TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/111290/1112110.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 6KB | 127 lines

                                                                                LAW, Page 87

The 21 Faces of Sarah


A jury must decide whether a woman claiming to have multiple-
personality disorder was sexually assaulted


    The events leading to the opening this week of one of the
nation's most extraordinary sex-crime trials began with an
encounter last June beside a fishing hole in Wisconsin's
Menominee Park. Mark Peterson, 31, an Oshkosh grocery worker,
wandered up to a group gathered on the bank and sat down beside
a 26-year-old woman who called herself Franny. Over the next
several minutes, as Peterson watched, her personality underwent
several profound changes. Would you like to go dancing? he
asked. Others who were present have since testified that they
told Peterson the woman's true name was Sarah (her last name is
being withheld). They explained that she suffered from
multiple-personality disorder (MPD), an ailment involving
several distinct "personalities" that take turns dominating the
same body.

    Peterson nonetheless called Franny two days later and asked
her out. According to the woman's pretrial testimony, they drove
to an Oshkosh coffee shop, where Franny told Peterson about
Jennifer, another personality, whom she described as a
"20-year-old female who likes to dance and have fun." When the
couple got back into Peterson's car, he summoned Jennifer and
asked her, "Can I love you?" She answered, "O.K." (Later
Jennifer would say she thought this was an invitation to go
dancing.)

    Peterson stopped near a park, lowered the seat back and
initiated sex. During intercourse, another personality, that of
a six-year-old known as Emily, suddenly intruded. Peterson told
Jennifer to tell Emily to keep their activities "a secret."
Instead, Franny and Emily "told" Sarah, the predominant
personality. Sarah subsequently phoned the police to report that
she had been sexually assaulted.

    Did a crime actually take place? The 12 jurors who will hear
evidence this week in Room 214 in the Winnebago County circuit
courthouse in Oshkosh will break unusual legal ground in
reaching a decision. Until now, the handful of U.S. criminal
cases that have involved multiple-personality disorders have
centered on sufferers who had committed crimes. They later
maintained that they either were not responsible for their
actions by reason of insanity or were incompetent to stand
trial. For the first time, the testimony of a victim claiming to
have the disorder could send someone else to prison for as many
as 10 years. Sarah's claim is that she was mentally ill and as
a result was unaware of having sex with the defendant. Thus, she
says, she was sexually violated.

    Investigation of the alleged crime has sometimes evoked
scenes from The Three Faces of Eve. During a one-day pretrial
hearing, three of Sarah's 21 personalities were sworn in
separately. In each instance, she closed her eyes, paused, then
opened them to speak and act as different people. At one point,
Sarah was given a glass of water by the judge. Later another
personality did not remember having taken the drink.

    Two of the main issues before the Wisconsin court are
whether Sarah was mentally ill at the time of the sexual act,
and whether she was able to appraise Peterson's conduct. A third
issue is whether Peterson knew of Sarah's condition; it is a
crime in Wisconsin to engage in sexual intercourse with a person
you believe to be mentally ill and who cannot assess your
conduct.

    The most difficult challenge for prosecutors may be
persuading the jury that Sarah's ailment is genuine. MPD is so
difficult to diagnose that estimates of the number of U.S. cases
vary wildly, from 7,000 to as many as 16,000. The American
Psychiatric Association did not recognize the disorder as a
legitimate mental illness until 1980. "Multiple-personality
disorder is a very, very rare condition. Because of TV talk
shows, it has become the disease of the month and the plea of
the year," says Dr. Darold Treffert, director of the Fond du Lac
County Health Care Center, who is expected to testify for the
defense. "It's a condition that's fairly easily induced in a
very suggestible patient."

    Therein lies the core of Peterson's defense. "I'm not
convinced that [Sarah's] mentally ill or deficient," says his
lawyer, Edward Salzsieder. As to the issue of consent, he
argues, "If she appears to be perfectly normal and we have
sexual contact between consenting adults, there's absolutely
nothing wrong with it." Salzsieder maintains that the defendant
had no idea that Sarah was mentally ill. At the time of his
arrest, though, Peterson admitted to the police that he knew
Sarah had several personalities and said that young Emily was
"peeking" during their sexual activities.

    Winnebago County district attorney Joe Paulus believes he
can demonstrate that Sarah was mentally ill and therefore
victimized. Peterson, he charges, "learned about her disease,
then called upon the personality that most wanted to have sex.
He even told the manipulative personality [Jennifer] to keep it
their little secret."

    While the testimony of Sarah and her various personalities
promises to be riveting, Salzsieder may attack her credibility
as a witness. That issue is causing considerable debate among
experts. Within the legal system, says John Parry, director of
the American Bar Association's Commission on the Mentally
Disabled, "there's a great deal of disbelief about this
disorder, a concern that people are faking."

    Dr. Frank Putnam of the Maryland-based National Institute
of Mental Health counters that people with the disorder are no
less honest than anyone else. But, he warns, "they may have
trouble with memory of some facts, since amnesia is one of the
complications of this condition." Peterson's trial, however, is
one that no one else is likely to forget.


By Jill Smolowe. Reported by Barbara Dolan/Oshkosh and Andrea
Sachs/New York.