S&M death raises questions about legal responsibility BY DENISE LAVOIE The Associated Press
LYNN, Mass — Adrian Exley was wrapped tightly in heavy plastic, then bound with duct tape. A leather hood was put over his head with a thin plastic straw inserted so that he could breathe, and he was shut up in a closet. That, apparently, was the way Exley liked it. But the way it ended — with Exley suffocating — was not what he had in mind when he traveled from Britain for a bondage session with a man he had met through a sadomasochism Web site. Exley’s body was discovered in the woods last year, two months after he was bound up in the bondage “playroom” Gary LeBlanc had built in the basement of his suburban Boston home. LeBlanc, a 48-year-old Gulf Oil sales executive, detailed his responsibility in the fatal bondage session in a five-page suicide note, just before he put a gun to his head and killed himself. Now the question is: Since Exley consented to the sex play, can LeBlanc be held responsible for his death? Exley’s family is suing LeBlanc’s estate for unspecified damages, claiming wrongful death. Many bondage enthusiasts are watching the case closely, seeing it as lesson in where to draw the line of responsibility on consensual but dangerous sex. “There’s definitely the whole spectrum of thought on what really happened — whether it was a consent issue, or negligence or misunderstanding,” said Vivienne Kramer, a board member of the New England Leather Alliance. “Everybody has their own ideas on what should have happened.” Exley and LeBlanc met through an online forum for gay men into rubber, leather and bondage. Exley, a 32-year-old stripper, used the screen name “Studpup,” while LeBlanc called himself “Rubrman” and built a chamber with rubber mats on the floors and walls, chains, leather restraints, rubber suits and a hospital gurney. Exley arrived at LeBlanc’s house in Lynn in April 2006 after the pair had exchanged e-mails in which they discussed plans for LeBlanc to play the “master” and Exley his “slave,” according to the lawsuit. John Andrews, a lawyer for LeBlanc’s estate, said Exley knew the risks going in. “What occurred was an act or actions between two consenting adults, both of whom knew what they were doing, and it had a tragic end,” he said. The lawsuit describes a threeday bondage and discipline session that ended when a third man, Scott Vincent, discovered Exley was not breathing. Exley had been put in a closet while bound in plastic up to his neck and left alone for several hours, according to the lawsuit. In his suicide note, LeBlanc admitted that Exley at one point had trouble breathing. But he said that after “cooling him down,” Exley improved. LeBlanc said that he went to sleep about 3 a.m. but was woken up a few hours later by Vincent, who told him Exley was not breathing and was turning blue and cold. LeBlanc said he panicked, and he and Vincent drove to Rhode Island, where they buried the body and threw away Exley’s clothing and identification. The Rhode Island medical examiner determined that Exley suffocated. Vincent said in a sworn statement that the straw had fallen out of his mouth in the closet. Vincent, a flight attendant who is also being sued, is charged with failure to report a death in Rhode Island. But he has not been charged in Massachusetts. In his note, LeBlanc said he was “responsible for a horrible tragedy,” adding: “Had I dealt with the first crisis responsibly, he would likely have returned home safely.” Lawyers for Exley’s estate acknowledge that Exley wanted to participate in a bondage session, but say he did not know about LeBlanc’s reputation as an “extreme edge player” in the world of bondage and sadomasochism. “Just because you are agreeing that you will allow someone to tie you up temporarily as part of role-playing doesn’t mean that you are consenting to be killed or to be left alone or to be abused,” attorney Randy Chapman said.
Paalleeezzzee...these guys make a sex offender appear to be a saint.(not really)
What the hell is wrong with these people? THEY ARE FRIGGIN NUTS!
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
Tue Oct 23, 6:32 PM ET MESA, Ariz. - A woman who stabbed her tied-up lover so she could drink his blood has been sentenced to 10 years in prison. Tiffany Sutton told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge David Udall that she was sorry for the incident and said she never meant to hurt anyone, but received the stiff sentence anyway after he called the crime especially heinous. Sutton, 24, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in August. She was arrested by Tempe police in February after she repeatedly stabbed her lover during an alcohol- and drug-fueled sexual tryst. According to police reports, the victim, 46-year-old Robert McDaniel, agreed to be tied up during sex but became alarmed and asked to be untied when Sutton pulled out a knife and said she liked to drink blood. Sutton then attacked him, slicing his leg, puncturing his arm, shoulder and back and cutting his neck and stomach. When he escaped, she chased him with a pickax. Sutton's attorney, Elizabeth Houck, told the judge at Tuesday's hearing that she suffers from a personality disorder that causes instability and has taken responsibility for her actions, according to the East Valley Tribune. Houck wrote in a sentencing memo that prison records show Sutton thought she was a vampire for the first several weeks she was in jail.
Myanmar democracy activists pin hopes on 'Panty Power'
Thu Oct 25, 5:48 AM ET
BANGKOK (AFP) - A campaign is underway to chastise Myanmar's military regime, not through dialogue or sanctions, but by flooding the country's foreign embassies with women's underwear, an activist said Thursday.
A pro-democracy group based in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai is urging people all over the world to "post, deliver or fling" their undergarments to Myanmar's international embassies.
"The Burma military regime is not only brutal but very superstitious. They believe that contact with a woman's panties or sarong can rob them of their power," the Lanna Action for Burma group said on its website.
