Grandma ran bondage den in basement
Associated Press
June 12, 2002 11:00:00

MILWAUKEE - A grandmother was sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years probation for running a bondage den in the basement of the home she shared with her husband and two of her grandchildren.

Jacquess Dyer Patton-Ugan, 49, of Milwaukee, apologized in court Tuesday for operating Madame Venus Du Plaisir's Paradise, where she charged men a fee to visit her domination dungeon. She was convicted of keeping a place of prostitution.

Men usually paid around $175 to visit with Patton-Ugan in the room. It was equipped with an array of sexual devices and bondage contraptions, including a metal table with limb restraints, a metal gurney with chains, a wooden horse with padding and straps, a dentist chair, a seat that hung from the ceiling, and multiple pieces of bondage apparel and whips, according to court records.

Patton-Ugan told Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Jeffrey A. Conen that she was responsible for what went on in her basement, though her husband helped put it together.

"Life is about choices, including consequences and responsibility," she said.

Richard Ugan, her 60-year-old retired firefighter husband, also is charged with keeping a place of prostitution. Neighbors reported seeing him mowing the lawn in a G-string.

One of her grandsons told police he saw some of the devices in his grandmother's basement room and he "heard people screaming" when he listened through air vents, according to a criminal complaint. Patton-Ugan said the boys were not home when she entertained customers.

An undercover officer posing as a potential customer visited the home in December and was taken to the dungeon. Officers later stormed the home and arrested the woman and her husband.

The house is in a conservative, quiet neighborhood that is home to several retired police officers and firefighters, said Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Irene Parthum.