Did the "mentally deficient" woman in Lebanon consent to various acts of torture?
The AP reports him getting a wee bit squirmy Thursday at the pre-trial hearing in Kansas City for the criminal case against Ed "Master Ed" Bagley of Lebanon.
(Recall that Bagley has been charged with keeping a mentally deficient woman as a sex slave, torturing her and pimping her out. He's been accused of stuff like nailing her labia to a wooden board, sending electric shocks into her body, keeping her in a dog cage, and performing an abortion on her with a coat hanger. Kirkwood resident Brad Cook has already pleaded guilty to his role.)
All parties seem to agree the main issue in this case is whether or not the woman consented to all of this.
Bagley's attorney, Susan Dill, thinks mainstream jurors will automatically assume no one would ever willingly do so, so she wants to bring in a BDSM expert from San Francisco to talk about BDSM norms.
(Some residents of Lebanon believe the woman was fine with her situation; others argue she was brainwashed.)
Judge Whipple -- who is in his seventies and happened to be born in the same town where the alleged crime happened -- reportedly seemed "uneasy" at times discussing the matter; he inquired if jurors should be questioned during selection about whether they'd done some BDSM. Dill said yes.
"Jesus," Whipple replied, sighing.
Later, the prosecution mentioned thousands of photographs.
"Pictures?" Whipple said. "You have pictures?"He eventually said:
"I'm concerned," Whipple said. "It doesn't bode well for the court to get into the business of trying to establish parameters of the BDSM lifestyle."Sounds like this case might feel like torture for ol' Judge Whipple.
