1. A love triangle? Try a hexagon
2. Greenburgh officer involved in dominatrix case fired
3. Hurt So Good
4. 'Sex Slave' Had Own Sicko Site
5. Swinger foe goes online
6. Soccer Moms Of Sexuality
7. Woman admits continued contact in sex slave trial
8. No escape from S&M Svengali, she says
9. Shame may impede swinger-swindle case
1. A love triangle? Try a hexagon
2. Greenburgh officer involved in dominatrix case fired
3. Hurt So Good
4. 'Sex Slave' Had Own Sicko Site
5. Swinger foe goes online
6. Soccer Moms Of Sexuality
7. Woman admits continued contact in sex slave trial
8. No escape from S&M Svengali, she says
9. Shame may impede swinger-swindle case
A love triangle? Try a hexagon
by Leonora LaPeter
St. Petersburg Times (FL)
February 17, 2007
Cherie Ve Ard is worried. As she waits for her burrito at an Orlando Tijuana Flats, she wonders if she's giving her three boyfriends enough attention.
There's Franklin Veaux, 40, her long-distance love from Atlanta, who has surprised her with a visit. He's holding her left hand and kissing her neck.
Her longtime live-in boyfriend, Fritz Neumann, 40, cradles her right hand on his knee.
And she gazes googly-eyed across the table at her newest love, Chris Dunphy, 34, of California. They met in a Toyota Prius chat room in June, and their conversation was so intense he drove cross-country to her doorstep one day ago.
Ve Ard, 33, knows people may think she's a swinger. But these aren't casual sexual relationships, she says. They are a natural outcome of her belief that there's more than one true love out there for her at any given time.
History is replete with people who, like Ve Ard, participated in relationships with more than one love, each lover aware of the others. Financier Warren Buffett, beatnik Jack Kerouac and William Moulton Marston, creator of Wonder Woman, come to mind.
Now the practice has a name: polyamory. Researchers believe the phenomenon is growing, and certainly it has become more visible, thanks largely to the Internet.
The word polyamory only last year joined the Merriam-Webster and Oxford English dictionaries. But already it is seeping into the popular culture; it was mentioned recently on the NBC show Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
The term is used to define an entire range of relationships. Some polyamorists are married people with multiple love interests, and others practice informal group "marriage." Some have group sex, and others have a series of one-on-one relationships.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.sptimes.com/2007/02/18/Floridian/A_love_triangle_Try_a.shtml To respond, go to: http://www.sptimes.com/letters/ or comment at bottom of article
Greenburgh officer involved in dominatrix case fired
by Bill Hughes
The Journal News (Lower Hudson area, NY)
February 16, 2007
GREENBURGH – The police officer accused of having a tryst in the woods with a dominatrix was ordered fired by the Town of Greenburgh's Board of Police Commissioners in a decision released after business hours today.
Erik Ward, who was acquitted of the criminal charge of official misconduct in Town Court in December, was found guilty today of three out of seven departmental charges stemming from his interaction with Gina Pane, a professional dominatrix who was arrested on a marijuana possession charge in January 2006.
The day after her arrest, Ward met Pane at the parking lot of the Doral Arrowwood Resort and Country Club, drove off for about 20 minutes then returned and dropped her off. Ward maintains that he was trying to develop Pane as a confidential informant in order to arrest her marijuana supplier. Pane testified that she and Ward drove off to a secluded spot and that he masturbated while she squatted on a tree branch and defecated to satisfy his sexual fetish.
Ward was found guilty of failing to comply with departmental procedures governing confidential informants, failing to properly report his contact with Pane to his superior officer and conduct which brings discredit upon the department.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070216/UPDATE/702160464/1023/NEWS07 To respond, write to: the author at whughes@lohud.com or the editors at letters@lohud.com
Hurt So Good:
'Slave' a Willing S&M Playmate: Ex-roomie
by Stefanie Cohen
The New York Post
February 16, 2007
A woman who was supposedly tortured and forced into sex slavery for a twisted "master" actually had no problem standing up to him – and was a more-than-willing participant in his sick sex games, her ex-roommate testified yesterday.
The testimony in defense of accused sex trafficker Glenn Marcus was in stark contrast to that given by his alleged victim – a woman identified only as Jodi who described a world of torture with knives, needles and whips and a relationship that she wanted desperately to end.
Rona, 51, in whose apartment Marcus allegedly forced Jodi, 39, to live, told a Brooklyn federal jury that Jodi never expressed any desire to leave him and never said she was being held against her will.
Rona, whose last name was also being withheld, had shared her home with Jodi for 18 months.
She said the trio often orchestrated S&M "photo sessions" in the apartment and that the atmosphere was one of "camaraderie."
