1. 'S&M Svengali' convicted of abuse but acquitted of obscenity
2. 'S&M' Marriage From Hell
3. Leather in the garden — just vests, no whips
4. Hard to Swallow
5. Genteel Enclave Puzzles Over Reports of a Dominatrix
6. Students Defy Sex Worker Stigmas
7. Coopersburg ex-official made threats, police say
'S&M Svengali' convicted of abuse but acquitted of obscenity
by Tom Hays
Associated Press report
(via Newsday)
March 5, 2007
NEW YORK — A man dubbed an "S&M Svengali" by the tabloids was convicted Monday of sexually abusing a woman he photographed for his sadomasochism Web site, but cleared of a charge that the site was obscene.
A jury deliberated seven days before finding Glenn Marcus, 53, guilty of sex trafficking and forced labor. He was acquitted of obscenity _ a charge that's been brought more frequently under the Bush administration.
Marcus, who remains free on $1 million bail, declined to speak to reporters after the verdict was announced in Brooklyn federal court. Prosecutors said he faces 30 years to life in prison; no sentencing date was set.
Defense attorney Maurice Sercarz said he would appeal.
The defense had argued Marcus and the victim had a "contract" to engage in a master-slave relationship that, while potentially offensive to the general public, was consensual and even pleasurable to the participants.
"Cases like this test the very capacity of this society we live in for tolerance," Sercarz said in his closing argument.
Using graphic photos of the bound and beaten victim, prosecutor Pam Chen argued that Marcus crossed the boundaries of both civilized society and the S&M community by holding her against her will. "She was made captive by the fear," she said.
"I felt like I was literally in hell," she Jodi, 39, one of two women who testified using only their first names.
The other woman, Rona, 51, testified that while living with Marcus and Jodi, the accuser was a willing participant in their sex games. "I love being around Glenn," she said while testifying on behalf of her longtime friend.
In recent years, federal authorities have stepped up prosecutions of purveyors of hardcore adult pornography.
Under the Bush administration, more than 50 people or businesses have been convicted of violating federal obscenity statutes, and more than a dozen indictments are pending, federal officials said. By comparison, there were four such prosecutions during the eight years of the Clinton administration, they said.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny–sampmontrial0305mar05,0,2853982.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork To respond, write to: letters@newsday.com or comment at bottom of article
'S&M' Marriage From Hell
by Jennifer Fermino and Lorena Mongelli
The New York Post
March 5, 2007
Years before she allegedly began using whips and chains on eager clients of her S&M business, kinky Westchester mansion mistress Sandra Chemero endured the real thing in five stormy years of wedlock, her ex-husband admitted yesterday.
Christopher Chemero, 52, owned up to being "somewhat abusive" during their marriage, which lasted from 1979 to 1984.
He was nonetheless shocked to learn of his ex's arrest on a prostitution charge and her efforts to earn a living off S&M sex games, which, he insisted, played no role in their marriage.
Meanwhile, Bedford cops pressed ahead with their investigation yesterday as a woman who used Sandra Chemero's rented house as a place to sell makeup and clothing to cross-dressing men said the accused madam had a female partner in the S&M business several months ago.
After an argument with Sandra, the other woman moved out of the house in September, the makeup artist said.
Asked if a second woman was involved, Bedford Police Lt. Robert Mazurak replied: "I'm not going to say no, but I don't want to mislead you . . . It's under investigation."
Sandra Chemero, 46, is the only person charged thus far, and police have said that they believed she was working alone.
The rabbinical school that owns the $3 million home has evicted Sandra under a clause in her lease barring illegal activity.
Her Web site advertised the "century-old stately manner" as "The Sovereign Estate," describing it as a "female-led household, headed by an elegant, attractive dominant woman."
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.nypost.com/seven/03052007/news/regionalnews/sm_marriage_from_hell_regionalnews_jennifer_fermino_and_lorena_mongelli.htm To respond, write to: the author at jennifer.fermino@nypost.com or the editors at letters@nypost.com
Leather in the garden — just vests, no whips
by Joseph Rose
The Oregonian (Portland, OR)
March 5, 2007
Eight figures, a perfect picture of quietness and harmony, slowly lift their arms and legs in unison outside the Hall of Brocade Clouds. Tommie, decked out in a black vest declaring "Ms. Oregon State Leather," watches the Qigong demonstration, enchanted. Then she spots a couple waving at her from the waterfall across the pond. "Oh," she exclaims, "that's the Northwest master and slave."
A few feet away, a man and woman watching the graceful display of martial arts at the Portland Classical Chinese Garden shoot a confused look at Tommie. "Master and slave?" the woman mouths to her companion.
Even leather fetishists in town to commune at the NW Sash Bash like to play tourist, which is how kinky met green tea Saturday afternoon.
Heads whip around. Guaranteed.
About 30 of the 125 attending the three-day leather convention downtown are at the garden. Later: a presentation on Oregon leather history. Come sunset, the events get racier.
