Syracuse.com
A master-slave relationship between the accused kidnappers of two Amish children will likely complicate the criminal case against them, a lawyer for one of the defendants said today.
Bradford Riendeau, a lawyer for Nicole Vaisey, said after court today that she and her boyfriend, Stephen Howells, were in a relationship that was “at the extreme end of the continuum.”
“At one end of a continuum, it starts with bondage and discipline and includes sado-masochism,” he said. “It was at the far end of that continuum.”
The relationship included power and control elements that make “dealing with the facts of this case complicated,” Riendeau said. He would not be more specific.
Their relationship started more than a year ago, apparently throught the Internet, Riendeau said. They lived about 18 miles apart, he said.
In court, Riendeau asked U.S. Magistrate Judge Therese Wiley Dancks to order that Vaisey and Howells not be transported together. The judge granted the order.
In their first court appearance last week, deputy U.S. marshals transported Vaisey and Howells in the same van from St. Lawrence County.
“I don’t know how she could not have been afraid of him,” Riendeau said. But as has been demonstrated on the domestic violence cases involving National Football League players, women stay in abusive relationships, he said. …