LYNN, Massachusetts (AP) -- Adrian Exley was wrapped tightly in heavy plastic, then bound with duct tape. A leather hood was put over his head with a thin plastic straw inserted so that he could breathe, and he was shut up in a closet.
Exley's body was discovered in the woods last year, two months after he was bound up in the bondage "playroom" Gary LeBlanc had built in the basement of his suburban Boston home.
LeBlanc, a 48-year-old Gulf Oil sales executive, detailed his responsibility in the fatal bondage session in a five-page suicide note, just before he put a gun to his head and killed himself.
Now the question is: Since Exley consented to the sex play, can LeBlanc be held responsible for his death?
Exley's family is suing LeBlanc's estate for unspecified damages, claiming wrongful death. Many bondage enthusiasts are watching the case closely, seeing it as a lesson in where to draw the line of responsibility on consensual but dangerous sex.
"There's definitely the whole spectrum of thought on what really happened -- whether it was a consent issue, or negligence or misunderstanding," said Vivienne Kramer, a board member of the New England Leather Alliance. "Everybody has their own ideas on what should have happened."
Exley and LeBlanc met through an online forum for gay men into rubber, leather and bondage. Exley, a 32-year-old stripper, used the screen name "Studpup," while LeBlanc called himself "Rubrman" and built a chamber with rubber mats on the floors and walls, chains, leather restraints, rubber suits and a hospital gurney.
Exley arrived at LeBlanc's house in Lynn in April 2006 after the pair had exchanged e-mails in which they discussed plans for LeBlanc to play the "master" and Exley his "slave," according to the lawsuit.
John Andrews, a lawyer for LeBlanc's estate, said Exley knew the risks going in. "What occurred was an act or actions between two consenting adults, both of whom knew what they were doing, and it had a tragic end," he said.
The lawsuit describes a three-day bondage and discipline session that ended when a third man, Scott Vincent, discovered Exley was not breathing. Exley had been put in a closet while bound in plastic up to his neck and left alone for several hours, according to the lawsuit.
In his suicide note, LeBlanc admitted that Exley at one point had trouble breathing. But he said that after "cooling him down," Exley improved. LeBlanc said that he went to sleep about 3 a.m. but was woken up a few hours later by Vincent, who told him Exley was not breathing and was turning blue and cold.
LeBlanc said he panicked, and he and Vincent drove to Rhode Island, where they buried the body and threw away Exley's clothing and identification.
The Rhode Island medical examiner determined that Exley suffocated. Vincent said in a sworn statement that the straw had fallen out of his mouth in the closet.
Vincent, a flight attendant who is also being sued, is charged with failure to report a death in Rhode Island. But he has not been charged in Massachusetts.
In his note, LeBlanc said he was "responsible for a horrible tragedy," adding: "Had I dealt with the first crisis responsibly, he would likely have returned home safely."
Lawyers for Exley's estate acknowledge that Exley wanted to participate in a bondage session, but say he did not know about LeBlanc's reputation as an "extreme edge player" in the world of bondage and sadomasochism.
"Just because you are agreeing that you will allow someone to tie you up temporarily as part of role-playing doesn't mean that you are consenting to be killed or to be left alone or to be abused," attorney Randy Chapman said.
Several people who came forward after Exley's death told police that LeBlanc had restrained them and left them alone for long periods, or ignored their requests that he curtail a bondage session.
Both actions go against the bondage protocols, which say participants must stop if their partner uses a prearranged "safe word" or "safe signal" and must not leave anyone who is bound alone, said Susan Wright, a spokeswoman for the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom.
Brian Plant, a bondage and sadomasochism practitioner from Kansas, said: "Nobody goes into these things saying, `Oh, well, I'm going to die because of it.' You reach a point when the line is crossed, and it is no longer consensual."
Kathy Jo Cook, a lawyer who specializes in wrongful death cases, said that when you take away the sensational details of the Exley case, the claim being made by Exley's estate is the same made in many other wrongful death cases.
"The law says if a person causes the death of another person by an act which is either negligent or reckless, that person is liable," Cook said. "You have a duty to behave reasonably. I think it's the same thing here, albeit a very strange set of facts."
It was Exley's mother, Maggie Horner, who decided to sue LeBlanc's estate.
"We decided that we didn't want Gary's last wishes being granted when Adrian's couldn't be," she said. "Why should Gary be able to kill my son, bury my son, shoot himself and still get his own way?"
Re: It is tricky
Date: 4/26/08 03:18 pm (UTC)From:When the race car driver died during a race, everyone rose up in anger, trying to blame anything and anyone, wanting his wife to sue ever manufacturer of every piece of his car to demand "justice" for his death.
His wife said (paraphrasing) "He died doing what he loved. He knew the risks when he raced, this was a possible consequence of choosing this activity" and refused to sue anyone. I think this is much more reasonable. Excley's mother wants to continue punishing LeBlanc even though he's dead and can't possibly be affected by her punishment.
Again, I am hesitant to really pick sides in this particular case because there are a lot of things we don't know. So I'm speaking in general when I say that we all take risks.
I am not in favor of most of the "wrongful death" suits that take place. Sometimes shit just happens. When a guy gets into a car accident because he is driving fairly reasonably but the ice on the road just causes the car to go over the cliff, killing them both, I don't think the passenger's family has the right to sue the driver's estate. When the driver intentionally jumps the divide and starts playing chicken with an oncoming semi-truck, that's clearly reckless driving.
In this case, we do not know for sure if LeBlanc jumped the divide and was reckless or if this was an honest accident that happens during consensual high-risk behaviour. We especially don't know because of the nature of sensationalist reporting and the probability of the reporter not understanding BDSM and therefore not getting some of the details or imbuing personal bias into the reporting.
There was also the case of the teenager who died by getting hit with a baseball during a game or practice, I forget which. He had an unknown medical condition that getting hit with the baseball triggered and caused his death. The pitcher of that ball should not be sued because getting hit with a baseball is a possible consequence of playing the game. It's tragic the kid died, but it's not "wrongful death" or "reckless driving" of the pitcher and I'm pretty sure that pitcher is capable of punishing himself emotionally far better than any lawsuit could.