1. Swingers' club host pleads not guilty to assault charges
2. Federal trial presents window into world of S&M
3. Dominatrix settles drug charge
4. BDSM: a gentle, firm introduction
5. Bound and Flagged
1. Swingers' club host pleads not guilty to assault charges
2. Federal trial presents window into world of S&M
3. Dominatrix settles drug charge
4. BDSM: a gentle, firm introduction
5. Bound and Flagged
Swingers' club host pleads not guilty to assault charges
by Rick Dumont
The Union Leader (New Hampshire)
February 26, 2007
PORTSMOUTH – The septuagenarian leader of The Middle Door swinger's club pleaded not guilty to two simple assault charges at his arraignment in Portsmouth District Court yesterday.
Joseph Ranguette, 71, was arrested Jan. 19 for allegedly assaulting a woman and her 26-year-old son Jan. 12.
According to court documents, Ranguette allegedly pushed the woman in the chest and punched the young man in the face during a dispute outside their Cutty Street apartments. Neither sought medical treatment at the time.
The woman and her son were moving out of the apartment and got into an altercation with Ranguette, court documents state.
On the website, www.swingersclublist.com The Middle Door is listed as a "friendly, safe place where couples can come and enjoy themselves." The site lists sexual devices that can be used by patrons and that the club offers a buffet.
The members-only club, which stresses consensual participation, apparently has been operating for nearly two decades. It came under intense media scrutiny last month after someone filed a complaint with police about the sexual activities going on inside the three family building.
City officials issued a cease-and-desist order to Ranguette in March of last year after a complaint about parking, city attorney Bob Sullivan said.
The city took issue with the parties because, Sullivan said, the neighborhood and building are not zoned for such activities and Ranguette never sought permission to host such events.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Swingers'+club+host+pleads+not+guilty+to+assault+charges&articleId=26230ce7-1d5f-4de5-a6b8-c0a7fe71a5b5 To respond, write to: letters@unionleader.com
Federal trial presents window into world of S&M
By Tom Hayes
Associated Press report (via The Boston Herald)
February 23, 2007
NEW YORK – The graphic color photo, flashed on a large video-screen stationed next to the jury, tested the decorum of a federal courtroom.
It showed a nude woman named Rona tethered to a tree trunk in the wilderness. From the witness stand, Rona answered questions about the bondage scene in graphic detail, casually complaining that she was bitten up by mosquitoes.
The testimony came during a trial in Brooklyn that has given jurors lessons on the lifestyle of a man dubbed an "S&M Svengali" by the tabloids, the inner-workings of a sadomasochism Web site and the federal government's crackdown on obscenity.
The jury began deliberating Thursday.
In recent years, federal authorities have stepped up prosecutions of purveyors of hardcore adult pornography to "protect citizens from unwanted exposure to obscene material", Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said.
One pending case in Pittsburgh – involving videos of simulated rape and murder – was initially thrown out before being reinstated on appeal by the Department of Justice.
Under the Bush administration, at least 52 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.
In the Brooklyn case, Rona and the prosecution's star witness, named Jodi, gave conflicting accounts of an alleged campaign of sadism by Glenn Marcus, 53, operator of a Web site devoted to BDSM – shorthand for bondage, domination and sadomasochism. A judge allowed both women to testify using only their first names.
Marcus included Jodi and other women in thousands of photos posted on his Web site – a practice that prompted the government to bring obscenity charges along with sex trafficking and a forced labor count.
The most serious charge – forced labor – by statute carries a potential life sentence, although such a punishment is unlikely under federal sentencing guidelines.
Jodi told the jury that after meeting Marcus over the Internet in 1998, she agreed to become one of his "slaves". Over two years, he systematically degraded her by shaving her head, branding the initial "G" on her buttocks and carving "Slave" on her stomach during liaisons in homes in Maryland, Washington, D.C., New York City and on Long Island.
When the 39-year-old Jodi failed to properly perform tasks for the defendant's Web site in 2001, he punished her by putting a ball in her mouth, closing it shut with surgical needles and hanging her on a wall, she said. Other times, he tied her down and mutilated her genitals with a smoldering cigarette as she screamed out in pain, she said.
