{"id":1353,"date":"2006-01-30T23:28:21","date_gmt":"2006-01-31T05:28:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1353"},"modified":"2006-01-30T23:28:59","modified_gmt":"2006-01-31T05:28:59","slug":"dominatrix-acquitted-in-bondage-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1353","title":{"rendered":"Dominatrix Acquitted in Bondage Death"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Why, oh why, didn&#8217;t this <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2006\/01\/30\/AR2006013000716.html\">sordid case<\/a> get the national attention poured onto so many other so-called trials o&#8217; the century?!!  At least this one appears to have been truly interesting.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Barbara Asher, a 56-year-old woman who called herself Mistress Lauren M, was also cleared of dismemberment.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors said that 53-year-old Michael Lord suffered a heart attack in 2000 during a bondage session in a &#8220;dungeon&#8221; in Asher&#8217;s condominium and that Asher did nothing to help him for five minutes for fear authorities would find out about her business.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors said Asher confessed to police, but the alleged confession was not taped, and investigators testified they did not save their notes.<\/p>\n<p>Asher&#8217;s lawyer, Stephanie Page, said there was nothing to prove Lord was even dead &#8212; no body, no blood, no DNA.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>One does have to give mucho credit for the prosecutor&#8217;s closing theatrical Gimp routine.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Asher&#8217;s lawyer objected, and the judge agreed.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s enough Mr. Nelson,&#8221; Judge Charles Grabau said. &#8220;Thank you for your demonstration.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Suddenly, my mind rattles with a mostly-forgotten early &#8217;80s song with the following majestic lyrics:<\/p>\n<p><em>Whip me, beat me, call me Edna<br \/>\nTie me down and stomp my head now<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Does anybody else remember that sweet little tune?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why, oh why, didn&#8217;t this sordid case get the national attention poured onto so many other so-called trials o&#8217; the century?!! At least this one appears to have been truly interesting. A dominatrix was acquitted of manslaughter Monday in the death of a man who prosecutors say suffered a heart attack while strapped to a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wtf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1353\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}