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From your own link:
Davis was arraigned on 12 charges: operating a business without a license, keeping a house of prostitution, possession of an item of “self-abuse,” assault and battery of a police officer, and eight counts of possession of a dangerous weapon. The guest was charged with one count of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. The alleged “weapon” was large wooden kitchen spoon. [Please note, despite repeated requests, we do not yet have a copy of the police report–once we get it we will update this statement with the exact wording on the charges.]
Looks like the a lot more was going on than it might at first appear. If the weapons charges are all for sexual things like bondage gear and whatnot I agree thats bullshit, but look at the other charges. No business license, house of prostitution, ASSAULT AND BATTERY OF A POLICE OFFICER. Man this guy is clearly just the victim of prejudice.
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Did you read the rest of the article? “The party was private. Guests were… well known by the host. All guests were over 21 years of age. A donation at the door was requested but not required; all monies collected at the door were donations to cover food and rent charges for the space.” It wasn’t a business, much less a house of prostitution: it was a guy inviting a bunch of people he personally knew to a party and asking them to chip in a bit to help cover the costs.
I don’t know what brought the charges of assault and battery of a police officer. Maybe one of the guests really did attack one of the cops, or maybe someone pushed one of the cops back as they tried to enter the building without a warrant: “Neither the host nor any guest at the party saw a warrant at any time, despite repeated requests to see a warrant.” Considering it only two cops to handle it, I doubt things got very violent. “Who were the officers? The detectives were Attleboro police officers Cook and Otrando.”
Update: I just found a PDF file with more information about the case. It’s on page nine: http://www.nelaonline.org/Win2002SL.pdf
“On October 10th Ben Davis was found not guilty for the charge of keeping a house of ill fame. The charge of Assault and Battery on a police officer was continued without a finding.”
“On the first charge [keeping a house of ill fame for prostitution], Assistant DA Roger Ferris rested his case after only twenty minutes of testimony from Detective Otrando, who spent most of his time on the bench not able to recall the truth. The judge immediately ruled that I, Benjamin Davis was not guilty of the charge of keeping a house of ill fame.”
“ADA Ferris offered a “Continuance without a finding”; on the charge of Assault and Battery of a police offi cer. Know as a CWAF, this means that there is no criminal record and after six months the charge will be dropped completely. As only one other person witnessed the interaction between the police offi cer and mysel f in the hallway, I feel that this was the best way to handle this charge. I do want to make it clear that there was no assault. The officer was never touched and he made up the charge ten minutes after he entered the space (without a warrant ). There are, in fact, witnesses to him assaulting me. The pretrial testimonies of the two offi cers involved were contradictory on several points.”