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SEX-SLAVE SUSPECTS ENTER PLEAS OF NOT GUILTY

Thursday, September 12, 2002

By STEPHANIE THOMSON and JOHN BRANTON, Columbian staff writers

Michael Aaron Wilson and William Joseph Fritsch pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges they kept another man as their "sex slave" for eight days in their home near Prairie High School.

Wilson, 45, and Fritsch, 22, are charged with rape, kidnapping and assault. If convicted, they face several years in prison.

Trial was set for Oct. 28, but defense attorneys Gerry Wear and Tom Phelan will ask that the men be tried separately.

Responding to Wear's concerns about pre-trial publicity, Superior Court Judge John Wulle sealed the search warrant ---- which details the basis for the search and catalogues incriminating items found in the home ---- for 48 hours.

He set a hearing for 8:30 a.m. Friday to hear arguments on whether the warrant should stay sealed.

Wear and Phelan had not seen the warrant and said they may not bother to argue to keep it sealed. A warrant is a public record, and Wulle indicated it may be a tough sell to convince him to keep it under wraps.

"It is the policy of this court that this is a public process," Wulle said.

The initial purpose of Wednesday's hearing was to put the victim, a Seattle transient, under a court order to keep in contact with prosecutors and not to leave the area. He met Wilson and Fritsch online and accepted a bus ticket to come stay with them.

But senior deputy prosecutor Tom Duffy said the 47-year-old man has secured housing through social service organizations.

"He has assured me he intends to cooperate," Duffy said.

Phelan, who represents Fritsch, asked Wulle about reducing the $250,000 bail to something in the $50,000 to $75,000 range.

He said Fritsch's family in Philadelphia would like to bail him out.

But Wulle said he won't consider it until he receives more information about the defendants' backgrounds, including their ties to the area.

Duffy said Wilson, who's believed to be an electronics consultant, at one time made a six-figure salary.

Wulle ordered financial screenings for both men.

He also promised Wilson he'd check with Sheriff Garry Lucas to see why Wilson was not getting the medication he says he needs from jail staff.

Wilson said he takes medication daily for his blood pressure, prostate and for a "memory problem." He also needs a breathing machine to treat apnea.

Wilson was well-spoken when he addressed Wulle but spent most of the hearing sitting in a jury box with his arms folded. Fritsch, his slender co-defendant half his age, sat behind him and occasionally bit his nails.

Detective Sgt. Dave Trimble said Wednesday that no new victims have surfaced and that an expert started late Tuesday delving into the suspects' two computers.

Trimble confirmed that Wilson maintained a Web site that solicited devotees of sadomasochistic sex. The site showed pictures of Wilson in a firefighter suit, and Trimble said detectives did find firefighter gear in the home, but it had no identifying markers.

On the Web site, Wilson said he specializes in bondage, "intense medical scenes," torture and prison punishments, and he prefers "fit, or slim and smooth guys who like their kink original, unique and often very painful."

He described himself as a top and said he had "one full-time 'boy' in training to be a top."

Wilson told detectives that the interaction with the victim was merely "consensual sexual role-playing," and Wear said that will be what he argues at trial.

From earlier this week:

DETECTIVES SEIZE TWO COMPUTERS IN SEX CASE

Tuesday, September 10, 2002

By JOHN BRANTONand STEPHANIE THOMSON, Columbian staff writers

BRUSH PRAIRIE -- Sheriff's detectives have seized two computers belonging to men who are charged with holding another man as their "sex slave" in their Brush Prairie home.

Michael Aaron Wilson, 45, and William Joseph Fritsch, 22, were arrested after a 47-year-old man, his wrist and ankles shackled, ran to neighbors Thursday evening. The man said he had just escaped from the defendants' home at 12220 N.E. 103rd Ave., near Prairie High School.

The alleged victim said he had been raped and beaten for eight days in a torture chamber. When detectives investigated, they found a large upstairs room equipped with electronic hospital equipment, two operating tables, video cameras, whips, restraints and sexual devices.

The victim was treated at a hospital for bruises and released.

Prosecutors on Monday charged Wilson and Fritsch with first-degree kidnapping, first-degree rape and second-degree assault. The defendants are being held in the Clark County Jail with bail set at $250,000 each.

They have told detectives their behavior with the victim was merely "consensual sexual role playing."

After the arrest made nationwide headlines on Friday, a reader referred The Columbian to a Web site that appears to be maintained by Wilson. The site contains photographs of a man closely resembling Wilson. One shows him using a medical syringe to draw drugs from a bottle. Another shows him dressed as a firefighter. The site says the operator is based in Vancouver.

The Web site operator says he specializes in bondage, flogging, military interrogation, "intense medical scenes," torture and prison punishments. He describes himself as a "master who knows his way around a submissive's mind as well as his body."

"I prefer fit, or slim and smooth guys who like their kink original, unique and often very painful," the site operator says.

He adds: "I have one full-time 'boy' in training to become a top. I am seeking others, full-time, part-time."

On Monday, Detective Sgt. Dave Trimble said he's seeking experts to see what the suspects' computer hard drives contain, which could take a few weeks. So far, Trimble said, no additional victims have come forward.

A neighbor told detectives that UPS and Fed-Ex visited the suspects' home every day. Detectives have found no evidence that the suspects were conducting a for-profit sex business. Wilson is believed to be an electronics consultant and Fritsch is unemployed, detectives said.

Senior deputy prosecutor Tom Duffy said a potential problem with the case is that the alleged victim is a homeless man from Seattle who might disappear before a trial.

As a result, a hearing has been set for 9 a.m. Wednesday, before Superior Court Judge John Wulle, to discuss what can be done to ensure the victim will cooperate with prosecutors.

Possibilities include ordering the victim to give a deposition and stay in contact with prosecutors or risk having a warrant issued for his arrest.

Clark County Sheriff Garry Lucas said Friday that Wilson was convicted in 1998 of possessing child pornography in Denver.

A story in The Deseret News of Salt Lake City said Wilson, then a Colorado resident using another name, was sentenced to three years in prison. He allegedly operated an Internet site called "Boy Torture Channel," which showed young males being sexually abused and tortured.

In 1999, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed the conviction because insufficient evidence was introduced in the trial.