NH NH - Michael Lord, 53, North Hampton, July 2000

Jeana (DP)

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Man allegedly died of heart attack during bondage session

ADDAMS, Massachusetts (AP) -- A prosecutor said Tuesday that a dominatrix dismembered and disposed of the body of a client who died of a heart attack during a bondage session in her makeshift dungeon.

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 53-year-old Michael Lord.

* * *

Asher and Ferreira took Lord down from the rack and tied to revive him, but by then it was too late, Nelson said.

Ferreira 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, Ferreira 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 NM. Grab au denied the request.

In addition to the criminal charges, Asher faces a $1 million wrongful death lawsuit filed by Lord's family.


http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/01/17/dominatrix.charged.ap/index.html
 
From January 2006:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dominatrix-not-guilty-in-bondage-death/

A dominatrix was acquitted of manslaughter Monday in the death of a 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...

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.
 

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