Barbara Asher is a 56-year-old dominatrix
from Boston, Massachusetts. Going by the pseudonym Mistress Lauren M,
Asher was charged but aquitted of manslaughter and dismemberment in
Michael Lord's death.
Lord, 53, a retired telephone company worker from
North Hampton, N.H., died in 2000 while strapped to a replica of a
medieval torture device in Asher's condominium, according to police.
His body was never found.
Police said Asher confessed she and her boyfriend
chopped up Lord's body in the bathtub and dumped it behind a Maine
restaurant.
Dominatrix case
In 2000, a self-described dominatrix allegedly
confessed to police that while she was providing services for a
54-year old NH man, her client had a massive heart attack and died. To
avoid harming her sadomasochistic business, or alert the IRS, instead
of calling police about the dead man, she and her boyfriend
dismembered the body in a Quincy apartment, bagged the parts, and
tossed them into a dumpster in Maine.
The story made headlines again in 2001. At that
time, it was not expected that Barbara Asher would be charged for the
incident, due to a lack of physical evidence. The body was never
recovered, and there wasn't any evidence such as DNA or proof of
disposal of a body. Asher's confession was the only evidence in
the case.
In 2002, she was arraigned for involuntary
manslaughter and improper disposal of a body, and her boyfriend was
arraigned for only the latter charge. On the date of the alleged
crime, July 3, 2000, the victim was reported to have been shackled to
a rack, with a collar around his neck, and a hood over his face. He
then had a fatal heart attack. She supposedly waited 15 minutes, and
then called her boyfriend. It was alleged that the boyfriend cut the
body up in a bathtub with a double-bladed hacksaw, with Asher
assisting by placing the parts into eight gray garbage bags. On July
4, the bags were tossed into the dumpster of a Chinese food restaurant
in Augusta, Maine.
The Norfolk County District Attorney, Robert
Nelson, was quoted in the November 30, 2002 Boston Globe
about the case: "The involuntary manslaughter charge is based on the
defendant's failure to act while Mr. — was struggling on the rack as
she 'heard his last breath' — those are her words to the police." And,
"She had a duty to act to prevent the death."
Phone records did indicate the victim had previous
contact with Asher, but no physical evidence was ever discovered in
the case. A landfill in Maine was searched, but the body was never
found. The DA still decided to prosecute Asher.
On January 30, 2006, Asher was acquitted of all
charges. During the trial, several police officers testified that she
had confessed to watching a man die of a heart attack without helping
him. Asher's lawyer was quoted as saying "No body. No blood. No DNA.
No evidence," and the jury agreed with her. The boyfriend never went
to trial, as he had fled to Argentina, and was never extradited. With
a threshold of "reasonable doubt" required to prove that a crime had
even been committed, it was a very difficult case to prosecute in the
first place. The family of the missing NH man was extremely
disappointed in the verdict.
CelebrateBoston.com
Dominatrix acquitted of
manslaughter
By Raja Mishra - The Boston Globe
January 31, 2006
Professional dominatrix Barbara
Asher was acquitted yesterday of involuntary manslaughter in the death
of a New Hampshire man who prosecutors said suffered a fatal heart
attack while strapped to a bondage rack in her Quincy condominium.
Prosecutors had argued that Asher, 56, did nothing
to help Michael Lord, 53, of North Hampton as he died during the July
2000 session, out of fear that calling authorities would have
jeopardized her dominatrix business. The prosecutors said she and a
boyfriend chopped up Lord's 275-pound body and dumped the parts in a
trash bin behind a Chinese restaurant in Augusta, Maine.
Lord's corpse was never found, which produced a
rare legal situation: Prosecutors were forced to try Asher for
manslaughter without irrefutable proof that a man had died, his body.
''No body. No blood. No DNA. No evidence," Asher's
lawyer Stephanie Page said in her closing argument Friday.
The Norfolk Superior Court jury deliberated for
eight hours over two days before finding Asher not guilty of
involuntary manslaughter and dismemberment.
Page said in an interview yesterday that the
lengthy investigation and trial had been an ordeal for Asher. ''She is
still in shock. This has been a terrible 5 1/2 years for her," Page
said.
Asher's former boyfriend, Miguel S. Ferrer, faced
charges as an accessory but fled the country several years ago,
returning to his native Argentina, prosecutors said.
Lord's secret life of bondage stunned his family
when the case became public in July 2000. Family members expressed
disappointment with the verdict yesterday.
''She should have been guilty," said Lord's mother,
Audrey H. Lord, 81, reached by phone at her home in Jonesboro, Texas.
