1. After civil unions … polygamy?
2. Jury hears Hillsboro sexual 'slave master' trial Thursday
3. Nude Campground Controversy
4. Portsmouth assault case continued against host of swinger parties
5. Scottsdale concerned Fetish Prom hurts image
6. Judge Upholds Use of Sex Trafficking, Forced Labor Laws in Abuse Conviction
After civil unions … polygamy?
by Chloe Johnson
Foster's Daily Democrat (Dover, NH)
June 3, 2007
Now that New Hampshire has joined a few other states in legalizing same-sex unions, some say the next battlefront over exchanging vows will be along religious lines.
People who wish to have more than one spouse, or polygamists, say their right to marriage under the freedom of religion should be recognized next.
The possibility that one alternative to traditional marriage will lead to another is enough to encourage some polygamists to support gay rights, although their religion may not condone homosexuality.
The same argument that the legal acceptance of polygamy will be the next exception has also been used to discourage the passage of civil unions.
Rep. Al Baldasaro, R-Londonderry, said he hopes someone in New Hampshire challenges the legality of civil unions.
"It's discriminating everybody else," he said. "What makes their choice better than another person's?"
He admits he didn't read the bill, and has some concerns about the scope of unions it allows. The law, however, limits civil unions to two people who are unmarried and unrelated.
Baldasaro said civil unions will "without a doubt" lead to polygamy because "we're recognizing all marriages."
Rep. Jim Splaine, D-Portsmouth, sponsored the civil unions bill and he disagrees it will lead to other forms of marriage.
"Of course not," he said. "If that were the philosophy – that something we adopted would lead to something else – we wouldn't do anything."
Also, he said, civil unions are not marriage. But they do allow same-sex couples to make a mutual commitment with all the same rights and responsibilities, he added.
The New Hampshire chapter of the Civil Liberties Union, however, does not consider legalizing polygamy part of its battle.
Claire Ebel, the union's executive director, points out that the civil union bill stipulates the contracts are only between two people.
"The one thing that will eventually come out of the civil unions legislation is full marriage rights for gay and lesbian couples," she said. "That is an inevitability."
"I don't see any possibility that it would lead to anything else," she said.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070603/FOSTERS01/106030271 To respond, write to: the author at ljohnson@fosters.com or the editors at http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=SERVICES010701
Jury hears Hillsboro sexual 'slave master' trial Thursday
by Kurt Eckert
The Hillsboro Argus (Oregon)
June 1, 2007
Washington County prosecutors began arguments Thursday that a Hillsboro man kidnapped, raped, abused and sodomized two women in a "sex-slave den" more than 15 years ago.
In opening statements, Senior Deputy District Attorney Jeff Lesowski told the jury of nine women and three men that Vance Jay Roberts, 52, and his half-brother, Paul E. Jackson, 36, kidnapped at least two Portland prostitutes and held them against their will in a home on Northeast Olympic Avenue.
Roberts and Jackson were arrested in June of 1990, but disappeared before a hearing scheduled for February 1991. Police nationwide searched for the pair, but they seemed to have vanished, Lesowski said.
"They did what's called jumping bail," because they feared long-term incarceration, Lesowski said. Roberts unexpectedly turned himself in at the Washington County Jail last September.
Court-appointed defense attorney Lawrence Taylor said the women were willing participants in "fantasies" that involved bondage, sex toys and lurid photographs. Roberts came back to face the unfounded charges, he said.
"He's tired of running from charges he's innocent of," Taylor said.
The method was the same in both alleged abductions, Lesowski said. Airline records show Jackson would fly in from Phoenix regularly to visit Roberts. On at least two dates, once in 1988 and once in 1990, Roberts cruised the streets of Portland in his "beater" Datsun pickup looking for hookers. Once a deal was struck, he would drive the women to a remote location. At that point, Jackson would emerge from the covered bed of the pickup and the women would be forced into the back. They were chained to a U-bolt, hooded with a pillowcase and driven to the Hillsboro home. While Jackson drove, the women said Roberts would repeatedly sodomize them.
