Monday, February 20, 2006

Degradation on the Installment Plan

What is it about "Frey"s and The Smoking Gun? I'm not talking about James Frey, but someone worse: one Travis Frey, "a 33-year-old Iowa man who is facing charges that he tried to kidnap his own wife (not to mention a separate child pornography rap)." From The New York Daily News:

When Ruth Frey tied the knot with her husband, she told police she did not expect to be tied to a bed, sexually assaulted and asked to sign a sick contract that conferred weird sexual obligations on her.

Travis Frey, a 33-year-old Iowa father of two, has been charged with first-degree kidnapping and assaulting his wife three times after allegedly tying her to a bed with a rope. Ruth Frey told Council Bluffs police her husband was angry with her for taking their two daughters to church.

But the case turned even more bizarre when prosecutors produced a four-page "Contract of Wifely Expectations" they said Frey had wanted his spouse to sign. The document, a copy of which was obtained by TheSmokingGun.com, stipulated that Ruth Frey was to do "anything and everything" her husband wanted.

The Smoking Gun does indeed have a copy, and you can find it under Sicko "Marriage Contract" One For The Ages. The link is bandwidth-heavy, with each of the four pages including a scan of a separate sheet for the contract - which the wife never signed, in case you are wondering. There isn't much commentary from The Gun. "While we normally point out the highlights of most documents, there are so many in this demented, and very graphic, contract, we really can't do it justice. So set aside ten minutes--and prepare to be repulsed." You have been warned.

(Thankfully, it doesn't contain much in the way of naughty graphics. However, the document uses one font with Kama Sutra-esque figures in the capital letters. Evidently, Mr. Frey thought it was appropriate for section headings. But pretty much all obscenity here is textual.)  

What do I think will happen to Mr. Frey? The New York Daily News continues: "In Iowa, kidnapping is a class A felony and carries a life sentence without the possibility of parole." My feeling is that Travis Frey is going to get himself a lifetime behind bars - preferably in solitary. I am no lawyer, but the "contract" sounds like it is admissible evidence to me, and the jury will definitely be dismayed by it. Lines like "On demand means what I say, when I say, where I say and how I say" makes Travis Frey out to be a sexual predator, and a domineering asshole indeed.