The generals who rule Myanmar, previously known as Burma, provoked international outcry in September when they violently cracked down on peaceful protesters, killing at least 13 people.
Europe and the United States led the chorus of disapproval, announcing new sanctions against the regime.
Despite the outcry and a United Nations statement deploring the crackdown and urging dialogue, the junta has shown little sign of moving any closer towards democracy or freeing opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Those behind the so-called "Panty Power" campaign hope that lingerie can succeed where international diplomacy has so far failed.
"We want to raise awareness first, and we want to target the Burmese government officials, letting them know we are against them abusing their power," said Tomoko, an activist with Lanna Action for Burma.
Tomoko, who goes by one name only, said she had heard that Myanmar embassies in Thailand, Australia and the United States had been targeted by the Panty Power campaign, which began last week.
"We are sending (the generals) panties as a symbol of putting their power down," she told AFP
Sutton's attorney, Elizabeth Houck, told the judge at Tuesday's hearing that she suffers from a personality disorder that causes instability and has taken responsibility for her actions, according to the East Valley Tribune.
how can someone take responsibility for their actions if they have a personality disorder.....I'm sure she needs to take medication....so if she takes 'responsibility' is that a drug induced confession????.....and which personality is taking the responsibility???
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
By MARCUS FRANKLIN, Associated Press Last updated: 11:13 p.m., Tuesday, January 8, 2008
NEW YORK -- Two men wheeled a dead man through the streets in an office chair to a check-cashing store and tried to cash his Social Security check before being arrested on fraud charges, police said.
David J. Dalaia and James O'Hare pushed Virgilio Cintron's body from the Manhattan apartment that O'Hare and Cintron shared to Pay-O-Matic, about a block away, spokesman Paul Browne said witnesses told police. "The witnesses saw the two pushing the chair with Cintron flopping from side to side and the two individuals propping him up and keeping him from flopping from side to side," Browne said. The men left Cintron's body outside the store, went inside and tried to cash his $355 check, Browne said. The store's clerk, who knew Cintron, asked the men where he was, and O'Hare told the clerk they would go and get him, Browne said. A police detective who was having lunch at a restaurant next to the check-cashing store noticed a crowd forming around Cintron's body, and "it's immediately apparent to him that Cintron is dead," Browne said. The detective called uniformed New York Police Department officers at a nearby precinct. Emergency medical technicians arrived as O'Hare and Dalaia were preparing to wheel Cintron's body into the check-cashing store, Browne said. Police arrested Dalaia and O'Hare there, he said. Cintron's body was taken to a hospital morgue. The medical examiner's office told police it appeared Cintron, 66, had died of natural causes within the previous 24 hours, Browne said. "He was deceased in the apartment when he was removed by these two," Browne said. Dalaia and O'Hare, both 65, were being held by police and faced check fraud charges, Browne said. A call to a telephone number listed for Cintron at the apartment he shared with O'Hare went unanswered Tuesday evening. Police said they didn't have an address for Dalaia or attorney information for him or O'Hare.
Jealous husband mailed cow’s head NORRISTOWN, Pa. — A man who mailed a bloody cow’s head to his wife’s lover has been sentenced to probation and community service. Jason Michael Fife “understands that in a civilized society a person cannot send a severed cow’s head to anybody,” said his defense lawyer, Henry Hilles. Authorities in Lower Pottsgrove, northwest of Philadelphia, arrested Fife and charged him with stalking, terroristic threats, disorderly conduct and harassment after he allegedly sent threatening messages and pictures to the victim between May and September 2006. The victim received a package containing a cow’s head with a puncture wound in its skull on June 1, 2006. Police said Fife, 31, got the cow’s head from a butcher’s shop, claiming he wanted the dried skull for decoration. Fife, of Hunker, southeast of Pittsburgh, was sentenced Friday to a program for first-time offenders in which he must complete two years of probation and 50 hours of community service. Fife and his wife, who have a young child, later reconciled, Hilles said.
500-pound retired NYC cop loses bid for higher pension The Associated Press
NEW YORK — A judge says a retired 500-pound police officer cannot increase his pension check by blaming his disability on an accident when a medical board “rationally” found it was related to his obesity. State Supreme Court Justice Judith Gische said the Police Pension Fund medical board’s decision to deny Paul Soto’s request for a larger accidental disability retirement pension was “based upon credible medical evidence.” An ordinary disability retirement pays an officer a taxable pension of half his salary. An accidental disability retirement pays a nontaxable pension of three-fourths his salary. The pension fund’s medical board noted that Soto also suffered other physical ailments, including arthritis, osteoarthritis in his right knee, leg edema and tendinitis, and that he had been placed on limited duty.
The pension that this cop wants to challenge[ 1/2 pay] is just about what a normal pension is in the private sector and it's not good enough for him. Don't forget this cop will draw Social Security too so he should be able to live just as well as we do. Greed, as Senders would say they all feed at the same trough.
PORTLAND, Maine -- The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office is looking for a man with a mustache who is pulling in front of female drivers and then jumping out of his vehicle while wearing women's underwear, a garter belt and black high-heel boots.
Since last spring, there have been six reports about the cross-dressing motorist. The most recent incident was last Sunday. The episodes have occurred in the Standish-Buxton area. Sheriff Mark Dion said that while the man's behavior may not be criminal in terms of dress, the fact that he's jumping out in roadways and apparently targeting women who are alone is cause for concern. The sheriff said women have had to swerve to avoid the man.
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