No escape from S&M Svengali
BY JOHN MARZULLI
DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, February 14th, 2007
A woman who says she was forced into sexual slavery took jurors on a stomach-turning journey through her S&M hell yesterday, testifying against the captor who called himself "God."
Jodi, a petite, 39-year-old from Wisconsin, testified that she was powerless to escape the twisted control of defendant Glenn Marcus, a sadomasochistic Svengali she met in 1998 on the Internet.
Federal Judge Allyne Ross allowed the witness to be identified by just her first name to spare her embarrassment. Speaking in a husky monotone, Jodi described the whippings, mutilations and torture she said she received at the hands of Marcus, who sold comic books and lived with his parents on Long Island.
Marcus also lorded over three other female slaves he dubbed "Doggie," "Nameless" and "Robot, " Jodi said. But after Jodi agreed to submit to Marcus' fantasies, she became his "ultimate slave," the one he called "It," she said. He initiated Jodi by shaving her head and branding the letter "G" on her buttocks, she said. He later carved "Slave" on her stomach, Jodi said.
"I was now his property and I belonged to him," Jodi testified in Brooklyn Federal Court, where Marcus, 53, is on trial for sex trafficking, forced labor and disseminating obscene photos of the victim on his Web site. "And whatever I was before I came to him didn't exist anymore."
Jodi had dabbled with sadomasochism in two relationships before meeting Marcus, but she said she was not prepared for his extreme brutality.
In one attack, he burned Jodi with a cigarette all over her body, including her genitals, she said. "I felt like I was literally in hell. I felt like I was on fire and couldn't put it out," she said.
Jodi was afraid to complain to the other female "slaves" out of fear they would tell Marcus and she would be punished further, she said.
Prosecutor Pamela Chen played a rambling 2005 phone conversation recorded by Jodi in which Marcus conceded, "I don't know, maybe there's something dreadfully wrong with me."
The defense is arguing that Marcus' relationships were consensual.
Brooklyn Jury Given Graphic S&M Lesson
NEW YORK (AP) - 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.
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."
And finally, here is an EXTREMELY GRAPHIC excerpt from the actual court opinion in United States v. Marcus, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35969:
The defendant instructed Jodi to engage in a series of BDSM activities with him and other women, which the defendant photographed and posted on a website maintained by Joanna known as ³Subspace.² (Id. at 91-93.) For example, Jodi was whipped, choked, and had sexual intercourse while tied to a wall. (Id. at 90.) At the time, Jodi found some of these activities to be sexually gratifying. (Id.) She and the other women were required to write diary entries to post on the defendant¹s website describing the BDSM activities they engaged in with the defendant and expressing the joy and gratitude the ³slaves² felt about serving their ³master.² (Id. at 91.)
When the defendant was not present at the apartment, Jodi and Joanna were expected to ensure that each was complying with his instructions. (Id. at 93-94.) For example, they were told to recite daily the ³Master¹s Expectations,² which outlined the expected conduct of the defendant¹s slaves. (Id. at 94-95; see also Govt. Ex. 2C, at 1014-20.) The defendant would also direct Joanna or Jodi to wear butt plugs n6 or breast clamps for long periods of time. (Id. at 95.) If either failed to follow instructions, the other one would inform the defendant and he would either administer punishments himself or order one to punish the other. (Id. at 96.) Jodi was punished nearly every time she saw the defendant, including being whipped or placed in a large, metal dog cage in the apartment. (Id. at 97-98.)
