Framed-up political activist convicted by Des Moines jury

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An outrageous political frame-up has been perpetrated in Des Moines, Iowa.

On Friday, Sept. 14, Mark Curtis, a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and the Young Socialist Alliance (YSA), was convicted by a jury of third-degree sexual abuse and first-degree burglary.

Curtis was accused of attempting to rape Demetria Morris, a 15-year-old Black woman, in her Des Moines home at approximately 9:00 p.m.on March 4, 1988. Curtis states that the only time he has ever seen this young woman was at a deposition hearing-almost two months later-on May 30.

After the verdict was read by an all-white, nine women and three men jury, Curtis was handcuffed and taken to the Marion County jail. At a sentencing hearing scheduled for Oct. 21, he faces a mandatory 25 to 35 years in prison.

Moreover, Curtis, 29, will have to stand trial again on Oct. 10 on charges that he assaulted police officers who brutally beat him the night he was arrested.

The Des Moines-based Mark Curtis Defense Committee and defense attorney Mark Pennington will immediately file an appeal.

During the seven-month period preceding the trial, Curtis and his supporters waged an international defense campaign to have the charges dropped and the police who beat him prosecuted.

Curtis, who was an employee at the Swift meatpacking plant in Des Moines and a member of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 431, believes he was framed up by local authorities because of his political activities, which included protesting against local cases of police brutality.

Anatomy of a frame-up Cur Joseph Ryan/Socialist Action the face with a nightstick. His cheekbone was fractured and his left eye was swollen shut.

He was taken to the local hospital, where he was shackled to a bed while doctors stitched up his wounds. Curtis was then brought back to the jail and thrown into a heatless, cement-floor cell to freeze for the rest of the night. The cops later charged Curtis with assault, claiming he resisted when they asked for his clothes.

The next day Curtis's friends and supporters were able to raise the $30,000 bail that was needed to get him out of jail.

The prosecutor's case At 8:51 p.m. on the night of March 4, the prosecution says, a police dispatcher received a 911 call from a young boy who whispered that his sister was being raped on the front porch. Police (Officers Joseph Gonzalez and Richard Glade) were dispatched and arrived at the house "within 30 seconds."

At the trial, Gonzalez testified that Demetria Morris came running out of the enclosed porch clad only in a sweatshirt. She yelled: "He just raped me." Gonzalez stated that he entered the porch, saw Mark Curtis trying to fasten his pants, and then chased Curtis into the back bedroom and apprehended him.

Later, Demetria Morris was treated at Broadlawns Hospital at 9:15 p.m. The doctor who examined her said there was no medical evidence of rape, although she did have a swelling below her left eye and on her right temple.

Curtis says that he never saw Demetria Morris on the porch; and except for the woman who vanished (who wasn't Demetria Morris), the only people there were the cops who arrested him.

The state's case rested entirely on the testimony of the two police officers, Demetria Morris, and her 11-year-old brother, Jason. Jason Morris says he saw