Slavery Role Play Request Goes Very Wrong

AUGUST 12--Meet Kenneth Atkins and Ashley Edwards.

The Florida couple was in their Bradenton home late Tuesday evening when Edwards wanted to “role play” with her boyfriend.

Specifically, Edwards, 35, told cops she wanted to play “slave and slaver because she is African American and he is Caucasian,” according to a probable cause affidavit.

Atkins, however, “did not wish to partake” in the proposed slave/master role play and he became “verbally aggressive.” During the argument that ensued, the 37-year-old Atkins allegedly spit in Edwards’s face.

When police subsequently arrived at the pair’s home around 11 PM, Atkins “denied the allegations and/or any other physical confrontation.” Edwards, who was not injured, refused to provide cops with a sworn affidavit and said that she did not want her boyfriend jailed.

Atkins was arrested for misdemeanor battery and booked into the county jail, from which he was released the following day. He is scheduled for arraignment on September 9.

Atkins’s lengthy rap sheet includes convictions for grand theft; burglary; battery; loitering; violating probation; and narcotics possession. In May, he was arrested on a felony grand theft charge for allegedly stealing merchandise from Walmart. He has been free on $1500 bond in that case, which is pending.

As part of his release conditions in the battery case, Atkins is allowed “consensual contact” with Edwards (who, in May, began serving a two-year probation sentence for a felony theft conviction). (2 pages)