http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/20...ony_stance.html
Jill Porter | Time to fix Pa.'s rape-testimony stance
The wheels already are turning
Posted on Fri, Jun. 22, 2007

BEING ON the witness stand was every bit as traumatic as she'd feared it would be.
"I was really nervous," said the 30-year-old pharmaceutical rep, who testified about being drugged and raped by Jeffrey Marsalis.
"My palms were sweating, my heart was beating and it was hard to even get words out. I almost felt like I was hyperventilating."
But - with the exception of one woman who seemed visibly hostile - most of the jurors smiled and gestured in support.
"I felt like the jury was compassionate and they were going to do the right thing," she told me in an interview this week.
When she found out otherwise - last week, the jury acquitted Marsalis of all charges in her case, and most of the others - she was devastated.
And puzzled.
Why didn't the prosecutor, who was otherwise so thorough and diligent, present an expert witness to explain what seemed to be illogical behavior on the part of herself and the other six women?
Why didn't they use a witness to explain why they - like most date-rape victims - didn't call police? Didn't go to the hospital? And had contact with Marsalis afterwards?
"I remember reading the testimony and thinking, 'Oh, my God, what that jury must be thinking. They're not going to understand that.'
"I figured they'd have a psychologist or psychiatrist there," said the victim.
Prosecutor Joseph Khan told me he would, indeed, have used an expert witness - if he could have.
But such testimony is not permitted in Pennsylvania.
It's the only state that expressly prohibits an expert from testifying about rape victim behavior - an infuriating fact that I reported in a column the day after the verdict.
When this victim read it, she called me to say she wants to change the law.
She's not alone.

Diane Moyer, legal director of the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape, said she's begun the effort to overturn the anachronistic rule that allows rape myths to persist.
It's about time.
"To think that after 30 years of rape law reform, we still have to talk about the misconceptions about how rape victims react," she said.
And that defense attorneys are still using those myths to discredit the credibility of witnesses - as Marsalis' lawyer did, so effectively, in this case.
The state Supreme Court's ban on expert testimony, issued in several rulings over recent decades, presupposes that rape-victim behavior is not beyond the understanding of the average lay person.
Which couldn't be further from the truth.
"You ask jurors to bring their life experience to the job and knowledge of human nature," said assistant D.A. Chris Mallios, former chief of the sexual assault unit.
"But if they don't know someone who's been raped, they don't have their own life experience to apply it to."
They may try to apply the reaction of victims of other types of crimes, he said, but "there is no crime that affects the victim the same way sexual assault does."
Mallios, who's now assistant chief of the legislative unit, said presenting expert witnesses to explain victim behavior is not without its peril.

"It's a little bit of a double-edged sword. If we can introduce this kind of evidence, a defense attorney can get an expert to say a victim isn't suffering from rape-trauma syndrome."But when victims act in ways that make jurors skeptical, it seems urgent to put that behavior in context, despite the potential for conflicting testimony.
The Supreme Court rule can be overturned either by state legislation or by appealing a new case that elicits a change of opinion.
Moyer said several legislators "mentioned it to me as an issue for me to pursue."
"I don't think it's going to be a problem to get a sponsor for this."

The victim who spoke to me - who was impregnated by Marsalis and had to get an abortion - isn't sorry she testified, despite the outcome.
For one thing, Marsalis was convicted on two counts of sexual assault and faces a potential of 20 years in prison.
And testifying about her trauma has helped her recover.
"I feel like I've been empowered; it was a real liberating feeling. After I spoke at the trial, I started to feel better."
And now she hopes to join the crusade to change the law regarding expert testimony.
If it could have been used in the Marsalis trial, she said, "I think it might have gone the other way."
I think so, too. *

E-mail porterj@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5850. For recent columns:
http://go.philly.com/porter

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_updat...y_Marsalis.html
A summary of the charges against Jeffrey Marsalis

Prosecutors had contended that Jeffrey Marsalis drugged and raped seven women after they had drinks with him or shared food with him. In most cases, the women had left their drinks with Marsalis when they went to the restroom. The defense argued that the women consented to sex after drinking heavily and there was no evidence of drugging. Jurors considered three definitions of rape in most cases: rape by forcible compulsion, rape of an unconscious victim and rape by causing substantial impairment.

