When Marlon Parmer left the UNM men's basketball team last week, head coach Fran Fraschilla said he and his staff had helped Parmer through academic, legal and team issues.
One of those issues involved accusations of sexual assault and harassment in October 2000, which has led to Parmer being charged with five counts of harassment, a misdemeanor under New Mexico law. Robin Hammer, assistant district attorney in New Mexico's Second Judicial District, filed the charges against Parmer in August, according to court documents.
The charges stem from several incidents in which a former UNM student claims that Parmer sexually assaulted her and then left her obscene messages during a month. The current charges deal with the phone calls and, according to a court document, alleges that Parmer "did knowingly pursue a pattern of conduct" that would cause the woman to suffer emotional distress.
The case was transferred to Judith Faviell after Hammer left the district attorney's office.
The charges also allege that Parmer's conduct intended to "annoy, seriously alarm or terrorize" the woman. Two of the incidents occurred between Aug. 30 and Oct. 1, 2000, according to the document, while the others occurred on Sept. 23, Oct. 1 and Oct. 2, 2000.
However, Parmer's attorney, Billy Blackburn, called the evidence in the case weak.
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Blackburn said the only witness to the events - the victim - transferred from UNM after last semester and is no longer in the state. Blackburn also said he doesn't understand why a misdemeanor case is in district court.
"I sort of know how things work, and I don't know why these misdemeanors were filed in district court, where felonies are tried," Blackburn said. "One of the judges had questions about that himself."
"Ninety-nine point nine percent of these cases start at (metropolitan court). Why didn't they go to metro court? I don't know to this day."
Faviell did not respond to phone messages left by the Daily Lobo.
Blackburn said the case might be in district court to deprive Parmer of his constitutional rights. Blackburn said that in most misdemeanor cases such as Parmer's, the case would begin in metropolitan court, and then the decision could be appealed to district court.
He said sometimes the accused will work with the district attorney's office and agree to try the case in district court, but neither he nor Parmer made such an agreement, nor would they.
"We never agreed to diddley squat in this case," Blackburn said. "They knew we would never agree to anything."
Parmer entered a not guilty plea on Aug. 28, 2001 and a court order of release filed on Sept. 13 states that he cannot have any contact with the victim or leave the state except for UNM sponsored activities.
Blackburn said most release orders mandate that the person not leave the state without approval from the judge. He said a judge usually just wants to account for the defendant's whereabouts and, in most cases, will grant the person request to travel out of state. In this case, Blackburn said he just wanted to make it easier for Parmer to travel with the team without having to go to the judge to ask for permission to leave for every road trip.
The case is now in the pre-trial stage, and Blackburn said it is up to the district attorney's office to make sure the case moves as quickly as possible. He said that Faviell may have a lot of cases to work on right now, which might be slowing the progress of Parmer's case. But he added that the burden of proof ultimately is with the prosecutors.
"They're the ones that make sure the system continues to roll," Blackburn said. "And there hasn't been any rolling at any time for whatever reason."
Parmer is still enrolled at UNM but plans to transfer to another school at the end of the spring semester. Blackburn said Parmer wants to see the case closed before he leaves in the spring.
"He wants to see this resolved so he can walk out with a clean slate," Blackburn said. "He would like closure before he leaves."
