Linda Fairstein \nNEW YORK - State judges have ordered a new trial for a man convicted of sexual assault against a woman he'd first met online, on grounds the trial judge should have let the jury see an exchange of steamy e-mails between the couple. And the suspect is reportedly drawing support from an otherwise unlikely source - the alleged victim's family.
The New York Post says the 48-page ruling criticizes the judge for that omission, saying the e-mails could have helped the jury understand the couple's "state of mind" at the time Oliver Jovanovic made the date which triggered the case.
Jovanovic, the son of a New York City Ballet violinist, was convicted in 1998 of kidnapping the woman, tying her up, biting her breasts, and pouring hot candle wax on her flesh. She's described as a 20-year-old Barnard College student.
The Post says says that if the woman is not up to going through a second trial, he could end up going free far sooner. Jovanovic's girl friend, Marinza Bruineman, a software technician who met him while he was free on bail before his trial, tells the paper that prosecutor Linda Fairstein, who heads the city's sex crimes unit, railroaded Jovanovic from the outset by comparing him to Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy.
"Linda Fairstein kidnapped Oliver, held him hostage for two years, and tortured him," she tells the paper. "She is the criminal."
The family hopes to have Jovanovic free on bail before Christmas, but the Post says the family's attorney claims the trial and appeal so drained the family resources they may not be able to post the bail if it's granted.
The alleged victim is now 23, but the Post says that even her family includes those who believe Jovanovic. The paper quotes her paternal grandmother, whose name is being withheld for her protection, as saying the alleged victim's family has been praying for Jovanovic because they "know what she can do."
And an aunt told the paper, "I hope she rots in hell for what she did to that young man."
The original trial jury never learned, apparently, that in e-mails exchanged between Jovanovic and his accuser, she had said she wanted to make a snuff film and that she enjoyed being submissive during violent sex, the Post says. The state judges panel ruled the original trial judge was wrong to keep those and other such statements out of the trial record, which let prosecutors portray her as a naïve victim rather than a sadomasochist.
