February 1, 2024 • 30 mins
Uncover the story of Marcus Dixon, a high school football star from Rome, Georgia, who was sentenced to a decade in prison at just 18 years old for the sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl. How did Marcus receive a 10-year sentence when a jury believed him innocent of all non-consensual charges? Join veteran ESPN sportscaster and journalist, Jay Harris, as he dives into the controversial legal battle that sparked nationwide debate over race, justice, and law reform.
#dp
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, and welcome to Playing Dirty Sports Scandals. I'm your host,
Jay Harris. I've had over twenty years of experience as
a journalist and sportscaster, hosting a variety of the Espean
shows from Sports Center to Outside the Lines. But I'm
also a barista on this show because I'm all about
squeeze and juice from the greatest scandals involving sports that is.
Playing Dirty is the podcast where you're guaranteed to get
(00:30):
the inside scoop about scandalous fumbles that have taken some
of the greatest athletes all the way down. Ah now,
I'm ready. Today's episode delves into a controversy that transcends sports,
(00:55):
pulling politics heavily into play. Because you see, it's about
a National Football League player who did everything right on
the field, but got caught up in a crushing headlock
off the field where a terrible teenage decision collided with
dubious due process. Have a napkin on deck, because this
scandal is going to make your eyes water and your
jaw drop. This story starts in Rome, Georgia, although a
(01:26):
lot less busy than its Italian counterpart, with a population
of only around thirty seven thousand people. The Roman Georgia
has some bragging rights in its symphony orchestra, which is
the oldest one in the Southern United States, and its
quaint clock tower. It's rich and natural beauty nestled in
the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, but given its history
(01:46):
as a Southern US state, racial tension does exist. Keeping
in mind the racial disparity throughout history in this small,
scenic town, you can probably imagine one particular school there,
Pepproll High School, back in the early two thousands, and
the types of challenges that a black student at Pepperrell,
a young man named Marcus Dixon, might have had. It
(02:08):
wasn't like Marcus Dixon was any stranger to hardship before
his high school experience at pepperl He had a difficult
childhood from the start. His biological mother, Glinda Loyle, is
alleged to have been a fifteen year old drug addicted
prostitute at the time of Marcus's birth on September sixteenth,
nineteen eighty four. She didn't have the tools to take
care of herself, let alone him, and Marcus's biological father,
(02:31):
Craig Hawkins, was never in the picture. Supposedly calling his
son a mistake before vanishing for Marcus's life, so, like
approximately ten percent of kids in the state of Georgia,
Marcus started out life being raised by a grandparent, in
his case, his maternal grandmother, with an elderly caregiver who
was not totally enthusiastic about stepping up. Marcus had to
(02:51):
be self motivated and worked doubly hard from a young
age to find a purposeful path forward for himself, and
he did. Marcus figured out real thing, asked what social
entrepreneurs Steven C. Hogan famously equipped as an adult, you
can't have a million dollar dream with a minimum wage
work ethic. So Marcus gave his million dollar dream to
(03:11):
be somebody his all. No matter the school subject, no
matter the sport, Marcus was unstoppable. His incredible tenacity paid off.
When Marcus was nine years old, a little league coach
of his name, Ken Jones, who also worked as the
maintenance manager at Pepperrell High School, noticed that this kid
was really something special. Ken saw more than just an
(03:33):
aspiring athlete on the field. When Marcus stepped up to
the little league plate, he saw a young boy with
an undeniable thirst for a better life, so he decided
to be more than Marcus's coach. Ken became an advocate
for Marcus, bringing his wife, an elementary school teacher named
Perry Jones, into the fold and together nurturing one of
(03:54):
the hardest working, most gifted kids either of them had
ever come across. In order to better support Marcus and
alleviate the pressure of child rearing on Marcus's grandmother, Ken
and Perry Jones invited Marcus to spend time living in
their home alongside their own biological son, Casey. This turned
out to be a transformative experience for Marcus, who enjoyed
(04:15):
the security of living with the Jones family so much
he decided to make a life changing request. At just
age twelve, He asked Ken and Perry Jones if he
could move in with them permanently. It just felt right.
When they agreed and sealed the deal by pursuing a
formal adoption, it forever changed Marcus's life for the better.
(04:36):
Years later, looking back on his adoption, Marcus said, I
have the strongest parents on earth. They've got my back
one hundred ten percent, and Ken and Perry Jones certainly did,
proving their parental commitment to Marcus by welcoming him into
their family and always standing by him through the extreme
ups and downs that were to come. With his grandmother's blessing,
(04:58):
Marcus became families, said Ken Jones, he never gave us
a lick of trouble, and while twelve year old Marcus
certainly may not in and of himself have given his
adoptive parents any trouble, his addition to the Jones family
certainly invited it. After all, the Jones family was white
and Marcus was black. Ken Jones' mother was so against
(05:19):
the adoption that she moved out of the family's home,
and Ken stopped speaking to his brother, who, according to
the La Times, didn't approve of racial mixing and refused
to accept Marcus's family. Ken and Perry Jones' sacrifice and
commitment to Marcus Dixon's well being marked the beginning of
a unique family dynamic. In contrast to his difficult beginnings
(05:42):
with absent parents, the Joneses provided Marcus with stability, guidance,
and unconditional love. Marcus's adoptive father, Ken, also happened to
have a great eye for athletics. Despite coaching little league himself.
Ken urged his six foot six inch tall son to
put baseball on the back and focus on football. Early
(06:02):
on in this pivot, it was clear that Ken had
unlocked a powerhouse with his recommendation. Marcus Dixon was not
your run of the mill high school football star. He
was a talent the likes of which Pepperoll High School
hadn't seen since Randy Johnson went on to play for
the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks, who was
a student there in the early nineteen seventies. In his
(06:24):
junior year at Pepperow, Marcus Dixon carved his name into
the football field like a maestro conducting Rome's famous symphony orchestra,
leaving offenses absolutely bewildered. Picture this a draw, dropping ninety
eight tackles, twelve for a loss, three sacks, and seven
passes defended. Whoa football wasn't just a game for Marcus Dixon.
