CADMAN PLAZA EAST — Glenn Marcus is a tall, square-shouldered man with dark grey hair and a spreading bald spot. He stood quietly in Brooklyn federal court Friday afternoon, his hands folded lightly behind his back, while the judge sentenced him for brutalizing a younger woman named Jodi in a sado-masochistic relationship gone wrong.
Marcus’ parents and his pregnant daughter sat in the audience, each in a different row, along with two of his friends and two of his female BDSM partners. His mother, wearing black, shook her head violently whenever someone said something unfavorable about him.
The 53-year-old defendant was convicted last spring by a federal jury for his violent abuse of Jodi, with whom he’d had a consensual sado-masochistic sexual relationship involving bondage and discipline. She testified that he also forced her to publish humiliating pictures of her injuries on his BDSM Web site, and then threatened to show them to her family. After being involved with Marcus for a year, Jodi said she wanted out — but he wouldn’t let her go.
On Friday, the sentencing judge cited two specific violent incidents that Jodi had tried to escape. In one, Marcus had strapped her to a wall after she said she wanted to leave. In another, he suspended her in a basement and slammed her head against a wall. At other times, the defendant tried to sew Jodi’s vagina closed, pierced her wrists with needles and burned her feet.
“This case has had a compelling hold on me from the day it walked into my office,” defense attorney Maurice Sercarz told the court. “You can strip away the bizarre sexual content … and put it aside. For me it has really all been about personal responsibility and the degree to which the law will intrude on personal relationships.
“Because the defendant has been found guilty, I think that this verdict stands for a lack of responsibility of this defendant,” Sercarz said. He observed that the jury’s decision imposes “an awesome responsibility” on people involved in BDSM: “The danger exists that a woman, or more than one woman, is going to change her mind.”
Prosecuting attorney Pamela Chen argued Friday that Jodi accepted responsibility for her role in the relationship by coming forward to participate in the trial.
“He has never accepted responsibility,” Chen argued. “He’s arrogant. He told the women what he was going to do and then assumed he could do it — that’s not how the law works.”
Brooklyn federal District Judge Allyne R. Ross reviewed the sentencing guidelines and heard arguments on both sides before announcing the sentence.
The federal guidelines called for a sentence of 210 to 262 months — more than 17 years in prison — for sex trafficking and labor law violations. But the judge found that they did not apply in this case because of the BDSM component: the guidelines did not contemplate an alternative lifestyle of sex and violence intertwined, she said. Yet, recognizing the defendant’s “horrific offense,” she ordered him to serve a nine-year sentence plus five years probation, with mental health counseling, and to pay $54,000 restitution. She also forbade Marcus to access pornography on the Internet, a restriction his defense attorney said he would investigate.
The judge declined to release Marcus to his family, perhaps swayed by the prosecution’s concern that his vocal supporters would prevent him from returning to court. They had entered the courthouse on Friday wearing “Jodi Lied” pins that they removed at the defense attorney’s request.
As the judge pronounced sentence, one of Marcus’ “sex slaves” keened forward in the front row, head in her hands. “No!” She wailed. “She’s a worse danger than he’ll ever be.”
His mother barked, “He’s innocent!”
His attorney plans to appeal.
As bailiffs asked Marcus to remove his tie and attempted to handcuff him, his family’s distress grew louder. He turned to look back at the gallery through thick black-rimmed glasses, mouth slightly ajar in his white-stubbled chin. Then he blew his family a kiss and was escorted out a side door.
“I’m perfectly willing to believe he did those things — they were consensual,” said Susan, 35, who has been one of Marcus’ submissive BDSM partners since 2003. She told reporters outside the courthouse that Jodi lied so that the government would forgive her multiple parking tickets.
— Elizabeth Stull
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
All materials posted on BrooklynEagle.com are protected by United States copyright law.
Just a reminder, though -- It’s not considered polite to paste the entire story on your blog. Most blogs post a summary or the first paragraph,( 40 words) then post a link to the rest of the story. That helps increase click-throughs for everyone, and minimizes copyright issues.
So please keep posting, but not the entire article. arturc at att.net
Main Office 718 422 7400
