He Said, They Said

Inside his apartment, the police found some medications he kept in his paramedic bag, his scrubs, his legally obtained gun, and a wealth of information on his computer, which featured the CIA logo as desktop wallpaper. On his computer hard drive, authorities found  some of his doctored photos as well as a list of approximately 50 women in chronological order — the first name given for each — in a file called “The Yearly Calendar of Women.”

It was on that list that authorities found Julie, a lawyer who would become the third accuser in Marsalis’s first trial. She offered an eerily similar story: Out drinking with him, she blacked out and woke to him raping her, only to black out again, then awaken the next morning confused. She, too, had nevertheless forged a relationship with Marsalis after the fact.

Marsalis’s first trial, in January 2006, lasted one week. The prosecution’s case was consistent, but also problematic, as two of the three victims — Amy and Julie — hadn’t come forward on their own, and admitted on the stand to the complicated emotional and sexual relationships they’d shared with Marsalis. At least as damaging was the testimony of Maddie, whose story Marsalis’s attorney, Kevin Hexstall, methodically tore apart, revealing that between their second and final dates, Marsalis told her outright he’d not date a woman opposed to premarital sex. She replied by broaching engagement, and telling him she loved him.

It took the jury two and a half days to decide: not guilty on every count.

Before Marsalis left the courtroom, however, sheriff’s officers whisked him from the defense table, rearresting him. There were more rape charges to come.


THIS TIME, AUTHORITIES could be choosy, singling out the accusers whose stories seemed most airtight, those uncomplicated by long-term relationships with Marsalis after the fact. Still, these alleged victims’ stories weren’t without their issues, foremost among them that only one accuser — Sarah — came forward of her own volition, and only after hearing about Marsalis’s arrest on the evening news; investigators had contacted the rest.

The women — a nurse, a law student, pharmaceutical and medical saleswomen, an accountant — all told a variation of essentially the same story: They blacked out at some point in the night, and woke up either during the alleged assault or the next morning, naked. Several told others they’d been raped, but none went to the hospital or to authorities.

Marsalis was charged with raping two women twice. Annie, a student, lived in the Metropolitan, and was the only accuser he didn’t meet on Match.com. She said they’d met at the building’s mailboxes, and went out to Fadó for drinks one night in October 2003. She blacked out, and later woke naked in his bed. Though she suspected she’d been assaulted, she wasn’t sure, and stayed friendly with Marsalis. Several months later, Annie contacted him when she was hospitalized for iron and other deficiencies; after her release, Marsalis visited the slight, 95-pound woman. She claims that as he was adjusting her covers, he held her down and raped her again.