(06:47):
Watching this seventeen year old play was bearing witness to
history in the making. Through his focus, raw skill and
work ethic, Marcus elevated football to an art form. His
performance on the grid eye iron required the kind of
physical and mental toughness most of us will probably never understand,
and which most of us will probably never need on
(07:08):
tap in quite the same way Marcus ultimately did. Despite
now having a loving family and establishing himself as a
football standout, Marcus's senior year in high school was far
from just highlight reels suitable for ESPN. The first shadow
loomed over his promising career as he faced an unexpected
adversary a chipped bone in his left knee that means
(07:30):
that a fragment of bone came loose and was floating
around in the knee joint. Bone Chips in the knee
are very painful, and given that this injury struck right
as scouts route looking at high school football players for
college opportunities, Marcus's sports future was at risk. But Marcus Dixon,
whose background had demanded resilience, wasn't about to bow down
(07:51):
to adversity. He had so much to fight for now.
Football wasn't just his dream anymore, after all, but his families.
So Marcus charged onto the field for the season football
opener his senior year, battling through the pain in his knee.
As the season rolled on, it became clear that Marcus
couldn't sustain his level of play. Through sheer will power
(08:13):
and a pushing through the pain approach. Alone, he took
the plunge and went under the knife. He knew he
would be temporarily benched, but Marcus figured he could recover
quickly and give back to football. Besides, just because he
was taking a little time out to heal, Marcus knew
he was still likely to attract college scouts attention. He
was an educated gamble, after all. Unlike many athletes, Marcus
(08:36):
had pushed himself in all areas of his life, driven
by need. He was a grade A student with a
three point nine six grade point average, making Marcus a
standout not only in football, but also in the classroom.
His double whammy credentials academic and sports excellence attracted the
attention of several prestigious universities, with scholarship offers pouring in
(08:59):
for the likes of Alabama, Georgia, and Auburn, but Marcus
opted for Vanderbilt University, earning himself a full scholarship and
an opportunity to play for the Vanderbilt Commodore's football team.
Vanderbilt a private university founded in eighteen seventy three in
the heart of Nashville, Tennessee, is a campus from which
pro sports careers and lucrative professions and many disciplines have
(09:22):
been launched. Jay Cutler, Bill Wade, and Casey Hayward are
just a few Vanderbilt University alumni to make it in
the NFL. So it says a lot about Marcus's talent
that despite losing some of his crucial senior high school
season at Pepperrell to injury, the Vanderbilt commodore stood steadfast
by their scholarship commitment to him. He was a great
bet for them both on and off the field. In fact,
(09:45):
Marcus was one of then knew Vanderbilt head coach Bobby
Johnson's most heralded commitments in his first full recruiting class.
But his life often demonstrates fate can pivot fast. Just
as Marcus stood on the precipice of a new chapter
at Vanderbilt, his life took a dark detour to set
(10:07):
the stage of Marcus's fall from grace Let's first address
how well he was thriving in Prepperoll High School, where
only six percent of students are black. Well. One thing
about football is that, as with many sports, individual athleticism
has demonstrated an ability to transcend racial prejudice temporarily and
to a degree. Fans are colorblind just as long as
(10:29):
an athlete is winning for their team, just as long
as the player's accomplishments are supporting the community's overriding objective
to be number one on the field. But the moment
a black athlete isn't perceived to be an asset on
or off the gridiron, well, that's quite another matter. And
of course this isn't just the case at Pepperrell High
School in Georgia. Did you know that the National Football
(10:53):
League didn't announce that it would discontinue the use of
race norming, which is the practice of assuming a lower
baseline of cognitive abilities in black players in legal settlements
for concussion related injuries, until June second, twenty twenty one.
It took into twenty twenty one for the NFL to
denounce their long held belief that race is a binary
(11:13):
biological concept that states differences in black bodies and minds
are not only existent, but quantifiable. What scientific American reiterated
strongly that the NFL had been scientifically wrong on all
accounts over the years, and published its statement that race
norming is an inherently anti black form of scientific racism
(11:34):
that is evidence of slavery's afterlife. Ironically, more than seventy
percent of the NFL's labor force on the gridiron is black, Whereas,
according to Statista as recently as August twenty twenty three,
half of all football fans between eighteen and twenty nine
years old and sixty five percent of all football fans
over the age of thirty are white. So white fans
(11:57):
are overwhelmingly cheering on black players despite proven endemic racism
within this sport of football. Forbes, Richard mcgahey summed up
this bizarre tenuous relationship between football players and fans, clearly
saying sporting success and exemplary individual performances by black people
can't solve structurally embedded racial discrimination. And mcgahey's right. For
(12:20):
as long as Marcus was bolstering Preparrell High School's winning
record and giving Floyd County School District and Georgia as
a whole bragging rights, well his skin color could be
largely overlooked, just as long as it didn't cross any
major lines. Of course, So what exactly were those lines? Well,
remember how members of Ken and Perry Jones family refused
(12:41):
to accept Marcus and broke ties over his adoption. In
addition to white parents adopting a black child, another practice
that many people would not accept in Georgia and in
many US states for that matter, in the early two
thousands was interracial dating and marriage. In fact, many mixed
race couples still face backlash ev today. I have not
(13:01):
yet counseled an interracial wedding where someone didn't have a
problem on the bride or the groom's side, the Reverend
Kimberly D Lucas said when asked about her experiences. I
think for a lot of people, interracial relationships are okay
if it's out there and it's other people, but when
it comes home, it's something that forces them to confront
their own internal demons and their own prejudices and assumptions.
(13:24):
It's still really hard for people. Reverend Kimberly D Lucas's
assessment jives with statements from people who were actually at
Pepperrell High School with Marcus Dixon. For example, Josh Pilgrim,
who played sports with Marcus for years, said that while
Marcus's race wasn't exactly an issue at Pepperrell, there were
definitely limits to what was considered acceptable. Josh said that
(13:47):
most local people disliked the idea of interracial dating and marriage,
including himself, but Marcus said that interracial relationships developed anyway
at Pepperrell. The girls' parents didn't accept the fact that
they were hanging out with a black guy, he told
reporter Ellen Barry. So the girls would tell him, you
can't call, but we can talk on the computer.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Now, a lot of this background information that I've shared
is difficult to swallow. But now that I have shared it,
you have a taste for the environment in which this
tragic scandal brewed. Let's start with the fact that everyone
can agree on. On February tenth, two thousand and three,
Marcus Dixon had sex with a fellow student named Christy
Brown in a school trailer. You know a little bit
(14:41):
about Marcus already, So who was Christy or Christy was
a fifteen year old white sophomore who was three months
shy of her sixteenth birthday. By all accounts, she was industrious,
much like Marcus, working after school cleaning classrooms and trailers
to help earn extra money. And Christy was a virgin
until her sexually counter with Marcus. Now, before we dive
(15:02):
into what went now with Marcus and Christie specifically, let's
take a look at the wider facts around teenage sex. First,
there's the age of consent. The age of consent is
the age of which a person is considered to be
legally competent to consent to sexual acts. What this means
is that an adult who engages in sexual activity with
a person who was younger than the age of consent
(15:24):
is unable to claim that the sexual activity was consensual period.