Leather of all colors — but mostly black — moves through the garden. But this daytime gear is rated PG. Leather coats, vests, boots and even collared leather shirts. Then a 36-year-old Seattle personal trainer who goes by "Tony Buff" walks through a ginkgo doorway with a bright red rope dangling from his belt. Bondage tackle, he explains.
At the convention's indoor events, the attire slides to leather corsets, chaps, bustiers, collars and leashes.
"Consent," Tommie explains as she admires a manicured pine tree, is one of the guiding principles in the leather community. "When we're out in the community," she says, "we don't have everyone's consent to dress like that; so we contain it out of respect."
"We feel comfortable in Portland," says Andy Mangels, a local best-selling science fiction novelist who was Mr. Oregon State Leather 2004 and claims to have one of the world's largest Wonder Woman collections. "The tattoos. The piercings. People living outside the mainstream are welcome here."
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1173077764323350.xml&coll=7 To respond, write to: the author at josephrose@news.oregonian.com or the editors at letters@news.oregonian.com
Hard to Swallow:
The debate surrounding choking as a sexual practice
by Tristan Taormino (opinion/advice column "Pucker Up")
March 2, 2007
A friend recently said to me, "I love being choked during sex," and she said it as casually as I'd say I love being fucked in the ass. Choking as an erotic act seems to be more popular than ever. And I don't mean just among kinky folks, rough sex fans, and porn stars. It has made it onto the pleasure-menu of everyday couples who indulge in what they call "regular sex," which is surprising since cutting off your loved one's air supply is not just risqui – it's risky.
What's the turn on? During suffocation, the body is deprived of oxygen; it floods with endorphins, making the person feel high, and those endorphins can intensify sexual sensations and orgasms. People who practice BDSM (who know a thing or two about endorphins) use the term 'breath play' to describe the different ways one can control breath or deprive someone of oxygen (choking is only one). Some practitioners combine it with bondage or sensory deprivation; use a hood or a gas image: mask, or simply a hand over a partner's mouth and nose. Breath play scenes also have a significant psychological component; they can be a way to eroticize dominance and submission, fear, danger, or control. Among kinky players, these scenes are universally considered edge play (risky or fringe activities).
Ms. Cynthia, a 20-year community veteran, former professional dominatrix, and current BDSM educator teaches a class on breath play, which she says, can be "sexy as hell." "As a Dominant, I literally have someone's life in my hands and I control when or whether their next breath will come. It is terror play," she says. "For a submissive, it is the ultimate surrender. You turn your very life over to the care of another." Her preferred method of breath control – and the one she considers the safest – is two-person re-breathing, where "two people cover each other's mouths with their own and exchange the air between them repeatedly." She says she has never seen anyone take this too far to the point where someone passes out. In her class, she teaches that everyone should take specific precautions when they do breath play and emphasizes that those with heart conditions or sleep apnea should never do it.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.villagevoice.com/people/0710,taormino,75953,24.html To respond, write to: the author at tristan@puckerup.com or the editors at http://www.villagevoice.com/aboutus/index.php?page=contact
Genteel Enclave Puzzles Over Reports of a Dominatrix
by Lisa W. Foderaro
The New York Times
March 2, 2007
BEDFORD, N.Y. – Apart from the phalanx of reporters and photographers, the only hint that something was a little odd about the charming old clapboard farmhouse on Haines Road was the black cloth hanging across the second-floor windows, blotting out the sun filtering down through lofty pines.
It was what happened behind those curtains that set the place apart: "Situated on four private acres, in a century old stately manor, here life is devoted to female superiority, proper training and etiquette for the betterment of men", read the description on sovereignestate.com, a Web site.
The house, as nearly everyone in this genteel town now knows, was occupied by a 46-year-old reputed dominatrix, Sandra L. Chemero, who was arrested on Tuesday on charges of prostitution and weapons possession, accused of running a brothel, not just a chamber of horrors, amid the sylvan splendor.
Few here seemed to know Ms. Chemero personally; she is a former resident of New Milford, Conn., who had rented the Haines Road house only since last summer. But residents were at turns amused, disturbed and mystified by the lurid reports of a dominatrix in an area known for horse pastures and residents like Ralph Lauren, Martha Stewart and Glenn Close.
The disclosure seemed destined to give the image of the riding crop – one of many equestrian accessories available at a shop on the village green – a whole new meaning.
"It's the only interesting thing about the community", a former resident, Jill Jackson, now of New Canaan, Conn., said of the local police department's assertion of a brothel that had quickly become the buzz of both Bedford and the New York tabloids. "It's aesthetically beautiful, but it doesn't offer much in the way of intellectual stimulation".
The police were tipped off to activity at Ms. Chemero's by an anonymous letter in December that noted an increase "in traffic to and from" the house at 235 Haines Road in the hamlet of Bedford Hills.