Things only got worse when they arrived at the home, Lesowski said. The women were chained up in a partially sound-proofed storage room off the master bedroom. The men wore masks and didn't speak out loud for fear of being identified, he said. Along with repeated rapes, the women were forcibly sodomized with sex toys and other objects and photographed wearing diapers and performing sex acts.
Taylor said the women were well aware of what was going to happen at the home. The first woman's alleged six-day ordeal in 1988 was more like a vacation, he said. She made up the sex-slave story to hide her actions from her violent pimp, who would be angry she wasn't out making money, he said.
Police say that in June of 1990, the second victim, a Portland teenager, slipped out of her shackles, broke a window and ran, screaming and bloody, to a neighbor's house. The neighbor called 9-1-1.
Police and fire crews responded immediately, Lesowski said. All the grisly evidence they found inside – masks, sex toys and lubricants – matched the stories told by the second victim.
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Nude Campground Controversy
by Phil Dinges
WEAU-TV (Western Wisconsin)
May 31, 2007
Jackson County this time of the year brings to mind, the outdoors and for some, camping but one campground is getting noticed for its loud concerts and its new adult themed atmosphere.
Marvin Thomann is the owner of Camp N.C.N but it's not your ordinary campground. N.C.N. stands for No Clothing Necessary. Community members have called in a number of complaints about the noise but Thomann says he's become a target.
But the noise is not the only concern. Just recently Thomann decided to turn away from concerts and gear the campground more towards adult entertainment. The idea is not sitting well with the community.
Jackson County Supervisor John Bahnub says "just lately on the new twist moving into the nude scene, that's really bothered people. The calls I've received, they're worried about property devaluing, what their children are exposed to. We're a homey place in Jackson County here that it just doesn't fit in."
"We got about 5 swinger events coming up, we got a couple fetish bondage weekends, we got our Big Black River Rumble Motorcycle Rally and now this year we started a new one called the After Sturgis Gathering that we got bookings for already" says Thomann.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.weau.com/home/headlines/7774277.html To respond, write to: the author at phil.dinges@weau.com or the editors at jolene.jensen@weau.com
Portsmouth assault case continued against host of swinger parties
by staff writer
Foster's Daily Democrat (Dover, NH)
May 31, 2007
PORTSMOUTH – The simple assault case against the host of swinger parties at his Cutts Street triplex was continued in Portsmouth District Court Tuesday.
Joseph Ranguette, 71, of 42 Cutts St., faces two simple assault charges for an incident on Jan. 12 where police say he struck two people at the residence.
The assault came shortly after newspaper articles revealed swinger parties were occurring at his residence, despite having been asked by city officials to curtail the club operations.
Ranguette owns the apartments on either side of the Middle Door Swingers Club, which has been in operation for more than 15 years.
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Scottsdale concerned Fetish Prom hurts image
by Lesley Wright and Michael Ferraresi
The Arizona Republic
May 26, 2007
Scottsdale leaders fear the city may be reaching the tasteful boundaries of its new reputation for being edgy.
The Arizona Fetish Prom 2007 is a case in point.
The prom planned for today at the Venue of Scottsdale will feature flesh-hook suspensions, "freak shows" and a host of vendors that cater to the whip-and-bondage set – activities that don't mesh with the image Scottsdale leaders want to foster.
"Just when you thought we had hit bottom," City Councilman Ron McCullagh joked.
The event arrives as Scottsdale deals with promoters of the Super Bowl-timed Lingerie Bowl. It also comes on the heels of Scottsdale's unsuccessful attempt to cover up strippers and change the name of the restaurant Pink Taco.
The third-annual Arizona Fetish Prom requires no city permits, so as long as the event planners adhere to other Arizona laws, there's nothing local officials can do to stop the event.
But that doesn't mean they aren't voicing their displeasure.
"I don't think that's a good or appropriate image for Scottsdale," said Councilman Tony Nelssen.
Scottsdale has been tied up in controversy over its sexy image for more than a year.