* Woman No. 1: Now 30, of New Jersey. Drank a few beer samplers, then one or two beers at the Independence Brew Pub in January 2003.
- Not guilty on the three counts of rape.
- Guilty on sexual assault.

* No. 2: Now 26, met Marsalis in the Metropolitan Apartments, where both lived.
1) October 2003: She went out with him to Fado pub. Had about two gin and tonics.
- Not guilty on the three counts of rape.
- Not guilty on sexual assault.
2) January 2004: Marsalis came to her apartment after she got out of the hospital. No drinks. The woman testified that he forced himself on her. In this case, prosecutors did not contend she was first drugged.
* Jury hung on a charge of rape by forcible compulsion
- Guilty on sexual assault.

* No. 3: Lived in Bethlehem, Pa. Was 26 when Marsalis allegedly got her pregnant. Testified she had about half a glass of red wine at a restaurant. At her condo, Marsalis later poured her another glass of red wine, of which she drank some. After she told him she was pregnant and wanted him to pay to end the pregnancy, she said he threatened her with his "CIA connections" if she were to report anything to police.
- Not guilty on the three counts rape
- Not guilty sexual assault
- Not guilty of impersonating a public servant

* No. 4: Single mother and nurse from New Jersey, now 36. Testified that she had three glasses of merlot and a kamikaze shot with Marsalis at Tir Na Nog on Nov. 12, 2004.
- Not guilty on three counts of rape
- Not guilty on sexual assault

* No. 5: Now 32, was a law-school student when she met Marsalis on Dec. 30, 2004. She had three beers at Fado. After, at Tir Na Nog, she had ordered a white wine, but didn't remember drinking it. She recalled parts of her night with Marsalis.
- Not guilty on three counts of rape
- Not guilty on sexual assault

* No. 6: now 36, of Exeter, Pa., spent a weekend in Marsalis' apartment, in June 2004. On the first night, they went to Tir Na Nog, where she had two beers and a mixed-drink shot. She said she blacked out. The next day, she said she drank iced tea in Marsalis' apartment, and sometime after having lunch with him, blacked out again.
- Not guilty on three counts of rape
- Not guilty on sexual assault

* No. 7: Now 30, public accountant, lived in Downingtown, had medical problems that affected her memory, concentration and word fluency.
1) Feb. 26, 2005: She had one draft beer each at XPN World Cafe Live and later at Continental Midtown. Afterward, they went to Striped Bass, where Marsalis ordered them each a glass of white wine. She said she had a few sips. The only time she testified going to the restroom was at Striped Bass. Shortly after, she said she blacked out.
- Not guilty on three counts of rape
- Not guilty on sexual assault
2) March 1, 2005: She said she agreed to meet Marsalis again. She wanted to confront him with having raped her on their first date, she testified. They went to a Chinatown restaurant, where Marsalis served them food from platters and she had a Coke. She did not go to the restroom.
- Not guilty on three counts of rape
- Not guilty on sexual assault. *

http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_updat...__Marsalis.html

Q: Who did he say he was?
A: To most women, he claimed to be an emergency-room doctor. He also said he was an astronaut and a military flight surgeon in Afghanistan, among other things. He told his ex-fiancee, Jessika Rovell, he was a CIA agent.

Q: How could the women - educated professionals - believe his fictional biographies?
A: Marsalis looked the part and showed the women identification badges and photos to back up his made-up careers, according to the women's testimonies.
And he "seemed like an average guy, very nice," one woman said.
Even Rovell, who dated him for three years, testified that she had believed he was a doctor. "He was always dressed in scrubs," she testified.
Marsalis also showed her a document, the cover page of which indicated he worked for the CIA. He introduced her to a friend, Greg, whom he claimed he was recruiting into the agency.
Doris Mordecai, a Metropolitan front-desk receptionist, also believed Marsalis was a doctor. She regularly saw him dressed in hospital scrubs and a white doctor's coat, she testified.