''I think that everyone is kind of liberal and tree-huggers up there
in Massachusetts. You don't get justice there."
The Norfolk district attorney's office, which
prosecuted the case, had won a conviction in a similar case, a 2002
murder trial in which no body was found, the first such case in state
history. Yesterday, officials defended their decision to prosecute
Asher.
''We knew the legal obstacles were even more
daunting and very different from our first trial without a body, but
that didn't mean these gruesome allegations should go unchallenged,"
read a statement released by the office. ''Every family needs to know
that if they lose a loved one, no alleged attempt to cover up that
crime and destroy evidence is going to stop us from trying to bring a
case to justice as the law allows."
The prosecution's case -- and the narrative about
the fatal bondage session presented in court -- rested on an alleged
confession by Asher.
Several police investigators testified that Asher
had admitted to watching Lord die on the bondage rack without calling
for medical help and then dismembering his body the next day with
Ferrer's help. But the confession was not recorded, and investigators
could not produce any notes documenting the confession. Investigators
said Asher had asked that tape recorders be shut off before she
admitted to the crime.
Prosecutor Robert Nelson, in his closing argument
Friday, donned a leather mask and simulated Lord's alleged flailing
death, telling jurors, ''She did nothing, nothing for five minutes."
Then, he quietly hung his head forward, apparently
in an attempt to simulate Lord's death, drawing a rebuke from Superior
Court Judge Charles Grabau.
Without physical evidence to back up Asher's
alleged confession, the prosecution faced an uphill task, said one
veteran criminal defense attorney.
''They didn't have any physical evidence to
corroborate that what the prosecution said happened actually
happened," said attorney Robert A. George of Boston. ''How can the
jury determine that the death occurred that way when there's not any
physical evidence? That's reasonable doubt."
Page said the alleged confession had been
fabricated by police investigators.
''There was a lack of a body because [Lord] was
never there" at Asher's condominium, she said.
Lord's son, Timothy, said he was convinced of
Asher's guilt but questioned whether police and prosecutors had done
enough to establish their case.
''The police got a confession from her and were OK
with it and didn't want to follow up with the story," he said.
''Here's a woman who confesses to this horrible crime -- what she did
to my father, who we love very much."
Jury clears dominatrix of N. Hampton man’s death
By Associated
Press
January 31, 2006
DEDHAM, Mass.
- A dominatrix was acquitted of manslaughter Monday in the death of a
North Hampton, N.H., man who prosecutors say suffered a fatal heart
attack while strapped to a replica of a medieval torture device.
The jury in Norfolk Superior
Court deliberated for eight hours over two days before finding Barbara
Asher, 56, not guilty of involuntary manslaughter and dismemberment.
During his closing argument,
prosecutor Robert Nelson re-enacted the bondage session that allegedly
killed Michael Lord, 53, in July 2000.
Donning a leather mask and
speaking to the jury through the zippered mouth, he said Lord flailed
about and died while strapped to the rack in a makeshift "dungeon" in
Asher’s Quincy condominium. Nelson said Asher did nothing to help him
for fear authorities would find out about her business.
"She did nothing, nothing for
five minutes," Nelson said, his voice muffled through the mask.
Then she summoned her boyfriend,
who chopped up the body of the 275-pound retired telephone company
worker before they dumped it behind a restaurant in Augusta, Maine,
Nelson said. Police searched an Augusta landfill, but his remains have
never been found.
Prosecutors said Asher confessed
to police, but the alleged confession was not taped, and police
investigators who testified said they did not save their notes from
the interrogation.
Asher’s lawyer, Stephanie Page,
said there was also no DNA evidence recovered from the bathtub, and
without a body there was no real evidence that Lord was even dead.
"No body. No blood. No DNA. No
evidence," Page said in her closing argument.
Lord’s sons were disappointed
with the verdict.
"Here’s a woman who confesses to
this horrible crime - what she did to my father, who we love very
much," said Timothy Lord.
But he also questioned whether
police thoroughly investigated his father’s disappearance.
"The police got a confession
from her, and were OK with it, and didn’t want to follow up with the
story," he said.
Another son, Nathan Lord, said
Asher once called Michael Lord’s mother in Texas and apologized for
her role in his death, but that evidence was never presented at the
trial.
"It’s disappointing," he said.
"Feels like a lot of information wasn’t brought out in court."
The Norfolk County District
Attorney’s Office said in a statement it was aware it faced "daunting"
legal obstacles in bringing the case, "but that didn’t mean these
gruesome allegations should go unchallenged."