The person below the minimum age is considered to be
a victim and their sex partner is therefore classified as
an offender. Although some jurisdictions provide exceptions through Romeo and
Juliet laws if both of the participants are under age
are close in age, there is no universal age of consent.
(15:48):
Age of consent laws vary widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
What you need to know for this Playing Dirty scandal
is that the age of consent in the state of
Georgia is sixteen. There are a number of states, including Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia,
North Carolina, New Jersey, Maryland, and Maine. Have lower ages
of consent between thirteen and fifteen years of age. Now
(16:12):
here's the other thing about age of consent laws, and
really laws in general. While they're certainly meant to apply
to everyone equally, it's an unfortunate reality that teenagers are
on the whole just not as interested in learning about
laws as they are interested in learning about sex. As
British novelist Honor Tracy said, a student undergoing a word
(16:33):
association test was asked why a snowstorm put him in
mind of sex, He replied frankly, because everything does. So
despite the age of consent law in Georgia being said
at sixteen, many teenagers under the age of sixteen are
having sex regardless without giving the law a moment's thought.
(16:54):
According to Psychology Today, about thirteen percent of teens then
the United States have had sex before oh, they turned
fifteen years old, and this is actually down from about
twenty percent in nineteen ninety five. Anyone listening to this
podcast who as a teenage kid, probably shudders hearing these stats.
But deep down where you bury all the facts you've
(17:14):
heard and really wish you didn't know like that, more
people die from chiropractors than sharks, and that most laugh
tracks are recorded by people who are now dead. You're
probably honestly not surprised. It's just not breaking news that
teenagers are interested in and engaging in sex for anyone
who has ever been or met a teenager. What was
(17:35):
breaking news on February twelfth, two thousand and three, in
Georgia and the United States at large, however, was at
white fifteen year old sophomore Christy Brown accused the black
eighteen year old senior, Marcus Dixon of rape. The details
of what happened between Marcus and Christie on February ten,
two thousand and three are unsettling and involve two very
(17:55):
different polarizing stories. Christy said that Marcus tracked her down
in a class restroom trailer that she was cleaning as
part of her duties in an after school job, asked
if she was a virgin, grabbed her arms, unbuttoned her pants,
and raped her on the table. This is a horrendous allegation.
(18:15):
In the aftermath of Christy Brown's statement was swift and severe. Marcus,
the star football player, the top senior student on the
brink of graduation, was called to the principal's office, where
police immediately handcuffed him. As the school day ended, Marcus
was purp walked out in the midst of a sea
of faces, a spectacle for everyone to see. Years later,
(18:37):
Marcus recounted this surreal moment, saying, they handcuffed me in
the principal's office and school had just let out, and
so I'm basically walking out as everyone is waiting on
the bus. I was terrified. The gravity of the situation
became increasingly clear as multiple charges were levied against Marcus,
assault and battery, rape, statutory rape, and faults imprisonment. Instead
(19:00):
of planning what dorm he'd live in and whether he'd
have a car at Vanderbilt, Marcus was now ensnared in
a complex battle on unfamiliar turf the court room, The
case moved like a rocket in the beginning, Christy said
the rape happened in February two thousand and three. A
grand jury indicted Marcus the very next month. In March
two thousand and three, Marcus decided to fight the charges.
(19:24):
His adoptive parents, Ken and Perry Jones stepped all the
way up, spending their life savings on Marcus's defense. Perry steadfast,
They told the press that Marcus would never hurt a fly.
He may have committed a sin, but he never committed
a crime, and so with a support of his parents.
By May two thousand and three, Marcus Dixon was on trial.
(19:46):
David Balzer, an attorney for the prominent Atlanta law firm McKenna,
Long and Aldridge, defended Marcus Dixon against the prosecution for
decreased rates after reading a newspaper account of the allegations
and meeting the Jones family. This should be pursuing his
education instead of sitting in jail, David Ballser exclaimed, and
there were many members of the community in Georgia and
(20:06):
at large who agreed with him. In fact, The New
York Times reported that on the eve of Marcus Dixon's
hearing that nearly one hundred people gathered outside the State
Supreme Court, holding candles and singing we shall overcome. Doctor
Joseph Lowry, a founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,
addressed the crowd at this gathering, emotionally voicing one of
(20:28):
the cruxes of the case. If the young lady was
black and Marcus Dixon was white, I don't think we
would be here. Was he right, right or wrong. Defense
attorney David Baser leaned into this assertion, making Marcus Dixon's
case a symbol of the broader dynamics of justice and
highlighting the biases that still exists when you have a
(20:48):
young black man and a young white girl involved in
allegations of rape and violence. The case, intertwined with reputations, allegiances,
and preconceived notions, turned the courtroom into a microcop of
a community grappling with the issues of race, bias, and sex.
Keen Legal observers speculated that Marcus Dixon's case could prove
(21:09):
as momentous as the Rodney King, Abner Lowima, or oj
Simpson cases. This is the next significant one, regardless of
how it plays out, said Mark Mauer, assistant director of
the Sentencing Project, a Washington, d c. Nonprofit organization that
monitors racial disparities and sentencing is not just an event
that took place between two people, but very much symbolic
(21:32):
of how race has played out in the criminal justice
system for a century. But what about the defendant, Christy
Brown matters, The Floyd County Prosecutor John McClellan argued, and
he was, of course totally right. About this. A fifteen
year old girl stepping up with a rape claim is
no small decision, after all, regardless of anyone's skin color.
(21:53):
And while racial discrimination and disparity in the United States
is an undeniable issue, so too is under based discrimination
and disparity. As an audience of listeners familiar with the
post two thousand and six Me Too movement that arose
in the wake of sexual abuse allegations against Hollywood mogul
Harvey Weinstein, you likely know that women's rights group's position
(22:14):
is to understandably be heavily opposed to questioning the accounts
of women who alleged they were sexually assaulted. But in
this country, in every single instance, no matter what, we
have the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
That means juries can't just believe the allegations brought against
(22:34):
the defendant, not without proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Marcus
Dixon's trial hinged on one teenager's word against another's. Who
would the jury believe? According to Christy Brown, she was
taken by surprise while working as a student custodian after
school in an on campus trailer being used as a classroom.