Q: His best quote?
A: Rovell: "He told me he was trying to get into astronaut-training school because he wanted to have something to do after he was done killing people in the CIA." *

Fantasy world of date-rape defendant is detailed
By Robert Moran
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
ed on Fri, May. 25, 2007

In the bizarre world of Jeffrey Marsalis, on trial accused of drugging and date-raping seven women, he was a deadly secret agent with close ties to President Bush, according to his former fiancee.
Jessika Rovell, 30, told a Common Pleas Court jury today that Marsalis, who is now 34:
- Owned a 9mm Beretta pistol, which he named "Priscilla," and would "talk to it as if he were Elvis."
- Killed people for the CIA, including a friend who went through secret-agent training, flunked out, and had to be killed on Marsalis' order because "he knew too much."
- Had a helicopter on standby in case he needed to be flown to the White House.
- Called her to report that he was crawling around in caves in Afghanistan hunting terrorists.
- Trained as an astronaut so he would have something to do "after he was done killing people with the CIA."

Except for the bit about talking to his pistol, none of it was true, Rovell said she learned after they ended their nearly three-year relationship in October 2004.
What she also didn't know was that Marsalis was going out on dates with women he met through Match.com and with a woman who lived in his Center City apartment building.
Prosecutors allege that during those dates, he drugged their drinks and then raped them.
Some courtroom observers had to stifle laughter as Rovell testified about Marsalis' claims.

"You believed all of that?" asked Kevin Hexstall, one of Marsalis' lawyers.
"Yes, I did," said Rovell, now a Center City lawyer and an intelligence officer with the Naval Reserve.
Rovell, who met Marsalis when she was a law student and before she joined the Navy, explained that he had ID cards, badges and "classified" documents to make everything seem legitimate.

Initially, she testified, Marsalis said he was an emergency room resident at three hospitals, including Hahnemann University Hospital.
"He was always dressed in scrubs," she said.
She described their repeated visits to Hahnemann, freely roaming the halls, eating in the cafeteria, hanging out in the medical library, and once visiting the cadaver lab.
"We spent a lot of time in Hahnemann Hospital," she said.
He was never flagged by hospital security or personnel as being a phony, she said.
A spokesman for Hahnemann could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Marsalis later told her the doctor gig was a cover for his spy work, Rovell said.
He also claimed to be "attached" to the Naval Reserve as a commander. He had a flight jacket with a name tag that read "F.S. Marsalis."
Marsalis said that meant "flight surgeon."
Rovell later learned that the letters were the initials of Forrest Smith Marsalis, the defendant's father.

Prosecutors presented the flight jacket in court, as well as Marsalis' hospital scrubs, white lab coat, paramedic bags, and "Priscilla," the Beretta. Prosecutors projected photographs for the jury of Marsalis' phony Hahnemann badge, images of the CIA seal that he kept on his computer, and a photograph of him in an astronaut suit.
Rovell explained that the picture was taken at Cape Canaveral in Florida at a tourist attraction.
She said he had read to her over the phone what he claimed to be an acceptance letter for astronaut training. He also got a pair of shorts with the NASA symbol that he said was available only to astronauts.

Hexstall, in a sarcastic tone, questioned how Rovell could believe it all, including his CIA exploits.
She noted that he gave her a pin that he said only CIA agents get.
Hexstall cracked: "Kind of like NASA shorts that only astronauts get."
Marsalis' defense lawyers argue that all his sexual encounters were consensual, and now that the women have discovered that he was a fraud, they are exacting revenge with false allegations.
Contact staff writer Robert Moran at 215-854-5983 or bmoran@phillynews.com.

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists...oy_says_no.html

...Marsalis' unwitting enablers were the Common Pleas jurors who acquitted him in January 2006 of raping three women, citing a lack of evidence offered by the prosecution. He beat that rap and resumed his MD/astronaut/CIA-hit-man guise.
And continued preying on women.
This time, again, there was no physical evidence that he had drugged his victims. The most insidious part of the date-rape drug is that it disorients victims, causing loss of memory of an attack. Having been victimized, they are then unable to be good witnesses to their own attacks or even understand they were attacked...

