Jurors Told To Expect ‘Revulsion’ at Sex Trial
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A federal jury in Brooklyn will hear testimony about couples who practice sadomasochism as it considers whether to convict a Long Island man of torturing a woman who lived with him.
A defense attorney, Maurice Sercarz, told jurors yesterday that he expects them to feel “revulsion” during the trial, which began yesterday and is expected to last two weeks. Mr. Sercarz’s remarks came after a federal prosecutor told the jury that the defendant, Glenn Marcus, 53, carved his initials into the soles of the woman’s feet; mutilated her genitals; and zippered her inside a plastic garment bag, choking her until she fainted.
Many of the violent acts were documented on a sadomasochistic Web site operated both by Mr. Marcus and the woman, who was identified as Jodi.
“We’re not going to ask you to decide whether consenting adults can engage in certain sexual activities in the privacy of their own home,” the prosecutor, Solette Magnelli, said. “This case is going to come down to consent.”
Ms. Magnelli said Jodi was afraid of Mr. Marcus and believed that he would chase after her if she left him.
But Mr. Sercarz, the defense attorney, told the jury that the relationship was consensual. Jodi “chose to participate in this lifestyle,” he said, adding that she had even signed a contract subjugating herself to Mr. Marcus.
With the issue of consent looming large, each side signaled that it would call forward witnesses who could explain the accepted mores of the sadomasochistic community.
“This is an important case,” Mr. Sercarz told the jury. “Cases like this one test our society and its capacity for tolerance.”
Mr. Marcus first met Jodi, described as a college-educated woman from the Midwest, in an Internet chat room in 1998. Curious about sadomasochistic relationships, Jodi flew out to live with Mr. Marcus, first in Maryland and later in Queens and Long Island.
The federal charges against Mr. Marcus are based less on his torture of Jodi than with the Web site the two of them operated. Mr. Marcus is charged with human trafficking, obscenity, and forced labor. The forced labor charge stems from allegations that Mr. Marcus forced Jodi to spend as many as eight hours a day running the Web site and writing online diary entries based on the sex acts and humiliation to which she was subjected.
