
4. Head Cheese
5. Potter's Perseverance Pays Off
1. Cybersex suspect sues the city
2. Couple face charges after nude boat display
3. The Sweetheart of S. and M.
4. Head Cheese
5. Potter's Perseverance Pays Off
Cybersex suspect sues the city
by Karen Freifeld
New York Newsday
October 28, 2004
A man who was charged with sexually torturing a woman he met on the Internet filed suit yesterday accusing the city, a detective and two Manhattan prosecutors of false arrest, malicious prosecution, fabricating evidence and damaging his reputation.
Oliver Jovanovic, 38, was convicted in 1998 of kidnapping, sexually abusing and assaulting a 20-year-old Barnard College student he met in an Internet chat room. He was sentenced to 15 years to life.
In 1999, however, his conviction was overturned after the Appellate Division said the Columbia University doctoral candidate did not get a fair trial, in part because the presiding judge refused to allow into evidence e-mails of sadomasochistic fantasies the alleged victim had sent to Jovanovic.
On Nov. 1, 2001, on the eve of a retrial, the charges were dismissed. Now, almost three years later, Jovanovic has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Manhattan, claiming that police arrested him in 1996, despite medical and forensic evidence that did not support his alleged victim's accusations and what he calls "significant reasons" to doubt her credibility.
[cont.]
To read this article, go to:
http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/crime/nyc-cyber1029,0,6543257.story?coll=nyc-manheadlines-crime
To respond, write to: letters@newsday.com
Couple face charges after nude boat display
Associated Press report
via The Arizona Republic
October 28, 2004
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – A couple is in hot water for a risque display during a charity boat parade geared toward children.
Misdemeanor public lewdness charges have been filed against a man and a woman from Brewerton.
Troopers used video footage shot by a spectator to identify the couple. The tape shows a topless woman wearing a strand of Christmas lights spanking a man on his bare behind during last month's Christmas Parade of Boats on the Seneca River, just north of Syracuse.
After the parade, organizers received several calls from angry spectators. One of them provided a videotape.
[cont.]
To read this article, go to:
http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/1028naked-boaters28-ON.html
To respond, go to:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/sendaletter.html
The Sweetheart of S. and M.
by Lizzy Ratner
The New York Observer
October 27, 2004
Never mind the welts, the burns, the bloody little gashes. To photographer Barbara Nitke, there are perhaps few images more romantic than the expression on two lovers' faces after a good session with the whips and chains.
"The delight that you see!" she gushed on a recent Friday afternoon. "Those are often my favorite shots because there's this golden glow, and they have these beautiful looks on their faces. See, what these couples are really doing is expressing love. They just happen to be wired a little differently."
So is Ms. Nitke. The 54-year-old photographer was sitting at a Murray Hill Thai restaurant nibbling spare ribs, her neatly styled brown hair and blazer-and-jeans get-up more Tipper Gore than Karen Finley – hardly the old Mapplethorpe-era shock-artist type.
And yet, it appears that Ms. Nitke's own little chapter of the culture wars is taking shape. On Wednesday, Oct. 27, at 9 a.m., she's taking Attorney General John Ashcroft to court, resurrecting the old debate over art and obscenity. Only this time the battleground isn't federal grants and public museums; it's the Internet.
Nitke v. Ashcroft is a case about the right to be raunchy in cyberspace – or, in legal parlance, about the right to freedom of speech on the Internet. Its target is a statute of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 that makes it a crime punishable by up to four years in prison to transmit "obscene" material by means of "interactive computer service." (In its original form, the law also banned "indecent" material from the Internet, but the Supreme Court struck this clause down in 1997.) Because of an unusual provision in the C.D.A., the case could be fast-tracked to the Supreme Court after this round of arguments.
[cont.]
To read this article, go to:
http://www.observer.com/pages/frontpage6.asp
To respond, write to: the author at lratner@observer.com
or the editors at comments@observer.com
Head Cheese
by Metro times music staff
Metro Times Detroit
October 26, 2004
Gen is the comely blond dom and ringleader of the Genitorturers, the most perverted band in America. If Al Jourgensen ever channeled his former junkie "so what" indifference into a sadomasochistic passion, or if Marilyn Manson were to finally become the fetching blond bombshell he yearns to be, then there might be a challenge to match the Genitorturers' gothic-industrial metal din and libido-assaulting S&M cabaret.
The live show (think an alternate-reality Girls Gone Wild set in a dungeon) can include gnarly genital piercing and bondage, strap-on training and pony boy play. See, for years the Genitorturers have been challenging gape-mouthed audiences to dig deep and exorcise their sexual demons; their shows ain't about donning Hot Topic handcuff pants. Here Gen discharges her five monomanias of the moment:
[cont.]
To read this article, go to:
http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=6891
To respond, write to: letters@metrotimes.com
Potter's Perseverance Pays Off
by Mark Spencer
The Hartford Courant (Connecticut)
October 25, 2004
SOUTH WINDSOR — Earlier this year police stopped by the humble, unobtrusive building at the corner of Chapel Road and Route 5 after getting a tip it was home to a bondage and discipline club.
They found what was discreetly called "equipment commonly used for sexual gratification." Soon afterward, the tenant decided it was time to discreetly leave town.
Since then, the building at 240 Chapel Road has been transformed. It is now filled with equipment for making pottery. To the left of the entrance is a small gallery filled with beautiful bowls, vases, platters and mugs.
[Greenleaf Pottery owner John] Macomber said he hadn't heard about much of the building's notoriety until he started moving in. By then, the place was a dump.
When asked about the building's past, Macomber offers a smile and a shrug of his T-shirt clad shoulders.
"All that stuff is history now," he said. "I'm going to make it different."
As unlikely as the transformation is from tawdry sex club to tranquil pottery studio, Macomber's life has been marked by such changes.
[cont.]
To read this article, go to:
http://www.ctnow.com/news/local/hc-macomber1024.artoct25,0,5687972.story?coll=hc-headlines-local
To respond, write to: letters@courant.com
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