(22:54):
She testified that prior to the assault, she and Marcus
Dixon barely knew one another, and that she had never
spoken more than a few words to him. Christy said
she didn't scream or cry out for help because I
was afraid he'd hurt me. Now, Marcus Dix and fans
are quick to poke holes in Christie's account, but hear
me out. Prior to having sex with Marcus, Christy was
(23:15):
a virgin, and it does appear from third parties that
prior to having sex on February ten, two thousand and three,
Christy barely knew Marcus. It's not like they were known
to other students or teachers as a couple. At Pepperell
High School, they apparently shared one home economics class, but
beyond that nothing. Is it likely that Christy would choose
(23:35):
to lose her virginity in the non romantic setting of
a deserted classroom trailer that she'd just been cleaning with
the guy she hardly exchanged hellos with. It's worth thinking about,
and Marcus's defense team, led by attorney David Balzer, knew
that Christie's account was worth thinking about and that he
had his work cut out getting the jury to believe
and accept the alternative version of events told by Marcus.
(23:59):
So let's go through Marcus's story of what happened that
day in the school trailer. Now, in a stark contrast
to Christie's right claim, Marcus Dixon shared a different consensual account.
He asserted that the encounter was actually initiated by Christie.
I said we should go to my house, that there
was no one there, Marcus said, But she said she
(24:19):
was afraid someone would see us leaving together. She said
that her daddy was a racist and that he would
kill both of us if he knew she was with
a black man. The whole nation gasped as race again
took the spotlight in the Marcus Dixon trial. But just
because the crux of the issue was a hot button
point of justice didn't mean that Marcus was assured an
empathetic acquittal. You see, the prosecution had a not so
(24:43):
secret card. While Marcus shined as an athlete, an academic,
and a son who was adoring adoptive parents, his reputation
was not untarnished. There were two previous sexual allegations against
him that were well pretty damn it, and the prosecution
was allowed to present evidence to the jury of Marcus's
prior devians. The Atlanta Journal Constitution printed that prosecutors contended
(25:08):
Marcus Dixon was a sexual predator. They presented evidence that
the six foot six, two hundred and seventy pound football
star had been suspended twice from Pepperrell High School for
sexual activity. Neither case was reported to police, and Dixon
never was charged with a crime, but jurors were told
he had been suspended for exposing himself in a classroom
(25:29):
in two thousand and one and inappropriately touching a fourteen
year old girl after track practice in two thousand and two.
These two incidents played a critical role in Prosecutor John
McClellan's case against Marcus. Without question, they made Marcus look
more likely to be guilty of raping Christy. The prior
allegations established a pattern of sexual predation, and the prosecution
(25:52):
didn't just have Marcus's prior sexual misbehavior on display. They
also had hard evidence that Christy was bruised when she
was examined two days after the alleged rape. Marcus's defense attorney,
David Ballser, understood that he had to counter Christie's story
of a violent attack comprehensively in order to reduce the
prosecution's hold on the jury, so the defense team called
(26:16):
three Pepperrell High School classmates to testify, all of whom
said they had seen Christie's bruises days before her encountered
with Marcus. Now, this would be key evidence in favor
of Marcus's innocence if the jury believed it. After all,
if the visible bruising injuries hadn't been caused by Marcus,
that would mean Christie's story wasn't true, at least not totally.
(26:38):
And once the jury believes the witness is lying about
one thing, they're more likely to believe they are lying
about everything. But more damning evidence was still coming from
the prosecution. Medical testimony confirmed that Christy did have bruising
in a place that wasn't visible, around her vaginal area.
The defense again countered claim that vaginal bruising was simply
(27:01):
consistent with first time consensual sex. By this time, the
jury was confused. Both the defense and the prosecution were
using the same pieces of evidence to argue directly oppositional
meanings in Marcus Dixon's trial, But the defense had a
key witness, The Clincher. Defense attorney David Balsh must have thought.
(27:22):
This witness told the court that Christie had said she
had engaged in consensual sex with Marcus, but it claimed
rape afterward, simply to avoid the wrath of her violent,
racist father. Now this bombshell might have been expected to
end the trial right there, or at least result in
a very swift verdict of not guilty. The defense had
(27:42):
presented a strong case that Christie's claim of rape was
not really her own, that she was in effect pressured
into making the allegations. But the prosecution, on the other hand,
had done a solid job depicting Marcus as a violent
rapist with a history of sexual offenses. The jury was
made up of nine white jurors and three black jurors.
(28:04):
After closing arguments from the defense and the prosecution that
depicted the same event in completely different ways, the members
of the jury began their difficult deliberations. Marcus Dixon's fate
hung in the balance. The jury was deciding whether he
was a violent sex offender. There was a charge of
forcible rape, of aggravated child molestation, and of statutory rape.
(28:27):
The second two offenses make consent irrelevant. You remember what
I told you about the age of consent right, Marcus
was considered an adult in the state of Georgia. He
was eighteen years old. Christie was only fifteen, under the
age of sixteen, below the age of consent in the
State of Georgia, so under state law it didn't matter
(28:47):
whether Christie consented. The pair engaging in any sort of
sexual activity would be viewed as a crime committed by
Marcus unless the Romeo and Juliette laws offered up leniency.
But forcible rape, well, that will be a far different conviction.
To convict Marcus Dixon of rape, the jury had to
believe beyond a reasonable doubt that Christy Brown did not consent.
(29:12):
On May fourteenth, two thousand and three, the hushed anticipation
in the courtroom was palpable, echoing the collective heartbeat of
a town and country divided. Marcus Dixon, once the local
sports hero destined for national greatness, now stood on the
precipice of a life altering moment. The jury had reached
(29:33):
a decision. This, my friends, is a cliffhanger, and I'm
not talking about the cocktail.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
People.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Come thirst to you and enjoin me for the next
episode of Playing Dirty. When we learned Marcus Dixon's fate
and sift through the scandal's second round. Playing Dirty Sports
Scandals is a production of Dan Patrick Productions, Never Ever Productions,
(30:13):
and Workhouse Media from executive producers Dan Patrick, Paul Anderson,
Nick Panella, Maya Glickman, and Jennifer Clary. Hosted by Jay Harris,
Written and produced by Jen Brown, Francie Haiks, Maya Glickman,
and Jennifer Clarey.