"We just wanted to have fun," she said, then described the two women hunting through Rona's closet for "props" and dressing themselves in teddies and other sexy outfits.
"We would tease Glenn because he became so compulsive, trying to get the right shot," she said. She said the trio was "goofing around" and "laughing" while they set up their elaborate sex scenes.
Jodi has testified that Marcus physically abused her – including padlocking her genitals – as punishment for not working hard enough on his Web site, sexslaves.com.
But Rona testified Jodi never cried or acted afraid.
Rona also said Jodi had no problem disobeying Marcus' orders – often flatly saying "no" to him when he'd order her to bring him a glass of water or some tea.
"She'd roll her eyes, stamp her foot, and put her hand on her hip," Rona said. "That was her repertoire."
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.nypost.com/seven/02162007/news/regionalnews/hurt_so_good_regionalnews_stefanie_cohen.htm To respond, write to: the author at stefanie.cohen@nypost.com or the editors at letters@nypost.com
'Sex Slave' Had Own Sicko Site
by Stefanie Cohen
The New York Post
February 15, 2007
A woman who claimed she was tortured and photographed against her will for a sick S&M Web site admitted to jurors yesterday during cross-examination that she started her own bondage Web page after finally escaping the clutches of her perverted "master."
"Jodi," whose identity is being withheld by the court, said she created a site called "Amber's Vault," which showcased photos of people whipping and restraining each other, shortly after breaking free of her "master," Glenn Marcus, 53, who allegedly had recruited her into his twisted world of sex and pain in 1999.
Jodi told defense attorney Maurice Sercarz that she started her own Web site because she was "confused" after living as Marcus' "slave" for two years, from 1999 to 2001.
"I thought it would be a good way of making money," she said.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.nypost.com/seven/02152007/news/regionalnews/sex_slave_had_own_sicko_site_regionalnews_stefanie_cohen.htm To respond, write to: the author at stefanie.cohen@nypost.com or the editors at letters@nypost.com
Swinger foe goes online
by Mike Goodwin
The Albany Times Union (NY)
February 14, 2007
SCHENECTADY — The woman who led the charge against a Union Street inn that hosts sex parties for swingers is turning to the Internet in an effort to end the gatherings.
Dana Swalla of Phoenix Avenue is posting the license plate numbers of visitors to the Union Street Bed & Breakfast on her newly created Web site, http://www.empowerhood.org.
So far, three numbers have been posted on her Web site.
"I have no idea. … We'll see how it goes," Swalla said when asked if she thought the tactic would keep people away from the weekend parties at owner Bob Alexson's 1362 Union St. mansion.
Swalla said she has a private investigator working for her and the numbers that have been recorded are from vehicles whose occupants have parked in front of the B&B and then walked inside.
Swalla blew the whistle on the parties last winter and convinced the City Council to beef up its adult entertainment ordinance to force Alexson to move to an industrial zone.
But Alexson isn't leaving, and he says he'll continue his parties.
He initially said he didn't mind that Swalla was putting the plate numbers online, but he added that it was unfair to the customers who simply stay at his inn and don't partake in the parties.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=562777&category=SCHENECTADY&BCCode=&newsdate=2/14/2007 To respond, write to: the author at mgoodwin@timesunion.com or the editors at tuletters@timesunion.com
Soccer Moms Of Sexuality
by Lenore Skenazy
New York Sun
February 14, 2007
Rose Fox plans to spend this most romantic of evenings with the woman she calls her "girlfriend-in-law" – that is, her husband's girlfriend. Why not? They're friends, they love Wednesday night choir practice, and, of course, they both love Ms. Fox's husband, Josh.
Josh will be home alone in Inwood, catching up (ahem) on his sleep. If his wife's long-distance lover calls, however, he can always talk to her until his wife – or girlfriend, or both – comes home.
And that's the beauty of polyamory. It's so simple!
Polyamory is the name of the movement that promotes loving lots of lovers. For some reason, it also promotes a lot of potluck suppers. Go figure.
The movement is not to be confused with "swinging," wherein icky people have sex with other icky people they'll never see again (unless they're being blackmailed on Long Island).
Nor is it to be confused with "cheating," because polyamorous people are supposed to be completely honest about who's doing what. And who. Some poly couples are so honest, in fact, that they share a calendar.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.nysun.com/article/48601?page_no=1 To respond, write to: editor@nysun.com or comment at bottom of article
Woman admits continued contact in sex slave trial
by Anthony M. DeSefano
Newsday (NY)
February 14, 2007
A Midwestern woman who admitted being a sex slave for a Woodmere man said she went on camping trips with him more than a year after she left a relationship she said was punctuated by torture, bondage and acts of physical degradation.