Rona, 51, a longtime friend called as a defense witness, said that while living with Marcus and Jodi, the accuser was a willing participant in their sex games. She called the defendant harmless.
"I love being around Glenn", she said, even as prosecutors displayed photos of her breasts punctured with dozens of pins. "He's a lot of fun".
Defense experts testified that the BDSM scene follows rules that purposely blur the line between pleasure and pain, but demand mutual consent. One said it draws from a "vast array of people", including judges; another said that Marcus' Web site had "serious scientific value" as a tool to study sexual behavior.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://news.bostonherald.com/national/northeast/view.bg?articleid=184574 To respond, write to: letterstotheeditor@bostonherald.com
Dominatrix settles drug charge
by Jorge Fitz-Gibbon
The Journal News (Lower Hudson area, NY)
February 23, 2007
GREENBURGH – A dominatrix who claimed she was involved in a saucy sex scandal with a town narcotics officer has settled the marijuana charge against her.
Gina Pane, 31, of Rye Brook will have the January 2006 charges dismissed if she stays out of trouble for one year, according to a deal made in Greenburgh Town Court this week.
But the kinky case, which led to the firing last week of Greenburgh Police Officer Erik Ward, may not be over, said defense attorney Ravi Batra, who represents Pane in the case.
With the criminal case all but settled, Batra said he expects to file a civil suit in federal court.
"It is successfully completed, because this leaves her with no criminal record and it will be sealed," he said.
But, Batra added, "what the court has heard so far was not the truth under oath."
Andrew Quinn, an attorney representing Ward, declined to comment yesterday.
Officials at the Westchester County District Attorney's Office would only confirm that Pane accepted the deal in court.
Pane made headlines last year after she alleged that Ward promised to drop the marijuana charges against her in exchange for a kinky sex act involving a tryst in the woods.
Ward, who was acquitted of a criminal official misconduct charge in Town Court in December, was found guilty of three out of seven departmental charges stemming from his interaction with Pane. He was fired last week by the Greenburgh Board of Police Commissioners.
The veteran officer denied there was any sexual encounter, and said he was simply trying to recruit Pane as an informant. The day after her arrest, Ward met Pane at the parking lot of the Doral Arrowwood Resort and Country Club in Rye Brook, then drove off for about 20 minutes.
But Pane testified that she and Ward, a six-year veteran of the department, drove to a secluded spot where 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, of failing to properly report his contact with Pane to his superiors and of conduct that brings discredit upon the department. He was acquitted of the more serious departmental charges of accepting a bribe or a gift and of official misconduct.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.nyjournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070223/NEWS02/702230349/1216 To respond, write to: the author at jfitzgib@lohud.com or the editors at letters@lohud.com or comment at bottom of article
BDSM: a gentle, firm introduction
by Glory Fink (from opinion/advice column "Pillow Talk")
The Student Printz (University of Southern Mississippi)
February 22, 2007
You spoke and I listened. You emailed and I replied, eventually.
By popular request, it's "The BDSM Newbie Article"! BDSM: It's not just for leather clad weirdos, anymore.
That picture perfect couple down the street? Yeah, they like to play "Officer and The Naughty Criminal" once in a while, too.
I'm not here to make judgment calls concerning what you do in the privacy of your own bedroom but I do want you to be safe and well informed.
Let us banish the rumors and myths and get down to the facts.
Depending on whom you talk with BDSM stands for bondage, discipline, sado-masochism or bondage, domination, submission and masochism. Most people seem to agree on the bondage and the masochism, but the rest seems open for personal interpretation.
An integral part of the BDSM community from newbies to experts alike is communication and consent. Trust is in there as well, but effective communication breeds trust, and true consent doesn't happen without trust. The community has worked so hard to make communication and consent the norm that the mantra, "Safe, Sane and Consensual" has even entered popular mainstream culture.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://media.www.studentprintz.com/media/storage/paper974/news/2007/02/22/Opinion/Pillow.Talk.Bdsm.A.Gentle.Firm.Introduction-2734368.shtml To respond, write to: the author at glory@askglory.com or the editors at printz@usm.edu
Bound and Flagged:
Members of Seattle Kink Community Face Discrimination in Custody Battles
by Jason Simms
The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
February 21, 2007
All the flogging and rope-play that goes on within the nondescript exterior walls of Queen Anne's Wet Spot is perfectly safe and legal. It's a sex club for those into whipping and tying each other up, complete with dungeons, restraining beds, and nonprofit status. But in the eyes of a judge or social worker, those activities can be viewed as a threat to one's children: "It's very common to bring up sex," says Seattle-area attorney Robyn Friedman of divorce cases where child custody is at stake, "especially if one partner is looking to ruin somebody's life."