"Every family needs to know that
if they lose a loved one, no alleged attempt to cover up that crime
and destroy evidence is going to stop us from trying to bring a case
to justice as the law allows," the statement said.
Asher said after the verdict
that the more than five years since her alleged confession had been
"an emotionally draining experience." Asked by a reporter if she
continues working as a dominatrix, she declined to comment.
Several police investigators
testified about Asher’s alleged confession, saying she repeatedly
denied any involvement in Lord’s death, then asked the officers to
turn off the tape recorder and confessed.
Detective Mark Sambataro of
Salem, N.H. denied Page’s claim that the investigators developed a
theory about the case, then bullied Asher into admitting to a crime
she didn’t commit.
But it was Nelson’s theatrical
closing that provided the most dramatic moments of the trial.
The prosecutor pointed and
hollered at Asher. He dumped a box full of hoods, collars, and paddles
onto a table, and proclaimed that Asher was trying to protect her
business.
"That’s why she didn’t call the
police," he said.
With both hands, he reached back
and clutched the top of a blackboard to simulate Lord being strapped
to the rack.
He paused as his head hung
forward as if to simulate Lord’s alleged death.
Page objected, and Norfolk
Superior Court Judge Charles Grabau agreed.
"That’s enough Mr. Nelson," the
judge said. "Thank you for your demonstration."
Masked Closing in Dominatrix
Trial
Los Angeles Times
January 28, 2006
DEDHAM, Mass. — A prosecutor put on a black leather
mask and reenacted a bondage session Friday at a dominatrix's
manslaughter trial, telling the jury the woman did nothing to help her
client when he suffered a heart attack.
Prosecutor Robert Nelson also dumped a box of
hoods, collars and paddles onto a table during his closing arguments,
declaring that 56-year-old Barbara Asher was trying to protect her
business and "that's why she didn't call the police."
The jury deliberated for about four hours Friday
before being sent home until Monday morning.
Asher, who called herself Mistress Lauren M, is
charged with manslaughter and dismemberment in Michael Lord's death.
She has pleaded not guilty.
Lord, a 53-year-old retired telephone company
worker from North Hampton, N.H., died in 2000 while strapped to a
replica of a medieval torture device in Asher's Quincy condominium,
according to police. His body was never found.
Police said Asher confessed that she and her
boyfriend chopped up Lord's body in a bathtub and dumped it behind a
restaurant in Maine. Her attorney says the confession was coerced by
police.
In a reenactment for the jury, the prosecutor
donned the mask, and with both hands, reached back and clutched the
top of a blackboard to simulate how Lord was strapped.
"After a gasp, his head went forward and she did
nothing, nothing for five minutes," Nelson said, his voice muffled as
he spoke through the zippered mouth opening.
Lord's attorney objected, and Judge Charles Grabau
agreed.
"That's enough, Mr. Nelson," the judge said. "Thank
you for your demonstration."
Defense attorney Stephanie Page told the jury that
prosecutors failed to produce any incriminating evidence. "No body. No
blood. No DNA. No evidence."
Lawyer Dons
Dominatrix Mask in Mass. Trial
ABC News
January 27,
2006
DEDHAM, Mass. - A prosecutor put on a black leather
mask and re-enacted a bondage session Friday at a dominatrix's
manslaughter trial, telling the jury the woman did nothing to help her
client when he suffered a heart attack.
Prosecutor
Robert Nelson also dumped a box of hoods, collars and paddles onto a
table during his closing arguments, declaring that 56-year-old Barbara
Asher was trying to protect her business and "that's why she didn't
call the police."
The jury
deliberated for about four hours on Friday before being sent home
until Monday morning.
Asher, who
called herself Mistress Lauren M, is charged with manslaughter and
dismemberment in Michael Lord's death.
Lord, a
53-year-old retired telephone company worker from North Hampton, N.H.,
died in 2000 while strapped to a replica of a medieval torture device
in Asher's Quincy condominium, according to police. His body was never
found.
Police
said Asher confessed that she and her boyfriend chopped up Lord's body
in the bathtub and dumped it behind a restaurant in Maine.
In a
re-enactment for the jury, the prosecutor donned the mask, and with
both hands, reached back and clutched the top of a blackboard to
simulate how Lord was strapped.
"After a
gasp, his head went forward and she did nothing, nothing for five
minutes," Nelson said, his voice muffled as he spoke through the
zippered mouth opening.
Lord's
attorney objected, and Judge Charles Grabau agreed.
