Police Shut Down Mass. Sex Club

B O S T O N, July 13 -- They went looking for stolen guitars.

But police in Attleboro, Mass., found something else instead: sex — and lots of it.

Two detectives were sent on Saturday night to check out the report of stolen instruments at a building just across the streets from the police station. Police say they found up to 60 people who paid $25 each to participate in a sadomasochistic sex party in this small mill town.

Police say that customers in the sex club whipped and paddled each other for kicks — but kicks they insist are illegal.

They say 38-year-old Stefany L. Reed, of New York City, spanked a woman with a paddle until she bled. This kind of sex, even when consensual, is illegal, prosecutors say.

“That type of consent is not an issue here,” said assistant District Attorney Roger Ferris.

Arrests Made

Club leader Benjamin Davis, 23, was also arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer and possessing dangerous weapons used a sex toys. Whips, chains, paddles, a leather glove with tacks, and other types of paraphernalia were seized from the alleged club.

Both pleaded innocent Monday in Attleboro District Court and are free on $1,000 cash bail. Police say there could be more arrests.

Civil liberties activists denounced the arrests.

“In general, voluntary sexual conduct between consenting adults is constitutionally protected activity — or should be,” said Sarah Wunsch, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts.

“Don’t the Attleboro police have anything better to do? ... This is like returning to the days of Puritan Boston,” she said.

But police say the 1980 state Supreme Judicial Court case has established the legal precedent that people cannot consent to being assaulted in Massachusetts.

“Yes, the arrests were legal,” Detective Sgt. Kenneth Collins said Wednesday.

Ripe for Challenge

A lawyer who has handled similar cases says Massachusetts law may allow police to bring a charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon even when the assaulted person consents — but the law is ripe for a challenge.