Mon 25-Oct-1999

Turbulent rape trial inspires new book
By Sarah Cooke
Of the Northwestern

The "Sarah" multiple personality rape case focused the entire nation's attention on the city of Oshkosh nearly 10 years ago. 

A fictional book based off the case may do the same - though perhaps in a much different way. 

Both the book, entitled "My Name is Legion," and the 1990 trial have drawn attention to what psychologists now call dissociative identity disorder. 

The book, however, hopes to peel away the "freak-show" stigma that the author, former Winnebago County victim-witness coordinator Sheila Martin Berry, said the sensational trial attached to Sarah and others afflicted with multiple personalities. 

"More than anything, I wanted people to see Sarah and the 'Others' (Sarah's personalities) the way I saw them," Berry said from her office in Richmond, Va., last week. "They were never fairly nor accurately portrayed in the media. They were a side show and that broke my heart." 

The trial revolved around an incident that took place June 11, 1990, at Fugelberg Park. Sarah, then 27, had gone out for coffee with then-29-year-old Oshkosh resident Mark Peterson, a man she had met earlier that week at the park. Sarah told police she had introduced Peterson to several of her 46 different personalities that day over coffee. 

Later that day, when they were driving, Peterson asked Sarah if he could talk to Jennifer, whom Sarah described as a "fun-loving personality." After the personality surfaced, Peterson then asked her "Can I love you, Jennifer?" 

Sarah said Jennifer did not know what he meant, but indicated "yes." He then parked the car and the two had sexual intercourse. While they were having sex, Sarah's 6-year-old personality Emily kept surfacing. 

After Peterson dropped her off at home, Sarah called police and told them two of her personalities had been sexually assaulted. 

A highly-publicized, controversial and sometimes-downright nasty trial followed. Second-degree sexual assault charges later were overturned and the case ultimately was dismissed in December that year to protect Sarah's precarious mental health. 

Berry, known as Sheila Carmichael before she remarried in 1993, became good friends with Sarah in 1990 after taking her in for a short time before the trial began that November. She was Sarah's rape counselor throughout the trial. 

Berry said she lost touch with Sarah shortly after moving from the area in 1991 and hasn't spoken with her since 1993. 

"Sometimes I look back at how many experiences I've had in my life period," Berry said. "Probably enough to fill 10 lifetimes. I still think of Sarah. I still miss them. It's like a special kind of family." 

Berry left the area shortly after the district attorney's office fired her when it learned Berry had entered into a movie and publication rights contract with Sarah. 

It was a turbulent, stressful time in the life of everyone involved with the case, Berry said. She's learned to put the past behind her and, essentially, to forgive and forget. 

Berry began writing the book in 1996 as a "tribute," of sorts to Sarah and the "Others." The book, completed a year later, also helped heal wounds Berry wasn't aware she still carried six years after the trial, Berry said. 

The book focuses around "Mandie," a young Vietnamese-American woman who is modeled after Sarah, and "Cate Lawson," the head of a local rape crisis center Berry originally authored to be very similar to herself. 

The story occurs in Riverton, modeled in many ways after Oshkosh. The district attorney's name? Paul Josephson, very similar to current District Attorney Joseph Paulus. 

"The 'Others' are drawn very, very closely to (Sarah's) 'Others,'" Berry said. "Otherwise, that would have defeated the whole purpose to show what they're really like." 

The book has received praise for showing multiple personality disorder in a non-clinical view that few made-for-TV movies and other books had accomplished before, Berry said. 

Others, like the Publisher's Weekly Review, have criticized the book for its "contrived plot," a criticism Berry laughs at since "it really happened." 

Berry and her husband, Dog, are currently working on "Full Circle," about the John Maloney murder and arson case in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  Joe Paulus prosecuted Maloney. 

Berry said she's not sure if Sarah knows of the book, but added "I'd like to think that she would like (the book) and that the Insiders would like it. It was something that I really wanted to do for them." 
 

SARAH COOKE CAN BE REACHED AT (920) 426-6674.