A jury trial for accused rapist Jeffrey J. Marsalis will likely be delayed beyond its scheduled start date of Jan. 5. And if a trial is held at all, it may not be in Blaine County.
Several hundred pages of new documentation, including new DNA evidence, has recently been sent by the Blaine County prosecutor to defense attorney Douglas Nelson, who said he needs more time to review it.
Nelson is particularly concerned about the DNA evidence, which he claims he was unaware of until earlier this week. Prosecuting Attorney Jim Thomas has alleged that the evidence ties Marsalis to the crime.
"A rape exam eventually recovered semen from the victim that matched the defendant Jeffrey Marsalis," Thomas wrote in a court document obtained by the Idaho Mountain Express.
Also pending is a decision from 5th District Court Judge Robert J. Elgee on a motion to dismiss the case, filed by Nelson and heard in court Monday. Nelson has alleged that Sun Valley police lead investigator Mike Crawford committed perjury by providing false information to the Blaine County grand jury that indicted Marsalis. Crawford admitted in court Monday that he gave inaccurate testimony, but claimed the error was not intentional.
If Elgee does not dismiss the case, Nelson intends to file a motion for a change of venue and Thomas seems willing to go along with the request. Nelson claims that pre-trial publicity in Blaine County and the Magic Valley may be prejudicial to his client.
Nelson said in court Monday that Thomas is agreeable to moving the trial and both attorneys have been directed by Elgee to prepare a written agreement. The most likely location is Boise. Marsalis, 35, is accused of raping a then-21-year-old woman at his studio condominium in Sun Valley on Oct. 9, 2005. He was indicted by the grand jury on a rape charge on April 21, 2006.
Marsalis was extradited to Idaho in August from Pennsylvania where he is serving a 21-year prison sentence for convictions in Philadelphia in 2007 of two counts of sexual assault and one count of unlawful restraint. He had been accused in Philadelphia of drugging and raping seven women in a trial that received national news media attention.
There are indications that there will be extensive news media coverage of a Marsalis trial in Idaho. ABC News has already received permission from Elgee to photograph and video record the trial for a multi-segment "20/20" program that the network is producing on Marsalis.
Tru TV, formerly know as Court TV, has expressed an interest in broadcasting the trial live but has not yet filed a request with the court.
Motion to dismiss
Nelson alleged in his motion to dismiss that Crawford, who is now Sun Valley's assistant police chief, told the grand jury that tests on a substance found in Marsalis' condominium, which police believed was a so-called "date rape drug," were inclusive, when in fact the tests were negative.
Nelson argued in court that the misinformation was prejudicial to Marsalis and that his client may not have otherwise been indicted.
Thomas has admitted to the error, but said it was not done intentionally and that it did not affect the grand jury's decision.
Whatever the situation, transcripts from the grand jury proceedings demonstrate that the jurors were fully aware that no date rape drug had been found. Susan Camille Williamson, a forensic scientist for the Idaho State Police crime lab, testified that no controlled substances, including date rape drugs, were detected in either the substance found by police or in blood or urine samples from the alleged victim.
Williamson however, testified that new diagnostic techniques were being developed at the ISP lab, which could make it possible at a later time to re-evaluate the samples.
Williamson said that there are various so-called date rape drugs, but the most commonly used are Rohypnol and GHB. She said Rohypnol is an anti-anxiety or muscle relaxant, while GHB was once legally available as a growth hormone but is also used as a compound in floor cleaner.
Describing how date rape drugs work, Williamson said: "What you want to have is a drug that is going to enter your central nervous system very quickly, produce sedation, decrease their inhibitions very quickly, and at some point get to the situation where they're not in control of themselves, essentially."
Williamson said both drugs take 20-30 minutes to affect a person and are quickly metabolized and difficult to detect.
The alleged victim is now 24 and no longer lives in Blaine County. She testified before the grand jury that she worked at one of the shops at the Sun Valley Mall and was introduced by her younger sister to Marsalis, who was a Sun Valley Co. security guard.
The woman further told the grand jury that she is a lesbian and had no romantic interest in Marsalis but agreed to meet him on the evening of Oct. 8, 2005, at Whiskey Jacques' bar in downtown Ketchum. She said she drank a Bud Light that Marsalis purchased and then a mixed drink or "shot" that she was unable to identify.
The "shot," she testified, had a strange taste and she noticed a granular substance in the bottom of the glass.
The woman said she started feeling strange about 20 minutes later and had no recollection of the remainder of the evening. She said she next remembered waking up in Marsalis' bed the following day.
The woman testified that she was sick most of that day and felt pain in her vaginal area. She talked to her sister and her mother and decided to contact police and go to St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center.
Kristin Adele Derrig, then manager of Whiskey Jacques', told the grand jury that Marsalis ran up an $87 bar tab the evening he was there with the alleged victim. The tab was paid with a credit card, she said, and was for 10 Corona beers, 10 Bud Lights and four Kamikazes, a mixture of vodka, Triple Sec and lime juice.
At Monday's court hearing, Thomas said the prosecution initially pursued a date rape drug theory in the case, but that the most important consideration is whether the alleged victim was a willing sexual partner.
"She remembers nothing for the remainder of the night until she wakes up the following morning in the defendant's condominium," Thomas said.
Jeffrey Marsalis
