Rape Charge Hinges on Split Personalities : Court: The victim displays three different identities during testimony.

A woman who says she has 21 personalities displayed three of them--herself and characters named Franny and Jennifer--in testifying that she was raped by a man who took her out for coffee.

The judge required her to take an oath each time she changed identities during the hearing Thursday. Lawyers introduced themselves to the different personalities. Each time, she behaved as if the testimony was just beginning.

After hearing the testimony, Judge Robert Hawley ordered Mark A. Peterson, 29, to stand trial for sexual assault. No trial date was set.

To convict Peterson, Dist. Atty. Joseph Paulus said he must prove three things--that the victim had a mental illness, that she was incapable of appraising her own conduct and that Peterson knew about the illness.

Peterson claims the woman consented to sex and that he did not know she had multiple personalties.

But the woman said she told Peterson that she had multiple personalities and introduced him to some of them, and that he took advantage of one of them--Jennifer, a fun-loving 20-year-old.

That personality was dominant when Peterson forced her to have sex in the front seat of a car after they went out for coffee, the woman said.

On Thursday, she also testified as herself, a 26-year-old single Oshkosh woman who is in therapy for multiple personality disorder and cannot remember the incident, and as Franny, a 32-year-old motherly type who reported the alleged attack to friends.

According to Leonard Kaplan, a University of Wisconsin Law School professor, state law clearly says that someone deemed mentally ill cannot consent to sex.

Defense lawyer Edward Salzsieder said the key issue is whether the woman is mentally ill or just a “big show.”

During about 90 minutes of testimony, the woman paused only briefly during personality switches requested by Paulus.

“Can I have Jennifer, the one who likes to have fun?” Paulus asked after talking with Franny.

“Of course,” the woman replied, smiling and closing her eyes. Seconds later, she opened her eyes and blurted, “Hi, Mr. Paulus” in a slightly higher voice.

The woman, with her therapist seated nearby, testified that Peterson, a man she met two days earlier while fishing, raped her June 11. She testified Peterson wanted Jennifer to appear. She said he asked: “‘Can I love you?’ I said, ‘OK.’ ”

Jennifer did not know what sex was but agreed because “he just told me to,” the woman said.

Police said Peterson noted that during sex, the woman’s 6-year-old personality, Emily, appeared before she eventually became Franny again.