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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.