...The current jury wasn't allowed to know about Marsalis' previous trial, nor about another rape trial he has coming up in Idaho. The law didn't permit them to know...

UPDATE: RADAR Magazine, May/June 2008 issue
The Great Pretender
by John Cook
p. 39 - 42
...Melissa arrived early at the World Cafe, a hip restaurant and nightclub in downtown Philadelphia that shares space with the local independent radio station WXPN. She saw Jeffrey walk in a few minutes after the appointed hour of 8 p.m., wearing jeans and a sweater. He was cute - six feet tall, 195 pounds, with brown hair, green eyes, and a winning smile. The two greeted each other and ordered beers. Jeffrey knew the bartender and made small talk with him, then took Melissa on a tour of the radio station downstairs. She was nervous because it didn't seem like restaurant customers were allowed to walk around the studio, but Jeffrey assured her it was okay - he'd stitched up the chef's finger one night. He knew people. He could go whatever he liked...

...(Marsalis) was arrested in April 2005 after one woman went to the police. Astonishingly, when detectives from Philadelphia's sex crimes unit arrived to search Marsalis' apartment while investigating her claims, they presented the warrant to the then-29-year-old female building manager, who told them, "The same thing happened to me." Marsalis was released on bail to go live with his mother in Idaho. While Philadelphia detectives were unraveling his lies, he was arrested in October 2005 for raping a co-worker at a Sun Valley ski resort; the woman, a lesbian, had gone out for a drink with him and woke up hours later to find herself in his bed.

Marsalis returned to Philadelphia in January 2006, where he faced trial for the rape of his original accuser, the building manager, and a third woman. He was aquitted on all charges. But by then, detectives had gone through Marsalis' e-mails and list of conquests, and he was re-arrested in the courtroom for seven more rapes, including Melissa's. Tried on those counts, he was again aquitted on the rape charges, but his time was found guilty of two lesser sexual assault charges. Calling him "a wolf in sheep's clothing" and declaring him a violent sexual predator, the judge gave him the maximum sentence of 10 to 20 years. At press time, he was in the process of being extradited back to Idaho to face trial for the Sun Valley rape, which - if he's found guilty - could extend his term to life.

http://thecurvature.com/2007/10/09/this-is...a-rape-culture/
Via Jezebel comes this so-horrific-you’d-think-it-was-made-up story about a man who has raped at least 30 women but more likely raped hundreds, yet was acquitted eight times and convicted only two.

http://www.mywire.com/pubs/PhiladelphiaInq...7&oliID=229

Marsalis gets 10 to 20 years in date-rape cases
By Dwight Ott Inquirer Staff Writer | Oct 13, 2007

Before a courtroom filled with women who had accused of him of plying them with drink and deceit, and then raping them, Jeffrey Marsalis was sentenced yesterday to the maximum, and given a lifetime label intended to warn potential victims.

Common Pleas Court Judge Steven R. Geroff sentenced Marsalis, 34, to 10 to 20 years in prison, and added that once released from prison, he would have to report under Megan's Law to let others know the threat that he poses.

"I believe you are a menace to the women who you meet on the Internet or in any manner - even at a long distance," Geroff said. "What you were was a wolf in sheep's clothing. Your lifestyle was a fantasy, but what happened to your victims was reality."

Wearing a buzz cut and displaying blue eyes that swept the room, Marsalis pleaded no contest during yesterday's hearing to an unlawful imprisonment charge that merited him an additional 10 to 12 months in jail.

Nearly a dozen women sat in three rows, one of them in a wheelchair, clutching tissues and watching the proceedings with red-eyed attention. They smiled for the first time on hearing the judge's ruling.

"Thank God," said one.

Marsalis - who had been charged with assaulting seven women between 2003 to 2005 - was convicted in June of sexually assaulting two women. The trial lasted three weeks and was filled with accounts of his using the Web dating site Match.com to pose as an astronaut, a doctor, and even a secret agent to lure women.

Before the sentencing, psychologist Barry Zakireh testified that Marsalis met the criteria of a sexual offender and qualified for restrictions imposed by Megan's Law, including leafletting neighborhoods and posting alerts on the Internet.

