Revelations from the High Priest Kwatamani (cont.)
Headline news from the death consumption culture:
Brooklyn jury given graphic S&M lesson
Posted 2/23/2007 4:16 AM ET
By Tom Hays, Associated Press
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 website 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 website 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 website — 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 website 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.
"I felt like I was literally in hell," she said. "I felt like I was on fire and I couldn't put it out."
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."
Jodi testified she built up enough courage to leave Marcus in late 2001, but also conceded she continued to have contact with him, even going camping. She decided to go to the FBI when he refused to take her photos off the Internet.
By law, it didn't matter that the accuser wasn't always under lock and key, prosecutor Pam Chen said during closing arguments Thursday. "She was terrified. She was made captive by the fear."
Chen told the Brooklyn jury it must agree that Marcus' website was "patently offensive" to convict on the obscenity count, and argued the material was "so misogynist and so violent, it's offensive."
The defense has countered by arguing that Marcus and Jodi had a "contract" to engage in a master-slave relationship that, while potentially offensive to the general public, was consensual and even pleasurable to the participants.
"Cases like this test the very capacity of this society we live in for tolerance," defense lawyer Maurice Sercarz said in his closing argument.
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' website had "serious scientific value" as a tool to study sexual behavior.
But Chen portrayed the defendant as a sadist who violated both the standards of a civilized society and of the S&M community.
"Glenn Marcus made his own rules," she said. "He thought he was God."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Headline news from the death consumption culture:
Judge Drops Attempted Sex Assault Charges Against 3
Three Men Are Free On Bail
POSTED: 6:07 pm CDT September 15, 2006
LANCASTER, Wis. -- Three men accused of trying to dig up a young woman's body to have sex with it had charges of attempted sexual assault dismissed Friday by a judge who noted Wisconsin has no law against necrophilia.
Grant County Circuit Judge George Curry dismissed those charges against twins Nicholas and Alexander Grunke of Ridgeway and Dustin Radke of Mineral Point, but they still face lesser charges.
The three 20-year-olds were arrested after an alleged attempt to dig up Laura Tennessen, 20, of Cassville, who was killed Aug. 27 in a motorcycle crash and buried at the St. Charles Catholic Cemetery in Cassville.
Grant County Sheriff Keith Govier said the three were not acquainted with Tennessen but had seen an obituary with her photo.
Someone called authorities to report suspicious activity in the cemetery Sept. 2, and deputies found someone had dug down to her vault.
Police said that Radke told detectives that Nicholas Grunke (pictured left) had fantasized about having sex with a corpse. Radke (pictured right) allegedly said that Nicholas Grunke asked him to help dig up Tennessen's grave and take the corpse back to a preselected location behind his house with the intent to have sex with her, WISC-TV reported.
The judge said there's no Wisconsin law that addressed necrophilia, but that there is enough evidence to continue the case because of criminal damage to property and attempting to break into a burial vault, whose contents belongs to the Tennessen family.
The remaining charges could carry prison terms of up to five years. The defendants are all free on bail pending trial, WISC-TV reported.
The judge scheduled arraignment for the three Oct. 9.
As for members of Laura Tennessen's family, they said that they don't think time behind bars is the answer.
The prosecutor said that he'll appeal the judge's decision to drop the sexual assault charges to the state's appellate court.
Grant County Sheriff Keith Govier said that he will now push to get necrophilia on the books, WISC-TV reported.
"The community is in shock," Govier said.
Earlier this month, Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz, R-Richland Center, said that he was contacted by Govier after the men's arrest. Schultz said that he was surprised to learn only 16 states have necrophilia laws, and Wisconsin isn't one of them.
"(The family's) closure comes from knowing that their daughter will be able to rest in peace and knowing that they have made a contribution in her name so this never happens again," Schultz said.
In related news, the man who was driving the motorcycle when Tennessen was killed has now been charged with homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle.
Police said that Thomas Sweet was driving his motorcycle on Highway 133 in Cassville when Tennessen was thrown from it, WISC-TV reported.
Headline news from the death consumption culture:
Girl Had Suspected 'Boyfriend' Was Woman
From Associated Press
April 07, 2007 6:16 PM EDT
SEATTLE - A 14-year-old girl authorities allege was sexually abused by a 30-year-old woman who posed as a teenage boy said she didn't know about the ruse but eventually suspected it.
"I kind of, like, guessed, but then every time I questioned her, she would get really mad," the girl told KOMO-TV of Seattle on Wednesday, "so I just stopped caring."
Prosecutors allege that Lorelei Corpuz posed as a 17-year-old orphan to gain the trust of the girl's family, then beat and molested her. She was charged this week with two counts of third-degree child rape and one count of third-degree child molestation and was being held in lieu of $150,000 bail.
The girl said in the KOMO interview that she had been lonely before the yearlong relationship began. Corpuz, who called herself Mark, met the girl at a mall and moved in with her.
"Well, he was really nice, and he knew how to talk to me, because I didn't really have anybody to talk to because my mom and dad are always at work," she said.
She told The Seattle Times in an interview published Thursday that the relationship initially was "a regular teenage girlfriend-boyfriend thing, like holding hands, hugging, kissing," but over time "she made it like a serious relationship, like we're married."
Everett police Officer Don de Nevens wrote in a probable cause statement that although Corpuz had sexual contact with the girl, "the suspect never let victim see her/his private parts and victim always thought that suspect was male until officer informed her otherwise."
Police said Corpuz was found out Sunday after an officer checked the suspect's vehicle, parked at an Everett gas station, to see whether it was stolen. The officer arrested Corpuz after the check pulled up an outstanding traffic warrant under an alias, Mark Villanueva.
The 14-year-old also was in the vehicle, and the officer, who recognized Corpuz from an earlier arrest, asked the girl how she knew the suspect.
"She indicated it was her boyfriend," Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz said. "That obviously piqued the concern of the officer."
Authorities allege Corpuz had sex with the girl, beat her and bit her twice on the back, leaving a scar. The Associated Press does not publish the names of people who allege they were sexually assaulted.
Snohomish County prosecutors have filed charges in District Court against Corpuz, but expected to refile them in Superior Court. Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz said he did not know if Corpuz had obtained a lawyer.
With the help of a Vietnamese interpreter, officers interviewed the girl's mother on Wednesday, Goetz said. The mother indicated the family remains shocked by Corpuz's true identity, he said.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.