Jurors Hear Halloween Victim's 911 Call

Jurors in sexual abduction trial of Peter Braunstein yesterday listened to a frantic emergency call placed by his sobbing victim after he drugged, bound, and abused her for nearly 13 hours on Halloween in 2005.

With the 911 operator pleading with the caller to calm herself by taking deep breaths, the Chelsea woman, now 36, can be heard refusing at first to admit police officers because her kidnapper had been dressed in a fake firefighter uniform.

"I don't know," she wept. "I don't trust anybody."

When the victim finally unlocked the door, officers sent her to a hospital, where an emergency-room physician examined her body for evidence of sex assault and treated the injuries she sustained when Mr. Braunstein applied a chloroform-soaked rag, stripped off her clothes, then tied her to the bed.

During a hospital exam later that morning, Dr. Susi Vassallo saw bruises and burns on the woman's face, hands, elbows, and ankles.

"They were remarkable in their extent," Dr. Vassallo said yesterday on the witness stand in Mr. Braunstein's trial, where photos of the injuries were shown to jurors on a courtroom television. "The facial injuries were the most remarkable."

Dr. Vassallo said she also prescribed a cocktail of drugs to block HIV and venereal diseases such as gonorrhea as a precaution in case the victim had been raped.

During most of the trial that began Monday, Mr. Braunstein, 43, has sat slumped, head down and eyes glazed or closed.

Defense attorney Robert Gottlieb yesterday told Justice Thomas Farber his client has been "lethargic and out of it."

The judge said he would consider having Mr. Braunstein re-examined by an independent doctor. A previous judge, Justice James Yates, said Mr. Braunstein is competent to stand trail.

Mr. Braunstein has pleaded not guilty and blames a poorly treated mental illness.