Mass. dominatrix pleads innocent in death

QUINCY, Mass. – A dominatrix whose client died after she put a hood on his head and strapped him to a rack in a crucifix position pleaded innocent Friday to charges of involuntary manslaughter and cutting up his body to dispose of it.

Barbara Asher, 53, of Quincy was released on personal recognizance after her arraignment at Norfolk Superior Court. Asher has no prior criminal record and has not attempted to flee since Michael Lord’s disappearance in July 2000. Police said Asher told them that after Lord died during a bondage session, she panicked and she and her boyfriend, Miguel Ferrer, dumped the body at a restaurant trash bin in Augusta, Maine.

No body parts have ever been found and previous tests on a saw and material from Asher’s home did not turn up enough evidence to charge her or her boyfriend with a crime.

Prosecutor Robert Nelson said a March ruling by the Supreme Judicial Court in the Worcester fire that killed six firefighters opened the door for charges in this case.

The court ruled that a homeless couple’s decision not to report the fire they started, even though they knew it was spreading, was reckless enough to warrant manslaughter charges.

Nelson said Asher’s failure to help Lord after he collapsed was similarly reckless. “She had a duty to act at the time, to take him off the rack … and call appropriate medical response teams,” Nelson told Judge Peter Agnes.

After the arraignment Asher’s attorney, Kevin Reddington, said he was “confident that a court, after review of the lack of evidence, will dismiss the indictment.”

Nelson said Lord, a retired New Hampshire telephone line worker, went to Asher’s condo at 10 Weston Ave., which was made up to look like a dungeon. He had been a previous customer of Asher’s, he said.

Nelson said Asher put a collar around Lord’s neck, placed a hood over his head and strapped him in a crucifix position while she went to change into an outfit.

Asher then told police she heard the 6-foot-4, 280-pound Lord struggle, then what sounded like a last gasp as his head fell forward, Nelson said. She left him up there for 15 minutes, he said. Ferrer eventually took Lord down and tried CPR, which failed to revive him.

Prosecutors are uncertain why Lord died, though Nelson said after the hearing that it’s possible he was asphyxiated. He had no prior heart condition, Nelson said.

Asher told police she didn’t call police because she was afraid of IRS and police scrutiny of her business.

Asher left the condo to buy trash bags and cleaning solution and when she returned, Ferrer was dismembering Lord’s body with a hacksaw; they eventually filled eight garbage bags and disposed of the body, he said.

If convicted, Asher faces a maximum 20 years in prison on the involuntary manslaughter charge and six months for the improper disposal of a body.

Ferrer is scheduled to be arraigned next month on a charge of accessory to involuntary manslaughter after the fact.