A bit on the Dominatrix Acquitted in Bondage Death . . .

A dominatrix was acquitted of manslaughter Monday in the death of a man who prosecutors say suffered a heart attack while strapped to a replica of a medieval rack. Barbara Asher, a 56-year-old woman who called herself Mistress Lauren M, was also cleared of dismemberment. Prosecutors said that 53-year-old Michael Lord suffered a heart attack in 2000 during a bondage session in a "dungeon" in Asher’s condominium and that Asher did nothing to help him for five minutes for fear authorities would find out about her business. Asher had her boyfriend chop up the body of the 275-pound retired telephone company worker, and they dumped it behind a restaurant in Maine, prosecutors said. His remains have never been found. Prosecutors said Asher confessed to police, but the alleged confession was not taped, and investigators testified they did not save their notes. Asher’s lawyer, Stephanie Page, said there was nothing to prove Lord was even dead — no body, no blood, no DNA. During his closing argument to the jury, prosecutor Robert Nelson put on a black leather mask with a zippered mouth opening and re-enacted the bondage session. With both hands, he reached back and clutched the top of a blackboard as if strapped to the rack. Then he hung his head as if dead. Asher’s lawyer objected, and the judge agreed. "That’s enough Mr. Nelson," Judge Charles Grabau said. "Thank you for your demonstration."

Methinks Robert Nelson has been watching too many Judd Nelson legaltypeshennanigans movies. I sincerely hope he regrets the grandstand play and the images of himself mimicking a bondage scene that are just about everywhere. Not only was it a cliche it was disrespectful to Lord and the circumstances of his death. It was belittling. Probably, it was partially effective but my guess is that it backfired.

It is a tragedy . . . and Asher’s actions were and are inexcuseable. However, the media to some extent has played into the prosecutor’s hands and put BDSM on trial rather than Asher. They are not the same thing.

There are folks who have responded ethically and appropriately in such situations . . . not hiding things or chopping up folks’ bodies. Asher’s actions are an exception rather than the rule and so that particular community does not deserve censure because of it just as a single televangelist fleeing a hotel room with a dead naked male prostitute who has died from drug overdose administered by that same television preacher should not be considered indicative of all Christians or pastors. Heck, truth be told, there certainly are more wrongful death events associated with members of the moral conservative communities each year than there are those associated with members of the BD community. Of course, those deaths – mostly murders or accidental deaths due to tempers, rage, and spousal beatings – are less dramatic than a prosecutor wearing a bondage mask.

Sheesh.