Kevin E. Hexstall, a lawyer for Marsalis, said of the Megan's Law decision: "I believe it is punitive because it does not allow my client a subsequent review. . . . It doesn't allow for reevaluation."

Marsalis was convicted of sexual assault, not rape, Hexstall said. Under the law, rape involves force, and sexual assault involves a classification where force does not have to be proven.

"I think the commonwealth has fallen short of its burden of proof," Hexstall said.

Zakireh testified that in some cases, Marsalis wore surgical scrubs and carried medical books as part of his ruse.

But Hexstall argued that since Marsalis had been a nursing student at the Hahnemann nursing school, that was to be expected.

Hexstall felt his client was guilty of nothing more than masquerading while his intoxicated clients agreed to consensual sex.

One woman, a dietitian, testified that she met Marsalis on Match.com.

They agreed to meet in person in central Philadelphia. He told her he was a doctor and a former flight surgeon, and flashed a badge to spirit them to the head of the line outside bars.

But the woman said that after a drink or two, her vision blurred, she began to feel woozy, she developed a pounding headache, and she became so uncoordinated that she tripped and fell.

She said she hung on to Marsalis, who assured her he was an emergency-room doctor and knew what to do. She said that despite her protestations, she was raped, but did not remember the incident until the next day.

Marsalis still faces sexual-assault charges in Idaho

http://www.yaledailynews.com/articles/view/26026
Ritzy Harvard alumni magazine folds; Yale spin-off likely scrapped
Nora Caplan-Bricker
Contributing Reporter
Published Monday, October 27, 2008

Many Yalies are familiar with the depictions of the lives of the rich and famous on the show “Beverly Hills 90210,” but few realize that a new alumni magazine almost brought this celebrity-loving mindset to their own ZIP code.
Friday, “02138,” a publication about high-profile Harvard University alumni, became the latest in a long list of magazines to fold during the recent economic downturn. The publisher of 02138, Manhattan Media, had hoped to start a similar magazine at Yale, but the idea has now been suspended indefinitely — a turn of events which comes as no surprise to the editor of Yale’s already-existing alumni magazine.
“I was skeptical it would be started and skeptical it would get off the ground if they tried,” Yale Alumni Magazine Editor Kathrin Lassila ’81 said. “The overall scene for magazines today is pretty dicey. It isn’t a great time to start something new.”
It was hard to get a new magazine off the ground even before the economic crisis, Lassila said. Now, thanks to the downturn, so many publications are folding each week that an anonymous blogger has started a Web site called magazinedeathpool.com to predict who will be next.
Pop culture magazine Radar folded along with 02138 Friday morning, for example. Other publications eliminated in the past month include climbing magazine The Alpinist, Hearst Corporation teen publication CosmoGirl, Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion and housekeeping magazine Jewish Living.
Lassila added that a start-up magazine might have had difficulty competing with the already-established Yale Alumni Magazine, which in addition to providing similar content also has access to Yale’s alumni mailing list, which it pays for.
Not only would a Yale version of 02138 arguably have been redundant, it might also have been offensive to some Yale graduates. Six out of the seven current Yale students interviewed for this article said they disliked the magazine’s premise of focusing on wealthy alumni or those who are frequently featured in the media.
“Yale is so much more than that,” said Julia Lurie ‘11, adding that the magazine seems to play into the stereotype of Ivy League elitism that Yale and its peer schools have been working to overcome.
Sam Raredon ’11 said that he would be more interested in reading about people who are using their Yale educations to pursue the arts, sciences and academia than about those whose accomplishments would have been featured in the new magazine.
But Rahim Sayani ‘12 said the magazine could be a good way for alumni to keep in touch after graduation and that having two magazines fill this role was not a problem.
02138 was started in 2006 and bought by Manhattan Media this spring. According to a May 2008 article in the New York Times, Manhattan Media had intended 02138 to be the first of eight similar magazines — one for each Ivy League school.
Its staff is currently putting the finishing touches on their last issue, which will not go to print but will be posted on the magazine’s Web site.