The 21 Faces of Sarah

By Jill Smolowe

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.

With reporting by Barbara Dolan/Oshkosh and Andrea Sachs/New York