Hello, and welcome to Playing Dirty Sports Scandals. I'm your host,
Jay Harris. I've had over twenty years of experience as
a journalist and sportscaster, hosting a variety of the Espean
shows from Sports Center to Outside the Lines. But I'm
also a barista on this show because I'm all about
squeeze and juice from the greatest scandals involving sports that is.
Playing Dirty is the podcast where you're guaranteed to get
(00:30):
the inside scoop about scandalous fumbles that have taken some
of the greatest athletes all the way down. Ah now,
I'm ready. Today's episode delves into a controversy that transcends sports,
(00:55):
pulling politics heavily into play. Because you see, it's about
a National Football League player who did everything right on
the field, but got caught up in a crushing headlock
off the field where a terrible teenage decision collided with
dubious due process. Have a napkin on deck, because this
scandal is going to make your eyes water and your
jaw drop. This story starts in Rome, Georgia, although a
(01:26):
lot less busy than its Italian counterpart, with a population
of only around thirty seven thousand people. The Roman Georgia
has some bragging rights in its symphony orchestra, which is
the oldest one in the Southern United States, and its
quaint clock tower. It's rich and natural beauty nestled in
the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, but given its history
(01:46):
as a Southern US state, racial tension does exist. Keeping
in mind the racial disparity throughout history in this small,
scenic town, you can probably imagine one particular school there,
Pepproll High School, back in the early two thousands, and
the types of challenges that a black student at Pepperrell,
a young man named Marcus Dixon, might have had. It
(02:08):
wasn't like Marcus Dixon was any stranger to hardship before
his high school experience at pepperl He had a difficult
childhood from the start. His biological mother, Glinda Loyle, is
alleged to have been a fifteen year old drug addicted
prostitute at the time of Marcus's birth on September sixteenth,
nineteen eighty four. She didn't have the tools to take
care of herself, let alone him, and Marcus's biological father,
(02:31):
Craig Hawkins, was never in the picture. Supposedly calling his
son a mistake before vanishing for Marcus's life, so, like
approximately ten percent of kids in the state of Georgia,
Marcus started out life being raised by a grandparent, in
his case, his maternal grandmother, with an elderly caregiver who
was not totally enthusiastic about stepping up. Marcus had to
(02:51):
be self motivated and worked doubly hard from a young
age to find a purposeful path forward for himself, and
he did. Marcus figured out real thing, asked what social
entrepreneurs Steven C. Hogan famously equipped as an adult, you
can't have a million dollar dream with a minimum wage
work ethic. So Marcus gave his million dollar dream to
(03:11):
be somebody his all. No matter the school subject, no
matter the sport, Marcus was unstoppable. His incredible tenacity paid off.
When Marcus was nine years old, a little league coach
of his name, Ken Jones, who also worked as the
maintenance manager at Pepperrell High School, noticed that this kid
was really something special. Ken saw more than just an
(03:33):
aspiring athlete on the field. When Marcus stepped up to
the little league plate, he saw a young boy with
an undeniable thirst for a better life, so he decided
to be more than Marcus's coach. Ken became an advocate
for Marcus, bringing his wife, an elementary school teacher named
Perry Jones, into the fold and together nurturing one of
(03:54):
the hardest working, most gifted kids either of them had
ever come across. In order to better support Marcus and
alleviate the pressure of child rearing on Marcus's grandmother, Ken
and Perry Jones invited Marcus to spend time living in
their home alongside their own biological son, Casey. This turned
out to be a transformative experience for Marcus, who enjoyed
(04:15):
the security of living with the Jones family so much
he decided to make a life changing request. At just
age twelve, He asked Ken and Perry Jones if he
could move in with them permanently. It just felt right.
When they agreed and sealed the deal by pursuing a
formal adoption, it forever changed Marcus's life for the better.
(04:36):
Years later, looking back on his adoption, Marcus said, I
have the strongest parents on earth. They've got my back
one hundred ten percent, and Ken and Perry Jones certainly did,
proving their parental commitment to Marcus by welcoming him into
their family and always standing by him through the extreme
ups and downs that were to come. With his grandmother's blessing,
(04:58):
Marcus became families, said Ken Jones, he never gave us
a lick of trouble, and while twelve year old Marcus
certainly may not in and of himself have given his
adoptive parents any trouble, his addition to the Jones family
certainly invited it. After all, the Jones family was white
and Marcus was black. Ken Jones' mother was so against
(05:19):
the adoption that she moved out of the family's home,
and Ken stopped speaking to his brother, who, according to
the La Times, didn't approve of racial mixing and refused
to accept Marcus's family. Ken and Perry Jones' sacrifice and
commitment to Marcus Dixon's well being marked the beginning of
a unique family dynamic. In contrast to his difficult beginnings
(05:42):
with absent parents, the Joneses provided Marcus with stability, guidance,
and unconditional love. Marcus's adoptive father, Ken, also happened to
have a great eye for athletics. Despite coaching little league himself.
Ken urged his six foot six inch tall son to
put baseball on the back and focus on football. Early
(06:02):
on in this pivot, it was clear that Ken had
unlocked a powerhouse with his recommendation. Marcus Dixon was not
your run of the mill high school football star. He
was a talent the likes of which Pepperoll High School
hadn't seen since Randy Johnson went on to play for
the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Seattle Seahawks, who was
a student there in the early nineteen seventies. In his
(06:24):
junior year at Pepperow, Marcus Dixon carved his name into
the football field like a maestro conducting Rome's famous symphony orchestra,
leaving offenses absolutely bewildered. Picture this a draw, dropping ninety
eight tackles, twelve for a loss, three sacks, and seven
passes defended. Whoa football wasn't just a game for Marcus Dixon.
(06:47):
Watching this seventeen year old play was bearing witness to
history in the making. Through his focus, raw skill and
work ethic, Marcus elevated football to an art form. His
performance on the grid eye iron required the kind of
physical and mental toughness most of us will probably never understand,
and which most of us will probably never need on
(07:08):
tap in quite the same way Marcus ultimately did. Despite
now having a loving family and establishing himself as a
football standout, Marcus's senior year in high school was far
from just highlight reels suitable for ESPN. The first shadow
loomed over his promising career as he faced an unexpected
adversary a chipped bone in his left knee that means
(07:30):
that a fragment of bone came loose and was floating
around in the knee joint. Bone Chips in the knee
are very painful, and given that this injury struck right
as scouts route looking at high school football players for
college opportunities, Marcus's sports future was at risk. But Marcus Dixon,
whose background had demanded resilience, wasn't about to bow down
(07:51):
to adversity. He had so much to fight for now.
