accidents may happen

[cj forrest]

Hello, good people of Crimespace.  I’m new to writing crime fiction, so I’m a little naive in the ways of police procedures and criminal law.  If you don’t mind indulging me, I would like to throw out a couple of hypothetical crime questions from time to time.  Suppose you are writing a story that involves a precarious call-girl that specializes in sadomasochistic scenarios…you know the whole leather bondage, chains, etc, and she has a client that gets off on asphyxiation.  What if during one of their sessions this client accidentally hangs himself and this call-girl wasn’t able to help him because she too was tied up?  She for whatever reason wasn’t able to release her own restraints in time to save him.  Could she be charged with anything more then prostitution?  Would laws pertaining to negligent homicide apply to her?  They were after all consenting adults and it was an accident.  I would love to hear your thoughts.  Thank you.

[Dana King]

You could take this any direction you want. What evidence if found at the scene? What the hooker's backstory? What's the john's backstory? Does a cop have a vested interest in the case coming out one way or another? Do they believe her story? Lots of possibilities in this scenario.

[Jack Getze]

Did she know what they were doing was dangerous? How dangerous? Like Dana says, what else is in her background that could relate to intent. Prior connection? Mutual friends? I have seen this exact scenario on Law and Order and it could have played out half a dozen ways depending on the evidence discovered in the john's past.

[John McFetridge]

Who is her pimp? How connected is he? How much is he willing to spend? These will directly affect how much she can spend on a lawyer and that will be the number one factor in whether or not she's charged. In real life.

In fiction, as Dana says, anythng can happen - cops and lawyers can be totally above board and honest, prostitutes can be 'independent' and all the laws can be followed. That's why we like fiction ;)

[cj forrest]

Thanks for the reply, guys. It figures that Law and Order already used this in one of their episodes. I watched an interesting documentary a week ago from Hulu called Fetishes by Nick Broomfield. It was about a luxurious S and M parlor in New York where aggressive women dominated over men in a semi-sexual…I don’t know, some kinda freak show, pretend sex thing operation. I never did fully understand it. It was an entertaining doc, though. It’s important that I point out that the parlor, Pandora’s Box, is a legitimate legal business. I was thinking about ways that these women can get themselves in trouble. I ask you at risk of falling into that grey area, Bill Clinton notion, of what sex is and is not. What are the legal parameters of prostitution? What if this client I talked about earlier had hung himself but in no way had any contact with the dominatrix, body fluids or otherwise? The client gratified himself and used the dominatrix as a visual medium only. Where would the law fall in this situation? I would think that Pandora’s Box at the very least would be liable for not placing the necessary safe guards where asphyxiation is used.

[cj forrest]

Thank you, Dan, this is very helpful.

[Garry L. McLaughlin]

I would say there is a good possibility she could be charged as an assessory. She probably assisted him in being bound up.

Garry-

[Beth Groundwater]

Do you know about the crimescenewriter yahoogroup? It's a very helpful forum for asking these types of questions. I suggest you join. Here's the official description of the group from their page on yahoogroups:

"A forum for asking and answering crime scene investigation, applied forensics, and police procedure questions for fiction or non-fiction writers. Writers are invited to ask and crime scene investigators, forensic scientists, and medical practioners are invited to answer. Of course, experienced writers are invited to help the newer ones and each other."

[cj forrest]

Thank you, Beth. I'll look into this group.