...The day of the trial finally arrived. I would now be obsessively following it online throughout my workday. I know, I know not productive but I am notorious for soaking up information like a sponge especially about something that will directly affect the rest of my life. Besides if I could check into the Philly.com website to get an update then I would be satisfied and get back to work until the afternoon report. Pennsylvania doesn't allow cameras in the courtroom so I was relying on those reporters again. Twitter was only a twinkle in its founders eye then which as far as my productivity was concerned a good thing. I knew that Joe Kahn and his team were obviously busy so I would only be hearing from him again when it was time for the closing arguments. My boss knew this ahead of time (I had confided in him-a very sweet, supportive guy) so he was aware I would have to make a last minute request at some point for the day off.
Of course the first day of trial was only opening statements by the two sides. This would be my first real experience with victim blaming and sadly I sit here today 8 years later still fighting against it and for awareness of rape victims subsequent reactions as a result of their assaults. The prosecutors statement included the fact that 7 women would get up on the stand and tell eerily similar stories without having ever met or spoken to each other. That Jeffrey Marsalis was a predator who fabricated everything about his life in order to gain our trust which lead to his drugging and raping us. He used Match.com to build a facade and even set up his apartment to look as if a doctor or astronaut lived there. He even took us on the same dates. All this showing it was a pattern of deception. The defenses statement was simple, we were bitter after finding out that he fabricated his career and portrayed himself as a doctor or an astronaut and after finding out he wasn't we regretted sleeping with him and cried rape. He would show there was no proof that he drugged us and we made it up as a cover story.
The next days of the trial were filled with the SVU detectives testifying to their investigation of Jeffrey Marsalis' assaults and the statements given to them by the victims. Then each day after that the victims got up on the stand and told their encounters with and assaults by Marsalis. They spent many painful hours testifying as reported in the news. I have a personal account by one of the victims as we were acquainted after the trial was over. I will share that when the time comes. Part of the prosecution's case was to show that the victims would have had a significantly higher number of alcoholic drinks than reported for them to have blacked out the way they did. In the months leading up to the trial I was asked by the prosecution team what my height and weight was at the time I had my "date" with Marsalis. Easy for me to remember because my weight doesn't fluctuate. During the trial an FBI chemist testified as to what the REAL number of drinks each victim would have had to drink for the reaction they had. In my case for me to black out for approximately 8 hours I would have had to have 10-15 drinks. Not even close to the 2 1/2 I actually had. The prosecution also put up a few witnesses to testify.
The defenses case wasn't much more than cross-examination of each of the victims, detectives, witnesses and experts. Jeffrey Marsalis did not get up on the stand to defend himself. It would not have been a good move on his part if Joe Kahn had a chance to question him.
Each day I read the reports and each day I dealt with a lot of emotions. I was empathetic for the victims and the pain they went through during their testimony. I was angry to read how the defense portrayed the women. I was apprehensive knowing that a jury was going to either validate the victims or find them unbelievable. The trial was wrapping up and I would soon be attending the closing arguments...
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