GAINESVILLE - The trials included graphic descriptions of sexual activity. One defendant was an elementary school counselor. The other, her husband, was the director of the public library system. The victim - a young woman with a split personality who exhibited 18 separate personalities. Now one of the defendants has been paroled.
Marilyn Dorsey, an elementary school counselor, was 44 at the time she went on trial in the fall of 1991 in Hall County Superior Court. She was convicted of six counts of sexual abuse, including rape, abetting her husband in the rape of the victim, aggravated sodomy, sexually battery and simple battery. The victim was a 24 year old woman who had lived with the Marilyn Dorsey and her husband, James, for several years. Judge J.D. Smith, now a member of the Georgia Court of Appeals, sentenced Marilyn Dorsey, who begged for forgiveness, to 15 years in prison.
A psychiatrist testified during her trial that the victim suffered from a split personality disorder and sometimes would take on the demeanor of a pre-schooler.
James Dorsey, director of what was then the Chestatee Regional Library System, went on trial in May 1992.
The testimony was much the same as it was in the first one - stories of repeated sexual abuse, including rape and sodomy, starting when the victim was 16. He, too, was convicted - found guilty of rape, sexual battery and aggravated sodomy. James Dorsey claimed the sex was consensual, declaring from the witness stand at one point: "I have not taken advantage of anyone." But, the prosecution disagreed - alleging as it had in Marilyn Dorsey's trial that the couple took advantage of the victim's multiple personalities by triggering her 5-year-old personality. He was found guilty and also sentenced to 15 years in prison.
At one point during James Dorsey's trial, Lee Darragh, now Hall County District Attorney, who was Chief Assistant District Attorney at the time, summoned the 18 personalities living within the victim, instantly transforming her into a troubled teenager nicknamed "Trouble," who the described in graphic terms how she had been sexually abused by Dorsey .
The defense, at one point during the trial when the woman slipped in and out of three personalities, described termed her testimony was a "charade."
Now, Marilyn Dorsey, who was last incarcerated at Lee Arrendale State Prison in Alto, has been paroled and is living in Gainesville again. According to the Georgia Department of Corrections Web site, she was freed on Sept. 30. On Oct. 2, she registered with the Hall County Sheriff's Office as a convicted sex offender, according to the GBI's Web-based sex offender registry, and is living on Atlanta Road in Gainesville.
James, who was 46 when he was convicted, will be up for parole next year. He is currently at Bostick State Prison in Hardwick.
(The Atlanta Journal-Constitution contributed to this story.)
Tuesday
May 21st, 2024
6:36AM
