Gerald Bond
Police Try To Unravel "Sex Dungeon," Case
- Leather and Lace Newspaper - Vol 3, No. 7
GRAND RAPIDS, Ml. - With evidence ranging from a jar labeled "Ritual Blood" to a Smurf doll in a cage, officers tried to unravel details about an alleged Wyoming sex "dungeon" where police say bloody and torturous videos were produced.
Investigators were also attempting to pinpoint "another location or two in the area" where similar activities have occurred.
Gerald Bond, 55, and his wife, Faye Marie, 29, alias "Marquise Marie," were arraigned in Wyoming District Court on two felony counts and eight high misdemeanors alleging obscenity.
The Bonds were remanded to jail. Judge Richard H. Timmers set the bond at 10 percent of $50,000. Just hours after their arrest, Grand Rapids police began receiving calls from people identifying themselves as clients of the Bonds.
Included in the materials seized were hundreds of pages of business documents, believed to contain names, addresses - and in some cases, "individual ratings and physicals appearances" - of those who dealt with the Bonds.
For years, the basement of their modest home in a quiet neighborhood has served as headquarters for pornographic activities and prostitution, according to police documents filed with the Wyoming Court.
"This will make you lose your appetite," said Kent Assistant Prosecutor Dennis Leiber, referring to the documents which detail action on video movies the couple allegedly filmed at their home.
Grand Rapids police removed 700 videocasettes and moviemaking equipment. Among other items were three animal skulls, hatchets, spurs, and assorted materials relating to Satanism and witchcraft.
The felony charges are "maintaining or operating a house of ill fame," and conspiracy to do the same. The misdemeanors allege possession with the intent to disseminate obscene materials, and conspiracy to do the same. On all counts, they face up tp 17 years in prison and $40,000 in fines. Investigators are trying to determine where the films were distributed and whether children were involved in the productions, Grand Rapids Police Chief William Hegarty said.
Aked before his arraignment whether children were used, Gerald Bond told reporters, "Negative, no, no way."
Moments later, in granting an impromptu interview while they awaited their arraignments, Gerald Bond acknowledged selling "maybe a couple hundred" adult movies "over three or four years" with third parties as actors or actresses. Both insisted money was never solicited from participants and accused police of over-dramatizing the case. "Everybody makes it out to be all these whips and chains and torture," said Gerald Bond. "It's not like that. We're just into fantasy... we meet other couples.
The Bonds were married in November 1977. She was a 19-year-old "salesgirl;" he a 45-year-old warehouse manager, according to their marriage license.
The Bonds were married in November 1977. She was a 19-year-old "salesgirl;" he a 45-year-old warehouse manager, according to their marriage license.
Bond said the alleged sexual equipment included in the three truckloads of goods confiscated from their home was nothing more than "decorations - we enjoy that type of thing."
But statements and court records, including 39 pages of graphic and detailed information on a search warrant and accompanying document, allege: The Bonds home was an ongoing enterprise with regular sadomasochism and bondage sessions, "with clients from throughout the Midwest; The home has operated as a house of prostitution. A local woman who acted in some videos for the Bonds told police Faye Bond has more than 100 clients in Michigan alone, and trades sex for "whips, chains, paddles, rubber gloves, and money."
The basement was split into two rooms, one for filmmaking and two for the torture of clients. Items confiscated from what police described as "dungeons" included creams, jellies, a pistol, a branding iron, "horror robe," "three slave tags" and "one Smurf in a small cage."
Video movies were made in the basement. They featured lesbianism and masturbation, as well as torture with needles, clothespins, clamps, whips, cages, harnesses assorted restraint devices, hot wax, stun guns and cattle prods.
In at least one flick, Faye Bond and another woman are shown piercing a man with needles, drawing the blood and smearing it on a paddle, the search warrant says. Police said the couple were involved in movies bearing such titles as "Duet of Pain," The Punishment of Jud," and "The Piercing of Slave Bob."