Testifying Wednesday in federal court in Brooklyn in the sex trafficking and obscenity trial of Glenn Marcus, the witness known only as Jody said she also ran her own BDSM Web site — short for bondage, dominance and sadomasochism — after ending her relationship.
Jody, under questioning by defense attorney Maurice Sercarz, said she ran her own Web site to make money after she ended her role as a subservient slave to Marcus in 2001.
A trim woman dressed in a blue suit, Jody 39, was a key government witness in the case against Marcus. Marcus, 52, is accused of luring her to Maryland in late 1998 to join him in a bondage and dominance relationship that investigators said evolved into months of sexual abuse and forced work on his own BDSM Web site.
Prosecutors said Marcus, who lived in Woodmere and elsewhere, used beatings and fear to compel Jody to stay in the relationship and work with him.
He is also charged with violating federal obscenity laws with his Web site.
Jody said that in 2002 she went on about four camping trips with Marcus, his daughter, her fiance and another woman she said was a "slave trainee." Pictures of the trip submitted into evidence showed a smiling Jody.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/am-sex0215,0,7067489.story?coll=ny-nycnews-headlines To respond, write to: the author at tony.destefano@newsday.com or the editors at letters@newsday.com or comment at bottom of article
No escape from S&M Svengali, she says
by John Marzulli
New York Daily News
February 14, 2007
A woman who says she was forced into sexual slavery took jurors on a stomach-turning journey through her S&M hell yesterday, testifying against the captor who called himself "God."
Jodi, a petite, 39-year-old from Wisconsin, testified that she was powerless to escape the twisted control of defendant Glenn Marcus, a sadomasochistic Svengali she met in 1998 on the Internet.
Federal Judge Allyne Ross allowed the witness to be identified by just her first name to spare her embarrassment.
Speaking in a husky monotone, Jodi described the whippings, mutilations and torture she said she received at the hands of Marcus, who sold comic books and lived with his parents on Long Island.
Marcus also lorded over three other female slaves he dubbed "Doggie," "Nameless" and "Robot, " Jodi said. But after Jodi agreed to submit to Marcus' fantasies, she became his "ultimate slave," the one he called "It," she said. He initiated Jodi by shaving her head and branding the letter "G" on her buttocks, she said.
He later carved "Slave" on her stomach, Jodi said.
"I was now his property and I belonged to him," Jodi testified in Brooklyn Federal Court, where Marcus, 53, is on trial for sex trafficking, forced labor and disseminating obscene photos of the victim on his Web site. "And whatever I was before I came to him didn't exist anymore."
Jodi had dabbled with sadomasochism in two relationships before meeting Marcus, but she said she was not prepared for his extreme brutality.
The defense is arguing that Marcus' relationships were consensual.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/497445p-419209c.html To respond, write to: voicers@edit.nydailynews.com
Shame may impede swinger-swindle case
by Michael Frazier
Newsday (NY)
February 12, 2007
Sex, lies and hours of secretly recorded video have helped police unravel a sex-extortion plot that authorities said swindled dozens of so-called swingers across New York out of tens of thousands of dollars.
Even with the evidence, prosecuting the case will be a challenge, law experts said.
One reason complicating the case is that it revolves around sex deemed shameful, kinky or taboo. Though police believe dozens of victims exist, many have been reluctant to come forward, fearing humiliation.
"Some people who may have been scammed as a result of some kind of sexual motivation" often opt to keep quiet, Mineola lawyer Dennis Lemke said. "Depending on your damages and losses, you most likely are going to chalk it up to experience."
Alternative-sex advocates said the victims shouldn't be reluctant, emphasizing that as consenting adults they didn't break the law by swinging.
Instead, police say they were duped by a Long Island couple charged in the plot and who broke the unspoken code — whatever takes place sexually stays between the two, or more, swingers involved.
"This couple violated this confidentiality. That's why they were allegedly able to do this," said Susan Wright, a spokeswoman for Baltimore, Md.-based National Coalition for Sexual Freedom.
The couple — Michael Largue, 45, of Franklin Square and his lover, Shawn Payne, 34, of East Hampton — were arrested and charged late last month. Largue and Payne, who are being held at the Nassau County lockup, both have a court date set for Tuesday. Over two years, they trolled a swingers' Web site for men and women, secretly taped trysts and later forced them to pay hush money or risk the images going public, police said.
"I've never seen anything quite like this before," said Wright, whose group advocates alternative sexuality. "It's people preying on those who are trying to keep things quiet. They don't want to be outed to their co-workers, bosses or neighbors."
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liswin0213,0,2823990.story?coll=ny-top-headlines To respond, write to: the author at michael.frazier@newsday.com or the editors at letters@newsday.com
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