Skateboarder’s Lawyer Offers Different View of Murder Case

The day before prosecutors are expected to ask that skateboarder and accused murderer Mark (Gator) Anthony face the death penalty in the murder of a 22-year-old aspiring model from Pacific Beach, his attorney gave Anthony’s side of the story in an interview.

Speaking publicly about the case Wednesday for the first time, Deputy Public Defender John Jimenez criticized the prosecution’s case as well as the coercion he claimed was employed by police interrogators after Anthony, a 24-year-old former skateboarding phenomenon turned born-again Christian, approached them last month.

He also questioned statements made by Deputy Dist. Atty. Greg Walden that Jimenez said might skew public opinion before the trial.

But Jimenez stopped short of offering his own version of events on the night of March 20, when Jessica Bergsten accompanied Anthony to his Carlsbad apartment--saying specifics are best left for the June 17 preliminary hearing.

Anthony, who is being held in the Vista jail while he awaits trail, has denied interview requests.

Prosecutors allege that Anthony raped and strangled Bergsten in an apparent revenge killing because he believed the former Tucson woman was responsible for his recent breakup with his ex-fiance, Brandi McClain.

After manacling her to a bed and raping her for three hours, authorities say, Anthony struck Bergsten several times with a steering-wheel lock bar and placed her in his surfboard bag. When the woman began screaming, he choked her and buried her in an isolated desert grave in Imperial County, prosecutors allege.

Jimenez, however, painted his client as an innocent man, “a romantic” who keeps mementos of relationships, someone caught up in the frenzy of an overzealous police investigation and inaccurate press reports.

As an Escondido schoolboy, 11-year-old Mark Rogowski bought his first skateboard with money he earned on his paper route. Years later, after changing his last name to Anthony, he gained international celebrity for his agile moves.

He was once ranked fifth in the world in his sport and was repeatedly profiled by nationally circulated skateboarding magazines. He also starred in a video called “Psycho Skate,” in which he professed to “live, eat and breath skating.”

As his popularity waned in recent years, Anthony turned to religion, joining a North County evangelical church. He also developed a reputation as a teacher of younger skaters.

The attorney maintains that press reports have mislabeled Anthony as a “pornographer and sexual pervert,” referring to articles reporting that police investigators went to his client’s home looking for pornographic materials they believed he had collected--including pictures they thought he may have taken during the killing.

“They found nothing in terms of pornography--just poetry and religious articles,” Jimenez said. “They did find a picture of his mother--and she was definitely clothed.”

Although he would not discuss specifics, Jimenez said no kidnaping was involved when Bergsten went to Anthony’s home. “She was there,” he said of Bergsten. “She invited herself to his home to have lunch with him. So he did not entice her or trick her into coming to Carlsbad.”

Jimenez also criticized allegations that blood samples found at the apartment “matched” that of Bergsten. He claimed such reports don’t exist. “The only thing the reports say is that human blood was found in Mr. Anthony’s living room carpet and in his bedroom--similar to when someone bleeds from a cut on their finger or their menstrual period.”

Prosecutor Walden termed “ridiculous” the suggestion that the bloodstains did not help implicate Anthony in the crime.

“Sure, that’s a reasonable explanation,” he said of Jimenez’ claim. “And, after that, Jessica Bergsten drove herself to the desert and buried herself under a foot of sand. That’s ridiculous.”

Walden acknowledged, however, that, although samples taken from the apartment matched the dead woman’s blood type, no tests have been done to analyze the blood’s DNA, thereby establishing a genetic “fingerprint.”

The prosecutor wouldn’t say whether his office would claim special circumstances of rape and kidnaping during commission of the crime--circumstances that would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty. The decision, he said, will be announced during a hearing today in Vista Superior Court.

And he denied speaking too freely about the case to reporters. “I haven’t generated any pretrial publicity,” he said. “We’re going to try this case in court, before a jury of 12 people.”

Although investigators say they have a taped admission by Anthony, Jimenez maintains that his client never confessed to the killing. The defense attorney claims that overanxious Carlsbad police interrogators led Anthony numerous times in their questioning.

“At no time has Mr. Anthony admitted to rape, torture or murder,” he said. “It’s clear from a review of the transcript and listening to the tape of this supposed confession that the police did most of the talking.

“He merely made a statement to police to help them understand what occurred. What’s resulted is that police and certain members of the media have termed that a confession.”

Anthony, he says, has been surprised at how investigators have misrepresented his statements and claims that they coerced him into making several responses.

“He was persuaded by police to answer questions he didn’t know the answers to,” Jimenez said. “And there were points he filled in details involving things police suggested to him they wanted to hear. His ability to make free and conscious statements was overborne by the tactics of the police.”

Walden, however, said a playing of the taped confession at Anthony’s preliminary hearing will remove all doubts about what he told officers.

Carlsbad Police Lt. Don Lewis also denied the claim, saying, “Everything we’ve done has been aboveboard and self-explanatory.”

Jimenez also said that Carlsbad police had previous knowledge that a body had been discovered by hikers in the desert near Ocotillo--and knew its approximate location--when they asked Anthony to take them to the spot where Bergsten was buried.

“Mr. Anthony wasn’t able to show them where the body was buried because he didn’t know,” Jimenez said. “All he did was direct them to the desert east of San Diego. They took over from there.

“I mean, who was leading whom here? It’s been portrayed that he showed them where the body was located, and that’s just not the case.”

Lewis said investigators had no knowledge that a body had been discovered when they drove east from San Diego with Anthony.

“But, when we reached the Imperial County line, we informed authorities there of our mission as a courtesy and were informed that they did have a Jane Doe out there. They said it was off a certain road, about the same time we were exiting the freeway at that location.”

He said the conversation took place over a telephone and was not overheard by Anthony. “We had no idea where we were going,” Lewis said.

Walden denied that police led Anthony anywhere.

“We didn’t make this up,” he said. “Everything Mr. Anthony has told us we’ve corroborated. There’s only two people who know what happened that night--’Gator’ and Jessica--and there’s only one alive to talk about it.

“Mr. Anthony has told us what occurred. Now we’ll have to take him at his word.”

While both sides are preparing for their day in court in the much-publicized case, Anthony has discovered that publicity surrounding his upcoming trial has followed him even behind bars.

Recently, he and several cellblock mates watched a television portrayal of the case on the news-feature program “Hard Copy.”

“After that show, some of the more hardened types softened up and were friendlier to him,” Jimenez said. “It was out of respect--not as some pre-teen idol but as someone with some real talent who used his sport to do some good by helping others.”