Brooklyn jury given graphic S&M lesson
By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 11 minutes ago
NEW YORK - The graphic color photo, flashed on a large video-screen stationed next to the jury, tested the decorum of a federal courtroom. It showed a nude woman named Rona tethered to a tree trunk in the wilderness. From the witness stand, Rona answered questions about the bondage scene in graphic detail, casually complaining that she was bitten up by mosquitoes.
The testimony came during a trial in Brooklyn that has given jurors lessons on the lifestyle of a man dubbed an "S&M Svengali" by the tabloids, the inner-workings of a sadomasochism Web site and the federal government's crackdown on obscenity.
The jury began deliberating Thursday.
In recent years, federal authorities have stepped up prosecutions of purveyors of hardcore adult pornography to "protect citizens from unwanted exposure to obscene material," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has said.
One pending case in Pittsburgh — involving videos of simulated rape and murder — was initially thrown out before being reinstated on appeal by the
Department of Justice.
Under the Bush administration, at least 52 people or businesses have been convicted of violating federal obscenity statutes, and more than a dozen indictments are pending, federal officials said. By comparison, there were four such prosecutions during the eight years of the Clinton administration, they said.
In the Brooklyn case, Rona and the prosecution's star witness, named Jodi, gave conflicting accounts of an alleged campaign of sadism by Glenn Marcus, 53, operator of a Web site devoted to BDSM — shorthand for bondage, domination and sadomasochism. A judge allowed both women to testify using only their first names.
Marcus included Jodi and other women in thousands of photos posted on his Web site — a practice that prompted the government to bring obscenity charges along with sex trafficking and a forced labor count.
The most serious charge — forced labor — by statute carries a potential life sentence, although such a punishment is unlikely under federal sentencing guidelines.
Jodi told the jury that after meeting Marcus over the Internet in 1998, she agreed to become one of his "slaves." Over two years, he systematically degraded her by shaving her head, branding the initial "G" on her buttocks and carving "Slave" on her stomach during liaisons in homes in Maryland, Washington, D.C., New York City and on Long Island.
When the 39-year-old Jodi failed to properly perform tasks for the defendant's Web site in 2001, he punished her by putting a ball in her mouth, closing it shut with surgical needles and hanging her on a wall, she said. Other times, he tied her down and mutilated her genitals with a smoldering cigarette as she screamed out in pain, she said.
"I felt like I was literally in hell," she said. "I felt like I was on fire and I couldn't put it out."
Rona, 51, a longtime friend called as a defense witness, said that while living with Marcus and Jodi, the accuser was a willing participant in their sex games. She called the defendant harmless.
"I love being around Glenn," she said, even as prosecutors displayed photos of her breasts punctured with dozens of pins. "He's a lot of fun."
Jodi testified she built up enough courage to leave Marcus in late 2001, but also conceded she continued to have contact with him, even going camping. She decided to go to the
FBI when he refused to take her photos off the Internet.
By law, it didn't matter that the accuser wasn't always under lock and key, prosecutor Pam Chen said during closing arguments Thursday. "She was terrified. She was made captive by the fear."
Chen told the Brooklyn jury it must agree that Marcus' Web site was "patently offensive" to convict on the obscenity count, and argued the material was "so misogynist and so violent, it's offensive."
The defense has countered by arguing that Marcus and Jodi had a "contract" to engage in a master-slave relationship that, while potentially offensive to the general public, was consensual and even pleasurable to the participants.
"Cases like this test the very capacity of this society we live in for tolerance," defense lawyer Maurice Sercarz said in his closing argument.
Defense experts testified that the BDSM scene follows rules that purposely blur the line between pleasure and pain, but demand mutual consent. One said it draws from a "vast array of people," including judges; another said that Marcus' Web site had "serious scientific value" as a tool to study sexual behavior.
But Chen portrayed the defendant as a sadist who violated both the standards of a civilized society and of the S&M community.
"Glenn Marcus made his own rules," she said. "He thought he was God."