July 4, 2019 618 PM
MARFA – Marfa-based abstract painter Jeff Elrod goes to trial Tuesday for an alleged assault on a former Marfa resident, nearly a year after the alleged encounter occurred. The Marfa Municipal Court will hold a bench trial Tuesday, July 9 at 9 a.m. in the Casner Room to hear arguments, and Judge Jeanette Duer will deliver a verdict on the Class C misdemeanor assault charge.
The incident report obtained from the Marfa Police Department and filed October 22, 2018, tells the narrative as provided by the alleged victim. Late one night in August 2018, Elrod and the woman had dinner at Cochineal in Marfa, before heading to the pop-up bar behind the restaurant for a drink. The woman had known Elrod for seven years, and the report identifies the victim’s relationship to the alleged offender as “friend.”
The inciting incident began after midnight, when the two left the bar, entered the alley behind Cochineal and began walking toward Elrod’s studio and home. The victim said she had walked Elrod home many times before, but always in a group, and the night of August 24 was the first time the two were alone.
The report states Elrod said to her, “I have to kiss your breasts!” The plaintiff laughed nervously, they continued walking, and then “Elrod stepped in front of her and grabbed her breast. He then pulled her breast out of her bra and shirt, and put his mouth on her breast. Then he shoved her breast back into her bra and shirt,” the report narrative reads.
The woman told Marfa Police Chief Steve Marquez that she went into “a weird shock” and “autopilot” and kept walking. She alleges she entered his studio, where he began trying to touch her leg. The woman told him she had to leave, and walked home.
The narrative concludes that the woman “stated she didn’t file a report sooner because she feared retaliation from Elrod.” At the time of the report, she did not wish to press charges, but in early November, the victim stated “she was ready to file assault charges against Jeff Elrod.”
Elrod is a famed artist, whose work hangs in institutions like the Museum of Modern Art and regularly garners six figures at auction. He’s been arrested in Marfa once before for Driving While Intoxicated but chose pretrial diversion—an alternative to prosecution—offered by the Presidio County Attorney’s office and redirects certain offenders to supervised programs, without requiring a guilty or no contest plea.
The charge Elrod currently faces is a Class C misdemeanor, on the same level as breaking the speed limit, running a stop sign or committing petty theft under $50. If found guilty, the maximum penalty is a $500 fine and no jail time. In a comment on the case, Police Chief Marquez said, “The way it sounds is sexual assault. Unfortunately, the way it’s written under Texas penal code, it falls under assault, a class C misdemeanor.”
For Tuesday’s trial, Elrod has hired former federal public defender Liz Rogers, and nationally known criminal defense attorney Dick DeGuerin, whose clientele has included the likes of Tom Delay, David Koresh and Robert Durst. His clients are not typically on the stand for Class C misdemeanor cases.
DeGuerin went on record with The Big Bend Sentinel this week to talk about Elrod’s case, which he suggests is a character assassination. “Both she and Jeff have both said that what happened, happened, it’s just that he believed it was invited and that she wouldn’t find it offensive or provocative,” he began. DeGuerin said the defense argument was “consent–two adults.”
“If you want to get into the nuts and bolts of the law, it doesn’t really matter whether she was actually offended or whether she actually consented to the conduct, what matters is whether Jeff was reasonable in believing that she did consent and would not be offended. That’s statutory law,” DeGuerin asserted.
The case has garnered national publicity, first in the New York Daily News, and later in art publications like ART-news, artnet and the Texas based publication Glasstire.
Earlier this year during the 2019 Texas Legislative session, lawmakers voted to tighten penalties for groping. Governor Greg Abbott signed the bipartisan Senate Bill 194 into law this June, however, the new law will have no effect on the case. The bill introduced by Republican state Senator Charles Perry defines “indecent assault” as touching a person’s breast or exposing someone’s breast, without the person’s consent, and with the intent to arouse or gratify sexual desire. The new law goes into effect later this year and carries the status of a Class A misdemeanor––creating a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
El Paso State Representative Joe Moody sponsored the 2019 bill in the house, and last month told the Houston Chronicle, “When there are gaps in the law, it’s those real people who fall through them. That’s why I’m so proud to close one of those gaps and finally punish groping appropriately in this state.”
In a statement sent to The Big Bend Sentinel the alleged victim said, “This is about me knowing exactly what happened to me and self-advocating accordingly. I am looking to the State of Texas with a clear heart and asking for its assistance and protection.”
The woman added that she is not after Elrod for potential pay outs. “I’ve signed a notarized statement legally relinquishing my right to pursue civil action following the trial so that I may impart my earnestness—I have no intention to seek financial gain from this experience.”
Regardless of the outcome of Tuesday’s case, Chief Marquez made it clear that he hopes women don’t lose trust in the system. He added, “If this happens, male, female, I want them to come to us. Speak up, report it. If someone else knows it’s happening, stop it as well and report it to us.”
The case begins at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the Casner Room at Marfa City Hall. The trial is open to the public, and attendees are advised to arrive early and leave electronic devices at home.