Football wasn't just his dream anymore, after all, but his families.
So Marcus charged onto the field for the season football
opener his senior year, battling through the pain in his knee.
As the season rolled on, it became clear that Marcus
couldn't sustain his level of play. Through sheer will power
(08:13):
and a pushing through the pain approach. Alone, he took
the plunge and went under the knife. He knew he
would be temporarily benched, but Marcus figured he could recover
quickly and give back to football. Besides, just because he
was taking a little time out to heal, Marcus knew
he was still likely to attract college scouts attention. He
was an educated gamble, after all. Unlike many athletes, Marcus
(08:36):
had pushed himself in all areas of his life, driven
by need. He was a grade A student with a
three point nine six grade point average, making Marcus a
standout not only in football, but also in the classroom.
His double whammy credentials academic and sports excellence attracted the
attention of several prestigious universities, with scholarship offers pouring in
(08:59):
for the likes of Alabama, Georgia, and Auburn, but Marcus
opted for Vanderbilt University, earning himself a full scholarship and
an opportunity to play for the Vanderbilt Commodore's football team.
Vanderbilt a private university founded in eighteen seventy three in
the heart of Nashville, Tennessee, is a campus from which
pro sports careers and lucrative professions and many disciplines have
(09:22):
been launched. Jay Cutler, Bill Wade, and Casey Hayward are
just a few Vanderbilt University alumni to make it in
the NFL. So it says a lot about Marcus's talent
that despite losing some of his crucial senior high school
season at Pepperrell to injury, the Vanderbilt commodore stood steadfast
by their scholarship commitment to him. He was a great
bet for them both on and off the field. In fact,
(09:45):
Marcus was one of then knew Vanderbilt head coach Bobby
Johnson's most heralded commitments in his first full recruiting class.
But his life often demonstrates fate can pivot fast. Just
as Marcus stood on the precipice of a new chapter
at Vanderbilt, his life took a dark detour to set
(10:07):
the stage of Marcus's fall from grace Let's first address
how well he was thriving in Prepperoll High School, where
only six percent of students are black. Well. One thing
about football is that, as with many sports, individual athleticism
has demonstrated an ability to transcend racial prejudice temporarily and
to a degree. Fans are colorblind just as long as
(10:29):
an athlete is winning for their team, just as long
as the player's accomplishments are supporting the community's overriding objective
to be number one on the field. But the moment
a black athlete isn't perceived to be an asset on
or off the gridiron, well, that's quite another matter. And
of course this isn't just the case at Pepperrell High
School in Georgia. Did you know that the National Football
(10:53):
League didn't announce that it would discontinue the use of
race norming, which is the practice of assuming a lower
baseline of cognitive abilities in black players in legal settlements
for concussion related injuries, until June second, twenty twenty one.
It took into twenty twenty one for the NFL to
denounce their long held belief that race is a binary
(11:13):
biological concept that states differences in black bodies and minds
are not only existent, but quantifiable. What scientific American reiterated
strongly that the NFL had been scientifically wrong on all
accounts over the years, and published its statement that race
norming is an inherently anti black form of scientific racism
(11:34):
that is evidence of slavery's afterlife. Ironically, more than seventy
percent of the NFL's labor force on the gridiron is black, Whereas,
according to Statista as recently as August twenty twenty three,
half of all football fans between eighteen and twenty nine
years old and sixty five percent of all football fans
over the age of thirty are white. So white fans
(11:57):
are overwhelmingly cheering on black players despite proven endemic racism
within this sport of football. Forbes, Richard mcgahey summed up
this bizarre tenuous relationship between football players and fans, clearly
saying sporting success and exemplary individual performances by black people
can't solve structurally embedded racial discrimination. And mcgahey's right. For
(12:20):
as long as Marcus was bolstering Preparrell High School's winning
record and giving Floyd County School District and Georgia as
a whole bragging rights, well his skin color could be
largely overlooked, just as long as it didn't cross any
major lines. Of course, So what exactly were those lines? Well,
remember how members of Ken and Perry Jones family refused
(12:41):
to accept Marcus and broke ties over his adoption. In
addition to white parents adopting a black child, another practice
that many people would not accept in Georgia and in
many US states for that matter, in the early two
thousands was interracial dating and marriage. In fact, many mixed
race couples still face backlash ev today. I have not
(13:01):
yet counseled an interracial wedding where someone didn't have a
problem on the bride or the groom's side, the Reverend
Kimberly D Lucas said when asked about her experiences. I
think for a lot of people, interracial relationships are okay
if it's out there and it's other people, but when
it comes home, it's something that forces them to confront
their own internal demons and their own prejudices and assumptions.
(13:24):
It's still really hard for people. Reverend Kimberly D Lucas's
assessment jives with statements from people who were actually at
Pepperrell High School with Marcus Dixon. For example, Josh Pilgrim,
who played sports with Marcus for years, said that while
Marcus's race wasn't exactly an issue at Pepperrell, there were
definitely limits to what was considered acceptable. Josh said that
(13:47):
most local people disliked the idea of interracial dating and marriage,
including himself, but Marcus said that interracial relationships developed anyway
at Pepperrell. The girls' parents didn't accept the fact that
they were hanging out with a black guy, he told
reporter Ellen Barry. So the girls would tell him, you
can't call, but we can talk on the computer.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
Now, a lot of this background information that I've shared
is difficult to swallow. But now that I have shared it,
you have a taste for the environment in which this
tragic scandal brewed. Let's start with the fact that everyone
can agree on. On February tenth, two thousand and three,
Marcus Dixon had sex with a fellow student named Christy
Brown in a school trailer. You know a little bit
(14:41):
about Marcus already, So who was Christy or Christy was
a fifteen year old white sophomore who was three months
shy of her sixteenth birthday. By all accounts, she was industrious,
much like Marcus, working after school cleaning classrooms and trailers
to help earn extra money. And Christy was a virgin
until her sexually counter with Marcus. Now, before we dive
(15:02):
into what went now with Marcus and Christie specifically, let's
take a look at the wider facts around teenage sex. First,
there's the age of consent. The age of consent is
the age of which a person is considered to be
legally competent to consent to sexual acts. What this means
is that an adult who engages in sexual activity with
a person who was younger than the age of consent
(15:24):
is unable to claim that the sexual activity was consensual period.
The person below the minimum age is considered to be
a victim and their sex partner is therefore classified as
an offender. Although some jurisdictions provide exceptions through Romeo and
Juliet laws if both of the participants are under age
are close in age, there is no universal age of consent.