Several months after Jodi began living at Joanna¹s apartment, the punishments inflicted by the defendant became increasingly severe, and Jodi began feeling depressed. (Id. at 98.) In June 1999, she burned her arm twice with a cigarette. (Id.) Fearing that the defendant would notice the burns when he visited from New York, she told him on the telephone what she had done. (Id.) He instructed Joanna to burn herself with a cigarette on her arm and then to punish Jodi by defecating on her face in the bathtub and making her clean the bathtub with her tongue. (Id.; Govt. Ex. 2C, at 299, 307.) When the defendant arrived at Joanna¹s apartment, he slapped Jodi so hard she was ³seeing stars.² (Tr. at 99.) He then burned her with a cigarette all over her body, including her forehead, arms, the bottom of her feet, the back of her neck, and inside her vagina. (Id. at 99-100.) Jodi testified that ³I felt like I was literally in hell² and ³like I was on fire; I couldn¹t put it out.² (Id. at 100.) While Jodi was miserable because she believed she had disappointed the defendant, she continued to remain in the relationship because she believed she could do better and that she belonged with him. (Id. at 103.) At some point, the defendant instructed Jodi to convince her younger sister to travel to Maryland to visit and, when she arrived, to drug her with ³ruffies² so the defendant could rape her. (See id. at 103-04.) Jodi was also directed to use the internet to recruit a new slave to join them in Maryland. (Id. at 104.) Because Jodi refused to complete the first task and was unsuccessful with the second, the defendant told her that, the next time he visited, she would be so severely punished that she might not be able to work for some time afterwards. (Id. at 104, 207; Govt. Ex. 31.)
In October 1999, the defendant arrived in Maryland, where he handcuffed Jodi to the wall and told her that he would punish her after he took a nap. (Tr. at 104.) While she was on the wall, Jodi testified that she had a moment of clarity and decided that she wanted to leave. (Id. at 104-5.) She told Celia, another woman serving the defendant, and Celia helped her get down. (Id. at 105.) Joanna awakened the defendant, who ordered that Jodi be returned to the wall. (Id.) When Jodi informed the defendant that she wanted to leave, he told her to shut up. (Id.) He then put a whiffle ball inside her mouth, closed her lips shut with surgical needles so that she was unable to speak, and placed a hood over her head. (Id. at 105-7.) While she was on the wall, he whipped and beat her with a cane extremely hard for an extended period of time and had sexual intercourse with her. (Id. at 106.) The defendant then took Jodi off the wall and attached her with handcuffs to a flat board, at which point he attempted to sew Jodi¹s vagina closed using a sewing needle and thread, only stopping when the needle broke. (Id. at 106-7.) A butt plug was inserted into her anus (Govt. Ex. 2C, at 369, 1223), and the defendant used a knife to carve his initials into the soles of her feet (Tr. at 107). While this incident was taking place, Jodi was crying and screaming. (Id. at 107.) The abuse was photographed and Jodi had to write a diary entry about it, and these were placed on the defendant¹s website. (See Tr. at 109; Govt. Ex. 2C at 365-74, 1217-24.) This was the most extreme punishment to which Jodi had ever been subjected. (Tr. at 123.) Prior to this experience, Jodi believed that she would be able to leave any time she wished. (Id. at 108.) However, after this episode, Jodi testified that she felt ³completely beaten down,² ³trapped and full of terror.² (Id. at 108.) She no longer wished to be involved with the defendant and remained with him only out of fear. (Id. at 170.)
In November 1999, Joanna told the defendant that she no longer wanted to serve him. (Id. at 125.) While both Jodi and Joanna were on the telephone with the defendant, he threatened to send photographs and a videotape of Joanna engaged in sexually explicit behavior to her father and to kill her godson if Joanna did not continue to serve him. (Id. at 127-29; see Govt. Ex. 12.) As a consequence, Jodi became terrified that, if she attempted to leave the defendant, he would send pictures to her family or harm one of her family members. (Tr. at 128.) In January 2000, the defendant instructed Jodi to move to New York and stay at the apartment of a woman named Rona, who, Jodi was told, had been his slave since she was 13 years old. (Id. at 134.) As Joanna had taken down the Subspace website, the defendant told Jodi to create and manage a new BDSM website entitled ³Slavespace.