Victim: Keep Albert Free Accuser Makes Public Plea To Keep Ex-Nbc Sportscaster Out Of Jail
As legal experts predicted Marv Albert would avoid jail, the former lover who won an assault conviction against him revealed her name and wept as she said: “I don’t want to see him in jail.”
The woman, Vanessa Perhach, said she had nothing to hide as she discussed her relationship with the former NBC sportscaster in today’s New York Post.
“It’s time to take away the stigma of being the ‘mystery woman,”’ Perhach said. “I was portrayed on TV last night as evil and even called ‘a Jezebel.’ But I know myself. I can sleep at night.”
Perhach spoke one day after Albert put a stop to testimony about his kinky sex life by pleading guilty to assault and battery charges punishable by up to a year behind bars and a $2,500 fine.
In exchange, prosecutors dropped a forcible sodomy charge, which carries five years to life in prison.
Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 24.
Perhach, 42, testified that the 56-year-old Albert, her longtime lover, pinned her to his bed at a Virginia hotel on Feb. 12, bit her repeatedly on the back and forced her to perform oral sex.
“I got justice,” she said. “He admitted he did something wrong.”
Perhach says she still cares about Albert and what happens to him.
“I do not want him to go to jail. He will not survive in jail. The sadness and the pain in him … he will not last,” she said amid tears.
“How can I be happy to see this happen to someone I care about?” she asked in an interview with the New York Daily News. “He was my friend for a long time.”
Perhach said she thinks Albert should have settled the case earlier. He entered his plea after two days of testimony.
“I feel real bad these things had got to the point where everything about his sex life was exposed… . I didn’t want all the weird stuff to come out,” she said.
She added: “Unless he’s out of his mind, he’ll never do it again.”
Prior to sentencing, probation officers will interview Albert and do a background check before reporting back to Judge Benjamin N.A. Kendrick. Under the plea bargain, prosecutors agreed not to recommend a sentence.
“Barring any other history, it’s probably a probation-type case,” Michael Wright of the state Department of Corrections said Friday.
“He won’t serve a day,” said Rick Halprin, a Chicago criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor.
Halprin said probation is the norm for first-time offenders such as Albert. First offenders typically have to perform community service and undergo psychiatric counseling, the attorney said.
Following Albert’s plea, NBC fired him as the network’s chief play-by-play announcer for the NBA, a job that was said to pay about $2 million a year. He also quit as the voice of the New York Knicks.
Roy Black, Albert’s lead attorney, has predicted Albert won’t go to jail. At next month’s hearing, Black is expected to emphasize how much Albert has lost - his job, his reputation, his dignity - and ask that his client be placed on probation.
xxxx WHAT’S NEXT Marv Albert’s sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 24.