(15:48):
Age of consent laws vary widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
What you need to know for this Playing Dirty scandal
is that the age of consent in the state of
Georgia is sixteen. There are a number of states, including Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia,
North Carolina, New Jersey, Maryland, and Maine. Have lower ages
of consent between thirteen and fifteen years of age. Now
(16:12):
here's the other thing about age of consent laws, and
really laws in general. While they're certainly meant to apply
to everyone equally, it's an unfortunate reality that teenagers are
on the whole just not as interested in learning about
laws as they are interested in learning about sex. As
British novelist Honor Tracy said, a student undergoing a word
(16:33):
association test was asked why a snowstorm put him in
mind of sex, He replied frankly, because everything does. So
despite the age of consent law in Georgia being said
at sixteen, many teenagers under the age of sixteen are
having sex regardless without giving the law a moment's thought.
(16:54):
According to Psychology Today, about thirteen percent of teens then
the United States have had sex before oh, they turned
fifteen years old, and this is actually down from about
twenty percent in nineteen ninety five. Anyone listening to this
podcast who as a teenage kid, probably shudders hearing these stats.
But deep down where you bury all the facts you've
(17:14):
heard and really wish you didn't know like that, more
people die from chiropractors than sharks, and that most laugh
tracks are recorded by people who are now dead. You're
probably honestly not surprised. It's just not breaking news that
teenagers are interested in and engaging in sex for anyone
who has ever been or met a teenager. What was
(17:35):
breaking news on February twelfth, two thousand and three, in
Georgia and the United States at large, however, was at
white fifteen year old sophomore Christy Brown accused the black
eighteen year old senior, Marcus Dixon of rape. The details
of what happened between Marcus and Christie on February ten,
two thousand and three are unsettling and involve two very
(17:55):
different polarizing stories. Christy said that Marcus tracked her down
in a class restroom trailer that she was cleaning as
part of her duties in an after school job, asked
if she was a virgin, grabbed her arms, unbuttoned her pants,
and raped her on the table. This is a horrendous allegation.
(18:15):
In the aftermath of Christy Brown's statement was swift and severe. Marcus,
the star football player, the top senior student on the
brink of graduation, was called to the principal's office, where
police immediately handcuffed him. As the school day ended, Marcus
was purp walked out in the midst of a sea
of faces, a spectacle for everyone to see. Years later,
(18:37):
Marcus recounted this surreal moment, saying, they handcuffed me in
the principal's office and school had just let out, and
so I'm basically walking out as everyone is waiting on
the bus. I was terrified. The gravity of the situation
became increasingly clear as multiple charges were levied against Marcus,
assault and battery, rape, statutory rape, and faults imprisonment. Instead
(19:00):
of planning what dorm he'd live in and whether he'd
have a car at Vanderbilt, Marcus was now ensnared in
a complex battle on unfamiliar turf the court room, The
case moved like a rocket in the beginning, Christy said
the rape happened in February two thousand and three. A
grand jury indicted Marcus the very next month. In March
two thousand and three, Marcus decided to fight the charges.
(19:24):
His adoptive parents, Ken and Perry Jones stepped all the
way up, spending their life savings on Marcus's defense. Perry steadfast,
They told the press that Marcus would never hurt a fly.
He may have committed a sin, but he never committed
a crime, and so with a support of his parents.
By May two thousand and three, Marcus Dixon was on trial.
(19:46):
David Balzer, an attorney for the prominent Atlanta law firm McKenna,
Long and Aldridge, defended Marcus Dixon against the prosecution for
decreased rates after reading a newspaper account of the allegations
and meeting the Jones family. This should be pursuing his
education instead of sitting in jail, David Ballser exclaimed, and
there were many members of the community in Georgia and
(20:06):
at large who agreed with him. In fact, The New
York Times reported that on the eve of Marcus Dixon's
hearing that nearly one hundred people gathered outside the State
Supreme Court, holding candles and singing we shall overcome. Doctor
Joseph Lowry, a founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,
addressed the crowd at this gathering, emotionally voicing one of
(20:28):
the cruxes of the case. If the young lady was
black and Marcus Dixon was white, I don't think we
would be here. Was he right, right or wrong. Defense
attorney David Baser leaned into this assertion, making Marcus Dixon's
case a symbol of the broader dynamics of justice and
highlighting the biases that still exists when you have a
(20:48):
young black man and a young white girl involved in
allegations of rape and violence. The case, intertwined with reputations, allegiances,
and preconceived notions, turned the courtroom into a microcop of
a community grappling with the issues of race, bias, and sex.
Keen Legal observers speculated that Marcus Dixon's case could prove
(21:09):
as momentous as the Rodney King, Abner Lowima, or oj
Simpson cases. This is the next significant one, regardless of
how it plays out, said Mark Mauer, assistant director of
the Sentencing Project, a Washington, d c. Nonprofit organization that
monitors racial disparities and sentencing is not just an event
that took place between two people, but very much symbolic
(21:32):
of how race has played out in the criminal justice
system for a century. But what about the defendant, Christy
Brown matters, The Floyd County Prosecutor John McClellan argued, and
he was, of course totally right. About this. A fifteen
year old girl stepping up with a rape claim is
no small decision, after all, regardless of anyone's skin color.
(21:53):
And while racial discrimination and disparity in the United States
is an undeniable issue, so too is under based discrimination
and disparity. As an audience of listeners familiar with the
post two thousand and six Me Too movement that arose
in the wake of sexual abuse allegations against Hollywood mogul
Harvey Weinstein, you likely know that women's rights group's position
(22:14):
is to understandably be heavily opposed to questioning the accounts
of women who alleged they were sexually assaulted. But in
this country, in every single instance, no matter what, we
have the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
That means juries can't just believe the allegations brought against
(22:34):
the defendant, not without proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Marcus
Dixon's trial hinged on one teenager's word against another's. Who
would the jury believe? According to Christy Brown, she was
taken by surprise while working as a student custodian after
school in an on campus trailer being used as a classroom.
