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Why you should verify the submissive remembers the safe words before and during scenes.

And another reason why the Dominant, the one in control, has to be able to read the signs and signals and not just depend upon the use of safe words.

Published Tuesday, July 3, 2001, in the Akron Beacon Journal.

Woman pleads guilty in Stark

Ex-spouse is charged with failing to report man's alleged violence

By John Higgins
 Beacon Journal staff writer

MASSILLON: A 42-year-old woman whose ex-husband is accused of kidnapping, torturing and raping another woman pleaded guilty yesterday to failing to report the crime.

Tammy J. Erwin of Norton had been charged with complicity to felonious assault, but a Stark County grand jury indicted her on a lesser misdemeanor charge instead.

She appeared in Massillon Municipal Court yesterday and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, which were suspended, and ordered to pay a $250 fine and court costs.

The 38-year-old victim was present and agreed with the sentence, court officials said.

Jackson Township police said Tammy Erwin and her three children came into her ex-husband's Malabu Avenue home at some point during the alleged June 11 assault.

The children -- ages 16, 13 and 11 -- stayed downstairs while Tammy Erwin went upstairs and asked her ex-husband, Kevin L. Erwin, to leave with her. He refused. However, she failed to call police for help.

Kevin Erwin is charged with kidnapping, rape and felonious assault.

Prosecutors allege that Kevin Erwin held his victim captive for about eight hours while he branded her with the letter K, bit her several times, shocked her genitals and threatened her with a knife. The Akron Beacon Journal generally does not name the victims of sex crimes.

Kevin Erwin claims the victim willingly signed a contract the day before the assault, promising she would be his sex slave, according to court documents.

The contract states that she would divorce her husband and marry Erwin, who would be allowed to punish her with a whip, riding crop or electrical stimulation whenever he desired.

The victim, who met Erwin over the Internet, signed the paper under duress, said Assistant Stark County Prosecutor Jennifer L. Dave.

Erwin told authorities that the contract would clear him of any wrongdoing, Dave said. He is scheduled for trial July 23 in Stark County Common Pleas Court.

John Higgins can be reached at 330-478-6000 (Ext. 12) or 1-800-478-5445 or jhiggins@thebeaconjournal.com