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 for air, and he was shut in a
closet.
It may not have
been exactly what the 32-year-old stripper from London
had been expecting when he traveled to Boston to stay with a
man he met through a bondage and sadomasochism Web
site.
Exley's body was
discovered last June, two months after he was bound up
in a bondage ''playroom'' Gary LeBlanc 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
pulled the trigger.
Now the question
is: Since Exley consented to the sex, is he responsible
for his own death?
Exley's family
has sued LeBlanc's estate, claiming wrongful death. And
many in the bondage community are keeping careful watch on
the case, seeing it as lesson in where to draw the
line of responsibility on consensual -- but dangerous
-- sexual activity.
''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 stripper and entertainer,
used the screen name ''Studpup,'' while LeBlanc called
himself ''Rubrman'' and built a chamber complete with
rubber mats on the floors and walls, chains, leather
restraints, rubber suits, and a hospital gurney.
John Andrews, a
lawyer for LeBlanc's estate, said Exley knew what he was
getting into when he agreed to visit LeBlanc.
''It appears from
all the objective evidence that the two were engaged in
an activity that they both knew what the activity was, how
it would be carried out, and they went forward on that
basis,'' Andrews said. ''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.''
Exley arrived at
LeBlanc's house in Lynn on April 20, 2006. The pair had
plans for LeBlanc to be the ''master'' and Exley his
''slave.'' In e-mails cited in the lawsuit, LeBlanc
had expressed a desire to totally dominate someone,
and he referred to Exley as ''it.''
The lawsuit
describes a three-day-long 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 admits that during the encounter, Exley
''had some type of problem'' and had trouble breathing. But
he said that after ''cooling him down,'' Exley
improved. LeBlanc said that he went to sleep about 3
a.m. on April 23, but was woken up a few hours later by
Vincent, who told him Exley ''was not breathing, was blue
and getting cold.''
LeBlanc said he
panicked, then came up with a plan to dispose of Exley's
body. He and Vincent drove to Rhode Island, where they
buried Exley's body in the Rockville Wildlife
Management Area. They threw away his clothing and
identification ''in the hope that he would never be found,''
LeBlanc wrote.
Vincent, a flight
attendant who is also named as a defendant in the Exley
lawsuit, is charged with failure to report a death -- a
misdemeanor -- in Rhode Island, where Exley's body was
found. But he has not been charged criminally in
Massachusetts, where Exley died. His lawyer, Susan Perkins,
said that ''speaks volumes'' about his minimal role in Exley
and LeBlanc's encounter.
In his note,
LeBlanc said he was ''responsible for a horrible tragedy.''
''I am taking my
life because I did not responsibly take care of your
beloved 'Chip,''' LeBlanc wrote. ''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 with LeBlanc, but they say he did not
know about LeBlanc's reputation as an ''extreme edge
player'' in the bondage and sadomasochism community.
''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 of time, or ignored their requests that he
curtail a bondage session. Both actions go against the
community's protocols, which say participants must stop
the session 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, an advocacy
organization for consenting adults with alternative
lifestyles.
Brian Plant, a
bondage and sadomasochism practitioner from Kansas, said
he corresponded online with LeBlanc, but decided against
meeting him in person after talking to him on the
phone.
''He said, 'If I
want to, I can kidnap you and keep you as long as I
want,''' said Plant.
Plant, who had
also corresponded with Exley online, said members of the
bondage community, who are generally secretive because of
their alternative lifestyles, have debated the level
of responsibility each man had in their deadly
encounter.
''Yes, they were
consensual adults, and when they met up there was going
to be this adult consensual activity, but no, I don't buy
that it was consensual right up to the moment he
died,'' Plant 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, an
attorney 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 claim 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.''
Exley's mother,
Maggie Horner, from Blaby, Leicester, said she decided to
sue LeBlanc's estate after learning about the suicide note
in which LeBlanc described going to sleep after
binding up Exley. The note also described how he said
goodbye to his loved ones and spelled out his final
wishes before he shot himself in a Wal-Mart parking lot in
Claremont, N.H.
''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?''
The lawsuit,
pending in Essex superior court in Salem, does not specify
damages sought. (Denise Lavoie, AP)