Though, as Wet Spot director Allena Gabosch observes, "that we have to hide something essential about ourselves (our sexuality) for fear that we could lose our jobs, our children… is appalling." BDSM (bondage, dominance, and sadomasochism) has long been a target of discrimination. A 1998 survey by the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom found that 30 percent of regular practitioners report they've faced discrimination, with 24 percent saying it cost them a job and 3 percent a child. The Stranger spoke with one woman, Cassie Johns, a 41-year-old bisexual, who was forced out of her position at a small computer company 10 years ago because she was photographed in the paper at the gay-pride parade.
With Gabosch's help, we found a kinky client of Friedman's whose rights as a father hang in the balance, according to a divorce case currently pending in King County Superior Court. An October 11, 2006, letter in the case file from the man's ex-wife reads, "[T]hough you are not engaging in any sexual act with [our 12-year-old daughter], you are exercising your sadomasochistic behavior towards her in every other way."
Its author describes herself as an "unwilling yet compliant participant" in her husband's BDSM-play and cites possession of pornography and sex toys, as well as "showering with [their daughter], flicking her with a towel, snapping her pajama bottoms, slapping a belt next to her on the bed…" as her main grounds for concern. Her husband's October 19 response downplays the belt on the bed as an isolated incident and argues that his wife showered with the child as well since the couple had agreed that casual nudity was acceptable in the home. He claims that any pornographic materials or instruments are kept out of the child's reach.
It's a classic case of he said/she said, but, as Friedman, who has spoken on legal issues surrounding BDSM at leather and sex-positive events throughout the country, observes, "When you throw children into the mix, all of the burden of proof shifts from the state having to prove the person guilty to the person having to prove themselves not guilty."
Friedman's client's ex calls BDSM an "abusive lifestyle" and "would like to insist" that her husband not expose their daughter to any of his "BDSM friends." But, with 9,000 members and growing-roughly 1.5 percent of the population of the city of Seattle-it's not unlikely that the woman and her daughter have encountered members of the Wet Spot around town.
Kathleen Spears, media-relations manager for the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, echoes Friedman's statement about the burden of proof in the tautology she offers when asked what sexual activities could lead to a CPS investigation. "If a child is being exploited, it would cause an investigation," she says. Clearly, the assumption is that the child is being exploited until there's proof otherwise.
Many Wet Spot members have tried and failed to produce such proof. Among them is a 35-year-old woman known as Khaos W. She told The Stranger of how, in the late '90s, a King County judge thought it best for her 5- and 7-year-old sons to be adopted out to separate homes.
Aside from Khaos's sexual practices, her somewhat cluttered house was the only other evidence brought against her. The children were from a previous relationship, so the man she was divorcing was not their father. He didn't want custody of the boys; "he just wanted to punish me," Khaos says.
It was argued that by appearing on public-access talk shows to discuss BDSM, Khaos could harm her children, who might see the broadcast; in fact, she was a more conservative parent on this issue than most, only allowing her children to watch programming she selected and played on the VCR.
But the evidence that tipped the scales against her was gathered in a way that would set off bells for any fan of police television. When a CPS agent visited Khaos's home, she entered the Seattle native's bedroom-which was locked with a latch out of reach of the children-and found a flogger and restraints in a drawer. Unlike a criminal case, evidence gathered in such a way is admissible in disputes over child custody. Khaos was facing allegations that she had molested her boys, and though the items obviously weren't enough to confirm those allegations or even bring up criminal charges, they were enough to cast sufficient suspicion for her to lose custody.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=162102 To respond, write to: editor@thestranger.com
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