The writer expressed concern that there was a "business of a sexual nature", directing police to sovereignestate.com, on which Ms. Chemero described her lair as a "place like no other". (The site has since been shut down.)
Ms. Chemero was arrested after agreeing with an undercover detective to engage in sex – $120 for "a dominatrix-style act", said Lt. Robert W. Mazurak of the local police department, though he declined to be more specific about what was on the menu.
Among the items the police said they seized after her arrest were sex toys and a stun gun, a device that temporarily disables via electric shock and that the police believe was used in sexual activity. Before the arrest, the police spent two months conducting surveillance of Ms. Chemero's home, noting visitors' license plates.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/02/nyregion/02brothel.html?em&ex=1172984400&en=15f32a275b561a85&ei=5087%0A To respond, write to: letters@nytimes.com
Students Defy Sex Worker Stigmas:
Students show some sex workers find empowerment in their work
by Elizabeth Limbach
City on a Hill Press (University of California at Santa Cruz)
February 28, 2007
After tying the man's hands behind his back, Maggie Matchin twisted open a bottle of red nail polish and made him paint her toenails with his teeth.
She was forceful. He loved it. He paid her $200 to satisfy his foot fetish that night, and she made it home just in time to write her anthro paper.
Matchin, a professional dominatrix, is also a fourth-year student at UC Santa Cruz. "I definitely have a big streak in me that likes to be in charge", Matchin explained. "I started playing as a dominant, and after awhile it occurred to me that I could make a bit of a career of it".
Although it is typical for dominatrixes to work through "dungeons" or bondage studios, Matchin opted for self-employment and started gaining clients in the Bay Area through word of mouth. Her business was legal (she never engaged in sex), the pay was good, and what's more, she enjoyed her work.
"There were times when I got paid up to $300 just to have a man massage my feet for an hour", Matchin said.
The money, however, was not her motivation for going into the field. As one of the handful of sex workers who do the work by choice and for enjoyment, Matchin worries that the public is too quick to assume that sex work is always an act of desperation.
"Anytime a woman is a sex worker, people want to look for the reason why she's doing it", she said. "They say 'oh, she's only doing it to feed her drug addiction', or 'she was abused as a child', or 'it's really hard to pay for college'. Somehow it is still too far out there for someone to say I really like what I do and I don't have to justify it from somewhere else in my life".
In addition to being a dominatrix and a double major in literature and anthropology, Matchin has worked as a campus tour guide, resident advisor, and a summer orientation leader at UCSC. She also runs free anonymous HIV testing at the UCSC Health Center.
Matchin does not deny that the sex industry has a dark side, but insists that she represents a subcategory of sex workers that defies cultural stereotypes.
Because of assumptions that all sex workers feel degraded, victimized, or exploited, it is hard for Matchin to explain just how rewarding she finds her work as a dominatrix. She argues that sex work can be just as empowering as any other occupation.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.cityonahillpress.com/article.php?id=418 To respond, write to: editors@cityonahillpress.com
Coopersburg ex-official made threats, police say:
Former councilman charged with targeting witnesses
by Kirk Beldon
The Morning Call (Allentown, PA)
February 27, 2007
A former Coopersburg councilman who resigned his seat last month has been charged with threatening witnesses in an arson case involving his brother, the owner of a borough restaurant, Coopersburg police said.
Albert DiDonato, 42, of 530 Landis St., threatened employees of a borough taproom his brother Steve, owner of Abruzzi on Main, had visited before allegedly setting a fire in February 2006, police said.
In November, according to charging papers, Albert DiDonato warned the bar manager at the Silhouette Showbar strip club that ''if I find out anyone from this bar.testifies against my brother, they will have serious problems and physical damage to worry about.''
In January, he allegedly warned the same employee that he would sue the Silhouette Showbar and make sure she ''would be very unhappy'' if she testified against his brother.
''Do not show up at the hearing or you and the bar and the Coopersburg Police Department will feel the repercussions,'' he allegedly told the employee.
Witnesses at the bar have told police that on the morning of Feb. 18, 2006, Steve DiDonato, 46, asked for materials to start a fire that he hoped would distract officers enough for him to avoid a drunken-driving arrest, according to court papers.
In September, the Silhouette Showbar became the headquarters for parties hosted by a swingers club. In December, the borough and the owner of the bar struck a deal to end the swingers parties, the last one of which was held in October.
It was Steve DiDonato who tipped officials off about the parties. In a previous Morning Call article, he described the Silhouette Showbar as ''a disgusting place.''
But a Coopersburg officer saw Steve DiDonato leaving the club, at 111 E. Station Ave., about 2:15 a.m. Feb. 18, according to affidavits.
Moments later, the officer saw a ''wall of fire'' spread out across the road in front of a home on the street, the affidavit said. A plastic gas can was in the flames, it said.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b1_5didonatofeb27,0,2180043.story To respond, write to: the author at kirk.jackson@mcall.com or the editors at letters@mcall.com or comment at bottom of article HOW TO WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
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