Surprise witness says Marv Albert bit her

Patricia Masden's story was the most shocking yet in Albert's forcible sodomy and assault trial, drawing gasps from spectators when she initially told it outside the presence of the jury. Circuit Judge Benjamin Kendrick later allowed her to tell it to the jury to show a pattern of behavior by Albert.

Masden said she got to know Albert well during the early 1990s when he traveled with the New York Knicks basketball team and she was the VIP liaison for Hyatt Hotels. She said he summoned her to his room in Dallas in 1994, saying he needed help sending a fax.

When she entered Albert's room and announced her presence, she heard him say, "Come on in."

"I was standing in the bar area looking out the window and I heard the door close behind me," Masden said when she told the story to the judge. "He had panties and a garter belt on. He was exposed and aroused.

"I was in shock and didn't know what to do. I had never seen anything like this."

Masden said Albert told her he was tense, approached her, rubbed his body against hers, pushed her head toward his crotch and bit her on the side of her neck. As she tried to push Albert off her, she said, "I went to grab his hair, and his hair lifted off."

As surprising as that encounter was, Masden said, it wasn't the first time she had been bitten by Albert.

That came in 1993, when Albert invited her to a party he said he was having with the Knicks in his Miami hotel room. When she arrived, there was no one else there but Albert.

"He started asking me weird questions, sexual questions," Masden said. "He started to kiss me and instead of kissing me, he bit my lip."

At that point, she said, Albert asked her "could I help him recruit any men" for a sexual threesome. She firmly refused, and he began kissing her on the back of her neck, and the kiss turned into a bite, she said.

Realizing that no one else would be attending the party, she abruptly left, she said.

Masden's testimony was admitted after a furious battle. Defense attorneys called it irrelevant, but Kendrick agreed with prosecutors that it was important because it mirrors the charges on which the 54-year-old NBC sportscaster is now on trial.

A 42-year-old woman said Albert, furious when she failed to recruit another man for a sexual threesome, threw her onto the bed in an Arlington hotel room Feb. 12, bit her severely on the back and forced her to perform oral sex on him.

Earlier yesterday, an emergency room nurse testified that the woman went to an emergency room with 18 to 20 bite marks on her back, one of which broke the skin.

The nurse, Jonathan Gold, said the woman was "tearful, and at other times she seemed angry" when she came to National Hospital.

Under cross-examination, Gold said he took a swab from the one bite that had broken the skin. He said he took two other swabs, one from her mouth and one from her chest. DNA on the swabs were used as evidence to link Albert to the bites.

The first of several forensics experts took the stand later to say that DNA from semen taken from the woman's lip, chest and underwear was linked to Albert. Virginia State Police forensics expert Karen Ambrozy said the chances that the DNA was left there by someone other than Albert were 1 in 2.6 billion.

The third day of Albert's trial began with the judge angrily lecturng eporters and spectators after someone who identified herself as a court reporter contacted a juror.

"This court considers jury space as very, very private and sacred. Anyone who violates that will be dealt with swiftly. I will not tolerate any interference," Kendrick said.

Kendrick said the juror hung up before the woman, who identified herself as a court reporter covering the trial, gave her name. An investigation was under way. The call was taped, but it was not clear how.

Earlier, Albert's lawyers lost another bid to admit evidence intended to portray Albert's accuser as a mentally unstable chronic liar whose life was falling apart around the time of the alleged attack.

With the jury out of the courtroom, defense attorney Peter Greenspun mentioned allegations that the woman had falsely claimed she was pregnant, feigned a suicide attempt and harassed former lovers and their families. He said she once mailed a gift-wrapped package of soiled cat litter to the disabled stepson of a former lover. The judge disallowed the testimony.

Albert faces five years to life in prison if convicted.

09-25-97