Woman Wants Sheriff to Return Bondage Tools

A San Clemente grandmother and self-proclaimed dominatrix charged Friday that the whips, harnesses, ropes and chains of her sadomasochistic “upscale dungeon” are being unlawfully held by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

In a press conference with her attorney at San Clemente City Hall, 57-year-old Betty Johnson Davis accused the Sheriff’s Department of putting her out of business by refusing to return $20,000 in dungeon equipment and jewelry taken when investigators raided her home in February.

Prostitution charges filed against Davis stemming from the raid were dropped earlier this week.

Davis, who is known as “The Mistress of the Lash” and “Mistress Brandy” in bondage magazines, said her livelihood is endangered and that she is considering filing a lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Department alleging false arrest. She also accused a San Clemente woman of stalking her.

“I worked for my family, I worked for my home. . . . I am the victim here,” said Davis, a 19-year resident of San Clemente, who was dressed in a black and brown suit and wore heart-shaped earrings. “I am a dominatrix, a very well-known dominatrix, and the men who come to me enjoy themselves. But I am not a prostitute and have never been a prostitute.”

Lt. Tom Garner of the Sheriff’s Department said Davis may need a court order to get back her equipment.

“I don’t think we deliver,” Garner said. “She’ll have to come pick it up.”

The Sheriff’s Department first learned of Davis in late 1993 when another San Clemente woman--who Davis said is stalking her--told investigators that Davis was running a bondage parlor in her townhouse on Vista Encanta. A month later, officers were called to the home after a 53-year-old client, who was strapped to the wall, died of asphyxiation from a metal chain around his neck during a bondage act.

The Orange County district attorney’s homicide division is still investigating that case, Deputy Dist. Atty. Lance P. Jensen said this week. Davis and her attorney, Thomas P. Tanana of San Diego, said the man killed himself.

“Some people like to come so close to the edge and then back off,” Tanana said. “He happened to go over the edge.”

In February, an undercover investigator posing as a customer answered an ad in a sexually explicit magazine and wound up making the arrest. Davis said Friday that the officer identified himself only after stripping naked.

Davis also alleged that the investigators kicked in her front door and took not only her bondage equipment but also a pair of diamond earrings and two gold chains given to her by her son.

“I am not only suggesting, I am accusing the sheriffs of stealing them,” Davis said.

Garner said that once investigators confirm with the district attorney’s office that the confiscated material is no longer needed, “we’ll release it through our normal process.”

Davis declined to outline exactly what made up her “upscale dungeon,” but described it as “fully equipped” for the shackling and bondage her male clients desired. She calls the clients “submissives” who come to her after reading advertisements in bondage magazines.

“I know more about my submissives than their wives and their mothers (know),” she said. “My submissives clean for me, they paint for me, they do things my husbands never did. But it’s totally safe and sane.”

Davis said she would like to start her business again once she gets her equipment back--but not in San Clemente.