Marw Albert Trial: 1997

views updated

Marw Albert Trial: 1997

Defendant: Marv Albert
Crime Charged: Forcible sodomy and assault and battery
Chief Defense Lawyer: Roy Black
Chief Prosecutor: Richard Trodden
Judge: Benjamin Kendrick
Place: Arlington, Virginia
Dates of Trial: September 22-October 24, 1997
Verdict: Guilty
Sentence: 1-year suspended sentence

SIGNIFICANCE: A celebrity defendant, steamy sex allegations, and surprise testimony made this one of the most closely watched trials in recent years.

In 1997, Marv Albert was an NBC sportscaster who, for 10 years, had conducted an on-again, off-again relationship with a former telephone operator named Vanessa Perhach. On February 12, 1997, the couple agreed to meet at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Alexandria, Virginia. Following the tryst, Albert was arrested and, on September 22, found himself in an Arlington courtroom facing charges of sexual and physical abuse.

At the trial, the state's prosecutor, Richard Trodden, painted Albert as a person with bizarre sexual appetites, who had become violent with Perhach when those cravings went unsatisfied at their Ritz-Carnton meeting.

Not so, according to defense attorney Roy Black. The encounter had been entirely consensual, and these charges were Perhach's way of lashing back at Albert, after he had told her that he intended to marry another woman.

From the prosecution's point of view, everything hinged on Perhach's testimony. Under questioning by Trodden, she described her relationship with Albert as conventional at first, but soon his darker side surfaced and he began pestering her to recruit other men to join them in sexual liaisons, which she did.

On this particular occasion, however, Perhach said she had been unable to obtain the promised third partner. Albert lost his temper. "You've been a bad girl," he said. "You didn't bring anybody." Then he threw her on the bed and began biting her back. When she complained that he was hurting her and told him to stop, Albert refused, saying, "You know you like this.… You enjoy rough sex." Perhach said that Albert next forced her to perform oral sex.

However, during cross-examination by Black, Perhach admitted that she had hugged and kissed Albert—signs of affection, not fear—before she left the hotel room. And why, Black inquired, did she not lock herself in the bathroom and call security if she felt threatened by Albert that night? Either unwilling or unable to respond, Perhach fell silent.

The Tape

Then Black produced an incredible piece of evidence: a taped conversation between Perhach and a taxicab driver, in which she appeared to coax the driver into supporting her allegations against Albert. "You know what to say … that when you went to pick him up, that he [Albert] wanted to get a boy. We gotta get tight on that."

On the tape the cab driver responded, "I'm getting too old for this. You owe me $50,000 and a new car." Both Perhach and the cab driver laughed as she told him, "Okay baby."

Stunned by the tape, Perhach denied trying to coach the cab driver, saying she was only joking with him about the promised money and car.

At this point most trial observers felt that Albert would be acquitted, but the prosecution had an ace of its own.

Surprise Witness

Up to this point, Perhach's accusations about Albert's sexual habits had remained uncorroborated. Now, out of the blue, the prosecution produced Patricia Masten, a liaison worker with Hyatt Hotels, who testified that twice she had to fend off Albert's unwanted advances—first in 1993 and again the following year when he had attempted to bite her and force her to engage in oral sex. On the second occasion, she said, Albert had emerged from his hotel bathroom wearing panties and a garter belt. In the struggle to evade his clutches, she accidentally dislodged his toupee. After fleeing Albert's room, Masten had reported the incident immediately to her supervisor.

Roy Black tried to have Masten's testimony suppressed; however, Judge Benjamin Kendrick felt it proved a pattern of behavior on the part of Albert and therefore allowed it to be introduced as evidence.

This decision abruptly changed the course of the trial. By the next day, September 25, a plea bargain had been worked out: Albert agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor assault and battery, while the felony charge of forcible sodomy would be dropped. Just hours later, NBC fired him.

Sentencing was set for October 24, at which time Albert was given a 12-month suspended sentence and ordered to undergo counseling. A little more than two years later, on December 15, 1999, NBC announced it had rehired Albert.

By modern standards this was a very brief trial, but in terms of rollercoaster emotions and switchback courtroom strategy, it packed more surprises into three days than most trials manage in several months.

—Colin Evans