"That's
enough, Mr. Nelson," the judge said. "Thank you for your
demonstration."
Defense
attorney Stephania Page told the jury that prosecutors failed to
produce any incriminating evidence.
"No body. No blood. No
DNA. No evidence," Page said.
Prosecutor:
Dominatrix Waited Too Long To Call For Help
State Says
Woman Dismembered, Disposed Of Body
January 18,
2006
DEDHAM, Mass.
-- A prosecutor said Tuesday that a dominatrix waited too long to
call for help as a client died of a heart attack during a bondage
session, then dismembered and disposed of the body rather than report
the death.
But the
woman's lawyer said in her opening statement that the man never
visited Barbara Asher's makeshift dungeon and that police made up the
story and bullied Asher into confessing.
"No body, no
blood, no DNA evidence," defense attorney Stephanie Page said.
"Barbara Asher is here because of a theory."
Asher, who
went by the name Mistress Lauren M, has pleaded not guilty to charges
of manslaughter and dismemberment in the death of Michael Lord. The
retired telephone company worker from North Hampton, N.H., died in
July 2000 while strapped to a rack in Asher's Quincy condominium,
according to police.
Prosecutor
Robert Nelson said Asher was getting into her dominatrix outfit when
she heard a commotion coming from the "dungeon" where Lord was
waiting, naked, tied by his wrists to the rack, a replica of a
medieval torture device.
She entered
the room to find Lord in his death throes, Nelson said.
"His arms are
flailing about," Nelson said. "There was a gasp, and his head went
forward."
Asher waited
five minutes before calling her boyfriend to come help, the prosecutor
said. Miguel Ferrer, who is charged as an accomplice, arrived 10
minutes later.
"During that
time, Mr. Lord continued to hang there, and she did nothing," Nelson
said.
Asher and
Ferrer took Lord down from the rack and tied to revive him, but by
then it was too late, Nelson said. Ferrer suggested they call for
help, but Asher refused because she was worried the police would find
out about her operation, according to the prosecutor. So they put the
body in the bathtub and left for the night, he said.
The next day,
Nelson said, Ferrer dismembered the body of the 280-pound Lord with a
hacksaw and they divided his remains into eight trash bags. The day
after that, they drove to Augusta, Maine, where they dumped the
remains behind a restaurant, the prosecutor said. His remains have
never been found.
A month later,
Asher confessed to police following a two-hour interrogation, and that
confession forms the basis for much of the state's case. But the
interview was not taped, Page said, and the investigators bullied her
into saying things that conformed to their theory of what happened.
"Michael Lord
was never at Barbara Asher's place in July 2000," the defense lawyer
said, "and certainly she didn't decide to chop up a body in a
bathtub."
Forensic
testing of the tub and Asher's car turned up none of Lord's DNA, Page
said, nor did they reveal the presence of bleach or any other cleaning
agent.
She said
investigators failed to follow through on possible leads in the case,
including that Lord had a 20-year affair with a married woman.
"That woman's
husband had threatened to kill Michael Lord," Page said.
She asked the
judge earlier Tuesday to dismiss the charges, saying the state hasn't
established that a crime was committed. Judge Charles M. Grabau denied
the request.
In addition to
the criminal charges, Asher faces a $1 million wrongful death suit
filed by Lord's family.
Lord's son,
Nathan, was the first prosecution witness. He said he only learned of
his father's penchant for sado-masochism weeks after his
disappearance, when he and his brother visited Lord's trailer in North
Hampton with police to search for clues. They found leather bondage
devices and contact numbers and e-mails for escorts and dominatrixes.
Nathan Lord
acknowledged on cross-examination by Page that he also learned his
father had an Internet business where he sold wooden paddles in bulk
to others interested in sado-masochism.
North Hampton
Police Chief Brian P. Page testified that three officers reviewed
Lord's home computer a couple of weeks after he was reported missing.
He acknowledged under cross examination by attorney Page that they did
not check such things as the Web sites Lord visited, his e-mail
address book, his America Online account, or the computer's trash
folder.
"Do you agree
that all of that could have been potentially important information in
locating a missing person?" Stephanie Page asked.
Dominatrix Trial Under Way
Woman Charged In Client's Death
TheBostonChannel.com
January 17, 2006
DEDHAM, Mass.
-- Opening statements began Tuesday in the case of a Quincy
dominatrix charged in the July 2000 death of one of her clients.
