Ex-firefighter’s trial turns into credibility battle

Attorneys in former Austin Fire Department Lt. Marcus Reed's sexual assault trial used their closing arguments to turn the case into a battle over credibility Tuesday, with the firefighter's defense arguing that Reed's public service record vouched for his character and prosecutors holding that his accuser's criminal history did not discredit her.

The woman says Reed raped her in 2017 after he threatened to arrest her if she didn't have sex with him. Reed insists he never had sex with the woman despite the presence of his DNA appearing on her rape kit and a series of sexually charged text messages he sent her after the encounter.

Reed's lawyer, Todd Ward, made his client's personal and professional history the linchpin of his defense. Reed is a married father and former University of Texas track and field athlete whose personnel file with the Fire Department spans over two decades and shows no blemishes.

But prosecutors cautioned the jury against believing him, suggesting that doubting the woman simply because of her history with drugs would send a dangerous message to the community.

"If you are to disbelieve her because she was a drug dealer, then it's open season on drug dealers," lead prosecutor Mark Pryor said.

After 4½ hours of deliberations, the jury reappeared in the courtroom at 5 p.m. and told state District Judge David Wahlberg they wanted to go home and try again in the morning. Wahlberg, who has been on the bench since the trial began last week, instructed them to return at 8:30 a.m.

The eight men and four women on the jury must weigh two felonies, sexual assault and aggravated perjury, as well as an official oppression charge, a Class A misdemeanor. If they return a guilty verdict on any count, it will enable prosecutors to dig deeper into Reed's sexual behavior and present evidence that they say shows he also inappropriately touched a 13-year-old girl, solicited or attempted to solicit a prostitute through an online service, exposed himself to a woman at Community First Village and had numerous extramarital affairs, including with the wife of another Austin firefighter.

Before breaking for the day, the jurors gave insight into their deliberations in a request they submitted to the court for guidance on the definition of coercion as it relates to the sexual assault count. The jury also asked to review testimony that the woman gave last week about the underwear she was wearing on the night of the incident. 

Based on those requests and other questions about evidence presented at trial, Wahlberg reasoned that the jury still had "a fair amount of work."

The woman, 29, who is going by the pseudonym Sarah Johnson, was in attendance for closing arguments, sitting in the first row next to District Attorney Margaret Moore. She testified last week that she felt she had no choice but to participate in the sexual encounter in March 2017 when Reed found her car stalled in traffic on the Interstate 35 frontage road at East St. Elmo Road. Had she refused, the woman said, Reed was prepared to arrest her on drug charges and compound the problems she already was facing with five felony charges against her.

Four of those charges were later dismissed when the woman agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in their investigation into Reed. That did not go unnoticed by Ward, the defense attorney, who accused the woman of lying about Reed to protect herself and stay out of prison.

"Elusive, inconsistent, not credible," Ward said.

The aggravated perjury charge Reed faces relates to testimony he gave at a grand jury proceeding in December 2017 when he said multiple times he had not contacted the woman after their encounter. That was disproved by 40-plus text messages prosecutors produced from Reed's phone in which he asked the woman for pictures of herself and to help him "relax."

"He simply forgot," Ward said. "There were 1,800 texts on his phone. I think it's reasonable that he forgot 40."

Ward further argued that sloppy testing resulted in a contaminated DNA sample that showed Reed's presence on the woman's genitalia. That theory was a departure from the statement Reed previously had made to a grand jury when he said his semen had been transferred to the woman from his hand when he grabbed her to move her out of the way of oncoming traffic.