One flick concludes with Faye Bond on camera saying, "We hope you enjoyed tonight's movi& and will join us many times in the future; thank you tor watching," the warrant states. The police investigation begun 10 months ago, accelerated after Grand Rapids Vice Officer Richard Ungrey, as part of an investigation of swinger publications, bought a movie in October, according to the warrant. Ungrey recognized a participant in the film as a woman he'd arrested for drug offenses and, according to the warrant, contacted her. The woman told Ungrey she'd appeared in several of the couples' films and had been offered a job in the couples' business.
Faye Bond is listed as the agent of Marquise Video Productions Ltd., a Michigan corporation incorporated Aug. 28, 1986, according to state Department of Commerce records.
The purpose of the corporation was "to produce, market and sell videotapes and films and to own and sell real and personal property incidental thereto," according to records.
Jerry Nurrie, a Kalamazoo lawyer who prepared the articles of incorporation, said the bonds did not say anything about pornography.
The couple told him they did video work for Michigan State University and some schools in the Grand Rapids area, said Nurrie, who said he couid not remember specifics.
"they talked about doing videotaping of depositions, courtroom work," he said. "They talked about how they wanted to set up some distribution system, but they hadn't set one up. I'm kind of shocked that they're in pornography."
Ungrey saw an ad for the company in an underground publication for those seeking sexual partners, and using a phony name and address, placed an order for two of the firm's movies, the warrant states.
One 90-minute video was "entirely devoted to the masochistic brutalization of a white male," the warrant states. The fiim shows the man tortured with hot wax, a stun gun and a cattle prod; he's also beaten until he bleeds from the buttocks, according to the warrant.
Thomas Ojezenasz, owner of Fifi's Bookstore, 445 S. Division Ave., said he bought one of Marquise's "bondage/discipline" movies three or four months ago from a video warehouse in Livonia, Faye Bond's picture was on the cover of the video, the title of which he couldn't remember, he said. "! think I sold it to somebody right off the bat," he said.
Ojezenasz said he met Gerald Bond about 15 years ago shortly after opening his bookstore. Bond was a customer at the store. "He was not real regular," Ojezenasz said. Ojezenasz criticized police for raiding the production studio. "It was strictly 'B and D (bondage and discipline)' stuff" he said. "I don't know what the police are yapping about. There were no kids involved. I can't see anything wrong with it."
The Bonds have used a Grand Rapids post office box since 1976, and U.S Postal officials are trying to determine whether the pair illegally distributed material across state lines in violation of federal laws. Michale Willis and Michael O'Hara, U.S. Postal inspectors from Detroit, helped local police with the investigation.
The warrant states the post office box served as a delivery point for no less than seven addressees: Gerald E. Bond, Marie, Swingers Scoreboard, West Michigan Swinger, Club 616, West Michigan Socials, and "Faye Gregory."
The latter is one of several aliases for Faye Bond, whose maiden name is Gregory. She told reporters she is known as "Marquise Marie" to those who visit the home. Asked by Judge Timmers to state her occupation, she answered "housewife."
A neighbor of the Bonds said she was Faye's only friend on the block until Bond showed her "unbelievable videos."
"She never really started telling me about things, about her lifestyle until about eight years ago," said the woman, who has lived in the area for the last 10 years:
- "We started off talking about everyday things. Then she told me about herself, that she was from St. Louis, and her father abused her," said the neighbor, who asked not to be identified.
After knowing Bond for a couple of years, the neighbor said Bond began talking more intimately: She said she was into the bondage and slave/master thing. She's talking about her clients, and she showed me some videos. They were unbelievable. I never went back."
The neighbor said Bond starred in the two 30-minute videos she viewed. "She was always the dominant one. She had the whip or the chains. Or sometimes you'd just see her hand and the whip," said the neighbor. "I'm talking pain and red marks. The men were tied down and were being tortured."
The neighbor said she never called the police to complain. "I have to live here. Besides they were pretty discreet. The beatings (in the video) were never going on outdoors," she said.
Connie Current, who lives next door to the Bonds, said Faye Bond would sit nude in the backyard, and she has heard moans and screams coming from the home at all hours of the night.