(22:54):
She testified that prior to the assault, she and Marcus
Dixon barely knew one another, and that she had never
spoken more than a few words to him. Christy said
she didn't scream or cry out for help because I
was afraid he'd hurt me. Now, Marcus Dix and fans
are quick to poke holes in Christie's account, but hear
me out. Prior to having sex with Marcus, Christy was
(23:15):
a virgin, and it does appear from third parties that
prior to having sex on February ten, two thousand and three,
Christy barely knew Marcus. It's not like they were known
to other students or teachers as a couple. At Pepperell
High School, they apparently shared one home economics class, but
beyond that nothing. Is it likely that Christy would choose
(23:35):
to lose her virginity in the non romantic setting of
a deserted classroom trailer that she'd just been cleaning with
the guy she hardly exchanged hellos with. It's worth thinking about,
and Marcus's defense team, led by attorney David Balzer, knew
that Christie's account was worth thinking about and that he
had his work cut out getting the jury to believe
and accept the alternative version of events told by Marcus.
(23:59):
So let's go through Marcus's story of what happened that
day in the school trailer. Now, in a stark contrast
to Christie's right claim, Marcus Dixon shared a different consensual account.
He asserted that the encounter was actually initiated by Christie.
I said we should go to my house, that there
was no one there, Marcus said, But she said she
(24:19):
was afraid someone would see us leaving together. She said
that her daddy was a racist and that he would
kill both of us if he knew she was with
a black man. The whole nation gasped as race again
took the spotlight in the Marcus Dixon trial. But just
because the crux of the issue was a hot button
point of justice didn't mean that Marcus was assured an
empathetic acquittal. You see, the prosecution had a not so
(24:43):
secret card. While Marcus shined as an athlete, an academic,
and a son who was adoring adoptive parents, his reputation
was not untarnished. There were two previous sexual allegations against
him that were well pretty damn it, and the prosecution
was allowed to present evidence to the jury of Marcus's
prior devians. The Atlanta Journal Constitution printed that prosecutors contended
(25:08):
Marcus Dixon was a sexual predator. They presented evidence that
the six foot six, two hundred and seventy pound football
star had been suspended twice from Pepperrell High School for
sexual activity. Neither case was reported to police, and Dixon
never was charged with a crime, but jurors were told
he had been suspended for exposing himself in a classroom
(25:29):
in two thousand and one and inappropriately touching a fourteen
year old girl after track practice in two thousand and two.
These two incidents played a critical role in Prosecutor John
McClellan's case against Marcus. Without question, they made Marcus look
more likely to be guilty of raping Christy. The prior
allegations established a pattern of sexual predation, and the prosecution
(25:52):
didn't just have Marcus's prior sexual misbehavior on display. They
also had hard evidence that Christy was bruised when she
was examined two days after the alleged rape. Marcus's defense attorney,
David Ballser, understood that he had to counter Christie's story
of a violent attack comprehensively in order to reduce the
prosecution's hold on the jury, so the defense team called
(26:16):
three Pepperrell High School classmates to testify, all of whom
said they had seen Christie's bruises days before her encountered
with Marcus. Now, this would be key evidence in favor
of Marcus's innocence if the jury believed it. After all,
if the visible bruising injuries hadn't been caused by Marcus,
that would mean Christie's story wasn't true, at least not totally.
(26:38):
And once the jury believes the witness is lying about
one thing, they're more likely to believe they are lying
about everything. But more damning evidence was still coming from
the prosecution. Medical testimony confirmed that Christy did have bruising
in a place that wasn't visible, around her vaginal area.
The defense again countered claim that vaginal bruising was simply
(27:01):
consistent with first time consensual sex. By this time, the
jury was confused. Both the defense and the prosecution were
using the same pieces of evidence to argue directly oppositional
meanings in Marcus Dixon's trial, But the defense had a
key witness, The Clincher. Defense attorney David Balsh must have thought.
(27:22):
This witness told the court that Christie had said she
had engaged in consensual sex with Marcus, but it claimed
rape afterward, simply to avoid the wrath of her violent,
racist father. Now this bombshell might have been expected to
end the trial right there, or at least result in
a very swift verdict of not guilty. The defense had
(27:42):
presented a strong case that Christie's claim of rape was
not really her own, that she was in effect pressured
into making the allegations. But the prosecution, on the other hand,
had done a solid job depicting Marcus as a violent
rapist with a history of sexual offenses. The jury was
made up of nine white jurors and three black jurors.
(28:04):
After closing arguments from the defense and the prosecution that
depicted the same event in completely different ways, the members
of the jury began their difficult deliberations. Marcus Dixon's fate
hung in the balance. The jury was deciding whether he
was a violent sex offender. There was a charge of
forcible rape, of aggravated child molestation, and of statutory rape.
(28:27):
The second two offenses make consent irrelevant. You remember what
I told you about the age of consent right, Marcus
was considered an adult in the state of Georgia. He
was eighteen years old. Christie was only fifteen, under the
age of sixteen, below the age of consent in the
State of Georgia, so under state law it didn't matter
(28:47):
whether Christie consented. The pair engaging in any sort of
sexual activity would be viewed as a crime committed by
Marcus unless the Romeo and Juliette laws offered up leniency.
But forcible rape, well, that will be a far different conviction.
To convict Marcus Dixon of rape, the jury had to
believe beyond a reasonable doubt that Christy Brown did not consent.
(29:12):
On May fourteenth, two thousand and three, the hushed anticipation
in the courtroom was palpable, echoing the collective heartbeat of
a town and country divided. Marcus Dixon, once the local
sports hero destined for national greatness, now stood on the
precipice of a life altering moment. The jury had reached
(29:33):
a decision. This, my friends, is a cliffhanger, and I'm
not talking about the cocktail.
Speaker 2 (29:48):
People.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Come thirst to you and enjoin me for the next
episode of Playing Dirty. When we learned Marcus Dixon's fate
and sift through the scandal's second round. Playing Dirty Sports
Scandals is a production of Dan Patrick Productions, Never Ever Productions,
(30:13):
and Workhouse Media from executive producers Dan Patrick, Paul Anderson,
Nick Panella, Maya Glickman, and Jennifer Clary. Hosted by Jay Harris,
Written and produced by Jen Brown, Francie Haiks, Maya Glickman,
and Jennifer Clarey.
Popular Podcasts
1. The Podium
The Podium: An NBC Olympic and Paralympic podcast. Join us for insider coverage during the intense competition at the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. In the run-up to the Opening Ceremony, we’ll bring you deep into the stories and events that have you know and those you'll be hard-pressed to forget.
2. In The Village
In The Village will take you into the most exclusive areas of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games to explore the daily life of athletes, complete with all the funny, mundane and unexpected things you learn off the field of play. Join Elizabeth Beisel as she sits down with Olympians each day in Paris.
3. iHeartOlympics: The Latest
Listen to the latest news from the 2024 Olympics.