First, the city tried to crack down on strip clubs with a sexually oriented businesses ordinance that fell flat with voters, who overwhelmingly rejected a referendum on the law in September.
Mayor Mary Manross had her own personal debacle with sexually oriented business names last April, when she criticized Pink Taco for using a term that is slang for a woman's anatomy.
More recently, the Lingerie Bowl has sought permits for three days of activities on Scottsdale streets leading up to the Feb. 3 event when scantily clad women hold their own version of tackle football during halftime of the Super Bowl. Those permits are still working their way through the system.
With the Fetish Prom, the city will host more than 1,000 devotees of the kinky life.
Nelssen and a few others said that tourism advertising aimed at gays and lesbians by the Scottsdale Convention & Visitors Bureau may have something to do with the city's sexy image.
"When you have a Web site catering to alternative lifestyles, why not fetishes?" Nelssen asked.
Mitch Palmer, spokesman for Horns and Halos Productions, the group that runs the Fetish Prom, said that the Valley is home to a large alternative community.
"We just give them the opportunity to express themselves in a positive setting," Palmer said.
Rachel Sacco, president of the Convention & Visitors Bureau, said that gays and lesbians are a "niche market" and that the city's reputation remains upstanding.
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0526fetish0526.html To respond, go to: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/sendaletter.html or comment at bottom of article
Judge Upholds Use of Sex Trafficking, Forced Labor Laws in Abuse Conviction
by Tom Perrotta
New York Law Journal
May 25, 2007
A federal judge in Brooklyn has upheld a "novel application" of forced labor and sex trafficking statutes that resulted in the conviction of a man who repeatedly abused a woman and published photos of her on his sadomasochism Web site.
The defendant, Glenn Marcus, 53, was convicted of sex trafficking and forced labor in March and could face up to 30 years in prison.
In a motion to set aside the conviction, Marcus' attorneys, Maurice Sercarz and Julia Gatto of Sercarz & Riopelle, argued that his conduct, while offensive to most people, was part of a domestic relationship with the complaining witness, whose first name is Jodi.
The attorneys said the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 was not intended to apply to conduct in domestic relationships; that the term "commercial sex act" did not apply when the defendant received revenue for photographs of sex acts as opposed to the acts themselves; and that there was insufficient evidence for the jury to find a nexus between the defendant's coercion and the commercial sex act element or the labor services element, which involved the victim working on the defendant's Web site.
In a 42-page ruling, U.S. v. Marcus, 05-CR-457, Eastern District of New York Judge Allyne R. Ross said that the language and legislative history of the statute did not warrant setting aside the conviction.
Ross said the jury, which deliberated for seven days, settled on a fair interpretation of the evidence.
"The defendant argues that the existence of a prior consensual relationship between the defendant and Jodi in which the infliction of punishment and pain was part of their mutual sexual gratification makes it impossible to determine whether the defendant abused Jodi to compel the performance of a commercial sex act," Judge Ross wrote. "The court acknowledges that the issue of whether the government proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant used non-consensual force, fraud or coercion to cause Jodi to engage in a commercial sex act is difficult and complicated. However, this was precisely the question that the jury was charged with resolving, and the evidence was adequate to support its conclusion."
Jodi testified at trial that she consented to the relationship with Marcus from 1998, after she met him over the Internet, until October 1999, after she had moved to Maryland to live with another of Marcus' "slaves." Part of her duties was to build and maintain Marcus' Web site, which included photos of her being abused.
Sercarz, Marcus' attorney, said he would appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
"I think this is a case calling for lenity and a narrow reading of the statute," he said. "If you read the statute as broadly as the government would have you read it, it is going to subsume within it a lot of day-to-day, innocent conduct. It seems to me there is no federal interest being vindicated here."
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To read this entire article, go to: http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1179997531994&pos=ataglance To respond, write to: the New York Law Journal at http://www.law.com/jsp/nylj/sendFeedback.jsp?content=a&id=contact HOW TO WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR
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