Hegarty maintains Wyoming police were informed of the operation months ago, but Wyoming Police Chief Lowell Henline said his department didn't know about the alleged pornography ring until the last minute.
Henline noted it's not unusual for one police department to work undercover in another's jurisdiction but said there was a lack of communication between the Grand Rapids and Wyoming departments.
"I guess that with something of this magnitude, I should have known about what was happening," Menline added.
Dear Maria & George,
Enclosed are all the papers we have at this time. We will be meeting with our lawyers this coming week. We will be getting copies of the police reports and warrants at that time. We will send them off to you as soon as we get them. Please forgive how this is written. We are using borrowed equipment, and this doesn't work the same as ours. We sure miss our computer.
We don't know how to thank you for all your help.
As you know, one of the biggest worries now is income and money. As you know Jerry ran his business from our home and they, the police, have destroyed our home. They removed just about everything that wasn't nailed down. In some cases, they even ripped things from the walls that were nailed down: Even tack lighting. Our lawyers say we have a good case if we can hold out, and more people like you come forward and are willing to appear in court for us.
First and foremost, we are not "selling sex." The only activities were D/S and bondage. We are in this lifestyle because it gives us pleasure, not for the money. We are writing our side of the story and will get you copies as soon as we can. In our case, they even removed all of the office supplies. The WHOLE desk, pencils, paper clips, stamps, the Whole office. Even our state and federal reports, family photos, phone numbers, and records. More later, Marie and Jerry
The following is an editorial from The Grand Rapids Press which deals with the recent arrest of Fsye Marie and Gerald Bond on obscenity charges.
- Smut Cleanup Raises Issues
In a free society, the only thing subtle and tender about pornography is the legal ground on which it rests. When police raid the smut palaces, the citizenry may applaud the cleanup. But we should be careful not to sweep uprights of privacy along with the whips and chains.
The central question - the one the courts have been struggling with for generations - arose in Wyoming when Grand Rapids and Wyoming police entered a private home, removed about 700 videocassettes, boxes of business documents and an assortment of implements usually associated with bizarre sexual activities, a couple was charged with maintaining a "house of ill fame" and possessing obscene materials with the intent to disseminate them. In an interview, one of those arrested, Gerald Bond, freely acknowledged selling adult movies.
"We're just into fantasy," he said. "We meet other couples." The courts will have to sort out the merits of this case. On the face of it, though, the police acted within the confines of the community's vague statutes governing lewd behavior. The U.S. Supreme Court has given up trying to define obscenity, leaving it up to "community standards," though a recent high court decision added yet another test - that of the "reasonable person." Both tests would seem to have been satisfied regarding the material seized in this operation - a lot of other junk sold over the counter at' adult book stores around town.
The question then becomes, what are the chances those other establishments will be similarly raided if the Wyoming case is successfully prosecuted? If the obscenity law is changed as many prosecutors would like, police could arrest bookstore clerks instead of just the elusive owners. In that event, the arrests in Wyoming could be the first step in a wholesale crackdown on pornography. Thorny constitutional questions come in here. When communities such as ours begin to enforce their standards of decency and morality, they had better be sure what those standards are and that in applying them the First Amendment is not trampled. '1n totalitarian societies, all pornography is suppressed - along with freedom of movement, speech, assembly, and worship. Freedom of expression is a cherished right in our pluralistic society and one that calls for a generous measure of tolerance.
Of course, there are points at which a pornographer's rights are crushed by his own perversions - where children are victimized, where violence is employed. Justification for police action is enhanced if there is reason to believe, as in the Wyoming case, that these outer bounds of decency might have been crossed.
Pornography is a moral smudge on our community, but in removing the spot we must take care not to erase or damage the fragile underpinnings of democracy.
In addition, if (the police and prosecutors mean to get serious about this sort of activity, the various departments should work together more closely than was evident in the Wyoming case. While there was some lower-level cooperation, the hierarchy of the Wyoming department apparently was kept in the dark about the planned raid. Miscommunication of that sort builds resentment, resentment that can inhibit good police work.
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