Marsalis removed from Pa. prison, sent to Idaho for another rape trial

Jeffrey Marsalis, the man who pretended to be an astronaut, doctor and CIA agent, and whose trial on rape charges here last year grabbed national headlines, was yesterday put behind bars in Blaine County, Idaho, where he will face a third rape trial.

Marsalis, 35, was convicted by a Philadelphia jury last year on two counts of sexual assault and was sentenced by a Common Pleas judge to 10 1/2 to 21 years in state prison. The Kent, Wash., native has been serving his time at the State Correctional Institution in Forest County, in northwestern Pennsylvania.

Early yesterday, he arrived at the Blaine County jail, said Lt. Jay Davis, at the facility.

In Idaho, Marsalis is accused of raping a 21-year-old woman who worked with him at the Sun Valley ski resort. Marsalis, who worked as a security officer, allegedly committed the October 2005 rape in his employee dorm, said Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney Jim J. Thomas.

Thomas said yesterday that a jury trial is expected to be scheduled within 180 days.

Marsalis last month lost a court hearing in Forest County in which he fought his extradition to Idaho. He left SCI Forest for Idaho last week.

While in Philadelphia, Marsalis received a bachelor's degree from Drexel University in 2002, then pursued a nursing program at Drexel, but dropped out.

Authorities alleged that, from 2003 to 2005, Marsalis - who lived in Center City, then University City - drugged and raped at least 10 women, most of whom he met through the Internet dating site Match.com.

Seven women testified at Marsalis' second rape trial last year. They said that Marsalis pretended to be a doctor or an astronaut. Marsalis' former fiancee also testified and said that Marsalis claimed to her to be a CIA agent.

The jury acquitted Marsalis of raping the seven women and of sexually assaulting five of them. It convicted him of sexually assaulting two of the women.

In October, Judge Steven R. Geroff sentenced Marsalis to the maximum allowable sentence of 10 to 20 years on the two sexual-assault convictions. The judge also added a consecutive six-to-12-month term for a charge of unlawful restraint, to which Marsalis pleaded no contest. That charge involved a woman who did not testify at the trial.

Marsalis also faced a rape trial here in 2006 in which three other women testified. The jury acquitted him of all charges. *