² (Id.) After creating the website, Jodi worked on it approximately eight to nine hours a day, updating photographs and diary entries and clicking on banner advertisements to increase revenue and enhance its visibility on the internet. (Id. at 148-49.) Although she did not want to work on the website, she continued to do so because she was terrified of the consequences if she refused. (Id. at 149.) The defendant punished Jodi if she failed to post diary entries or pictures quickly enough or if the website made less money than he expected. (Id.) In April 2001, when the defendant was displeased with Jodi¹s work on the website, he put a safety pin through her labia and attached a padlock to it, closing her vagina. (Id. at 150-51.) In an attempt to stop Jodi from screaming and crying during this incident, Rona put a washcloth in Jodi¹s mouth and the defendant whipped her with a knife. (Id.) The defendant photographed this incident and the pictures were placed on the Slavespace website. (See Govt. Ex. 2C, at 543, 546-50.) All revenues made from the website went to the defendant. (Tr. at 153.) The website had a section available exclusively to members, for which fees of approximately $ 30 per month were charged. (Id. at 145, 148.) The defendant made several hundred dollars per month from the member section of the site and an additional several hundred dollars from advertising. (Id. at 149-50, 153; Govt. Ex. 23.) During this period, the defendant continued to punish Jodi severely. For example, he once whipped Jodi so hard that she vomited. (Tr. at 154.) He also held a plastic bag over her head until she passed out. (Id. at 155.) In another incident, he zipped Jodi into a plastic garment bag and choked her through the plastic. (Id. at 156). Each of these incidents was non-consensual and each was photographed for the website. (Id. at 154-57.) However, Jodi continued to stay with the defendant because she was terrified of his reaction if she left and feared that he might publicly expose her. (Id. at 158.) At one point, when she expressed to him how unhappy she was, the defendant threatened to send photographs of her to her family and the media. (Id. at 158-59.) In March 2001, Jodi called the defendant and told him that she wanted to leave, and he told her that she would first have to endure one final punishment. (Id. at 159-60.) Even though she was terrified, she agreed to do so because she feared the consequences if she did not comply. (Id. at 159-60.) The defendant drove her to the Long Island residence of a woman named Sherry, instructed her to take off her clothes, and then directed her to go to the basement. (Id.) As she was descending to the basement, Jodi realized that she could not go through with the punishment and the defendant forced her to go down the stairs. (Id. at 161.) Jodi started to scream and the defendant banged her head against a beam in the basement, bound her hands and ankles and attached her to the beam. (Id. at 161-62.) He then beat and whipped her for over an hour. (Id. at 162, 165.) While he was beating her, he told her that she belonged to him and needed to serve him. (Id. at 165) At various times, he removed the chair or box under her feet so that she was suspended from the ceiling by the ropes. (Id. at 162, 164.) He made her take a Valium (id. at 164; Govt. Ex. 28) and put a large surgical needle through her tongue (Tr. at 164). Jodi continued to try to scream, even with the needle in her tongue. (Id. at 164.) The defendant then left her suspended for half an hour or 45 minutes, until her feet and hands became completely numb. (Id. at 165.) After letting her down, he took her to a bedroom and had sexual intercourse with her. (Id. at 166.) The defendant photographed Jodi throughout the punishment and forced her to write a diary entry about it to post on his website. (See id. at 165-67; Govt. Ex. 2C at 531-34, 536, 538, 540.) Jodi testified that, after this incident, she felt broken and terrified and as if there was no way she would be able to leave the relationship. (Tr. at 168.) She continued to live in Rona¹s apartment until August 2001. (Id. at 172.)
In August 2001, Rona communicated to the defendant that she did not want Jodi to live in her apartment any longer, and the defendant allowed Jodi to move out. (See id.) When Jodi obtained her own apartment, her interactions with the defendant became less frequent and less extreme. (Id. at 173.) However, she continued to stay involved with the defendant in order to maintain a semblance of control over his use of her pictures on the website. (Id. at 173, 175.) During this time period, the defendant posted diary entries on the website exposing personal information that Jodi had told him about her family. (Id. at 174; Govt Ex. 2C, at 703-05.) He also posted a ³Find Pooch² contest on his website, offering a free membership to any person who photographed her on the street, and he provided information as to Jodi¹s whereabouts and the location of her apartment. (Tr. at 175, 186; Govt. Ex. 2C, at 3907, 3909.) Jodi maintained contact with the defendant until 2003. (Id. at 176.)
http://www.oneangrygirl.net/marcus.htm