NewsCenter 5's
David Boeri reported that Barbara Asher is charged with manslaughter
and dismemberment in the death of her client Mike Lord, of North
Hampton, N.H. Lord's body was never found, but officials said that he
died of a heart attack while restrained in the defendant's so-called
dungeon as a paying client.
Asher pleaded
not guilty to the charges, but prosecutors alleged that Asher told
police what happened to Lord during a taped interview in August 2000.
"At some point
in time, when we get toward the end of the two-hour period of time on
the tape, Barbara Asher asks the detectives to turn the tape off. Then
she took up a discussion with the police about what took place
regarding Michael Lord," prosecutor Robert Nelson said.
It was while
the tape was off that, police said, Asher told officials that Lord
died while suspended by his wrists during a bondage session. Officials
said that Asher did nothing to assist Lord, and instead of calling
911, she allegedly called a friend, with whom she disposed of Lord's
body.
Nelson told
the jury that some evidence corroborates parts of Asher's alleged
confession, but the defense argued that there is no evidence to prove
the alleged crime.
"There must be
some evidence besides the confession that a criminal act was committed
by someone, that (the) crime was real and not imaginative. Most cases
have a body. If (cases) do not have a body, they have blood. They have
tissue," defense attorney Stephanie Page said. "They have some
scintilla of evidence that a crime has been committed."
Page asked
judge Charles M. Grabau to dismiss the charges, but he denied the
request.
Dominatrix Manslaughter Trial
Begins
FoxNews.com
January 17, 2006
A prosecutor said Tuesday
that a dominatrix waited too long to call for help as a client died of
a heart attack during a bondage session, then dismembered and disposed
of the body rather than report the death.
But the woman's lawyer said in her opening
statement that the man never visited Barbara Asher's makeshift dungeon
and that police made up the story and bullied Asher into confessing.
"No body, no blood, no DNA evidence," defense
attorney Stephanie Page said. "Barbara Asher is here because of a
theory."
Asher, who went by the
name Mistress Lauren M, has pleaded innocent to charges of
manslaughter and dismemberment in the death of Michael Lord. The
retired telephone company worker from North Hampton, N.H., died in
July 2000 while strapped to a rack in Asher's Quincy condominium,
according to police.
Prosecutor Robert Nelson said Asher was getting
into her dominatrix outfit when she heard a commotion coming from the
"dungeon" where Lord was waiting, naked, tied by his wrists to the
rack, a replica of a medieval torture device.
She entered the room to find Lord in his death
throes, Nelson said.
"His arms are flailing about," Nelson said. "There
was a gasp, and his head went forward."
Asher waited five minutes before calling her
boyfriend to come help, the prosecutor said. Miguel Ferrer, who is
charged as an accomplice, arrived 10 minutes later.
"During that time, Mr. Lord continued to hang
there, and she did nothing," Nelson said.
Asher and Ferrer took Lord down from the rack and
tied to revive him, but by then it was too late, Nelson said. Ferrer
suggested they call for help, but Asher refused because she was
worried the police would find out about her operation, according to
the prosecutor. So they put the body in the bathtub and left for the
night, he said.
The next day, Nelson
said, Ferrer dismembered the body of the 280-pound Lord with a hacksaw
and they divided his remains into eight trash bags. The day after
that, they drove to Augusta, Maine, where they dumped the remains
behind a restaurant, the prosecutor said. His remains have never been
found.
A month later, Asher confessed to police following
a two-hour interrogation, and that confession forms the basis for much
of the state's case. But the interview was not taped, Page said, and
the investigators bullied her into saying things that conformed to
their theory of what happened.
"Michael Lord was never at Barbara Asher's place in
July 2000," the defense lawyer said, "and certainly she didn't decide
to chop up a body in a bathtub."
Forensic testing of the tub and Asher's car turned
up none of Lord's DNA, Page said, nor did they reveal the presence of
bleach or any other cleaning agent.
She said investigators failed to follow through on
possible leads in the case, including that Lord had a 20-year affair
with a married woman.
"That woman's husband had threatened to kill
Michael Lord," Page said.
She asked the judge earlier Tuesday to dismiss the
charges, saying the state hasn't established that a crime was
committed. Judge Charles M. Grabau denied the request.
In addition to the criminal charges, Asher faces a
$1 million wrongful death suit filed by Lord's family.
Lord's son, Nathan, was the first prosecution
witness. He said he only learned of his father's penchant for
sado-masochism weeks after his disappearance, when he and his brother
visited Lord's trailer in North Hampton with police to search for
clues. They found leather bondage devices and contact numbers and
e-mails for escorts and dominatrixes.
