December 3, 2004

Mark Dalton Jail Interview

From the Dallas Voice:

Dalton denies striking girlfriend

Adult entertainment star Mark Dalton hired a new attorney last week as he began a last-ditch effort to avoid serving a five-year prison sentence.
Dalton, 24, said he is optimistic that his new Dallas attorney would succeed in freeing him before Christmas from the Denton County Law Enforcement Center, where he has been held since Nov. 4. The entertainer, whose real name is Jeramy James Sons, is being held in a communal cell designed to house 40 prisoners while he awaits transfer to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
“I have a lot of hope …” Dalton said. “I would be down, but I’ve got an awesome family that is working on this every day.”

Dalton’s new attorney, Scott Palmer, whom D Magazine in 2002 named as one of the city’s best attorneys under age 40, could not be reached for comment.
Dalton, who is 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighs 210 pounds, was required to serve out the sentence when his probation was revoked Nov. 4 on a 2001 conviction for possession of a controlled substance. State District Judge Carmen Rivera-Worley scheduled the hearing based a claim by Dalton’s girlfriend that he assaulted her on April 2 at his home in Denton County.
The Denton County district attorney’s office filed a motion to dismiss the family violence assault charge. Judge Rivera-Worley accepted the motion on Nov. 9. A second probation revocation hearing on a conviction for leaving the scene of an accident was withdrawn on Nov. 19.
Dalton said he is hoping the dismissal of the assault charge — and his claim that he never assaulted his former girlfriend, Rebekka Jo Francis, 20, of Farmers Branch — would eventually lead to his freedom.
Dalton denied assaulting Francis, a clerical worker for the men’s club Platinum in Dallas. The entertainer said he told Francis to leave his home after she broke his cell phone during an argument. Instead, she locked herself in one of the bathrooms, Dalton contended.
The argument broke out because Francis was erasing numbers on his cell phone, he said.
Dalton’s younger sister, who was living with him at the time, forced Francis to leave and gave her a ride away from the house while he retreated to his home office, he said. He acknowledged grabbing Francis and trying to “escort” her out before his sister took over.
“I’ve never even been in a fight,” Dalton said. “I’m like the nicest person in the world. I especially wouldn’t hit a damned girl.”
The entertainer said Francis occasionally stayed at his home for several days at a time, but it was not her residence. Police officers who filed the assault charge erred when they reported that Francis lived with him and classified the alleged assault as an act of family violence, he said.
“This girl lied all the time,” Dalton said. “I told her I was fed up with the lies.”
Dalton said that even if he had exerted force to remove Francis from his home, it was his right as a property owner.
“She wasn’t living there,” Dalton said. “If somebody is in your home tearing up property, I have the right to tell them to leave and to do anything necessary to get them out.”
Dalton’s mother, Gina Sons, said she believes the district attorney’s office was determined to put her son in jail, possibly because of prejudice against his profession.
Francis signed an affidavit asking the district attorney’s office to drop the prosecution, but the officials ignored the affidavit and pushed for a probation revocation hearing before the scheduled date of the assault trial, his mother said.
“We really didn’t take it that serious in the beginning,” Sons said. “All of a sudden it really was something to take serious.”
Sons said Dalton’s Denton attorney, Jerry Cobb, asked for a continuance until after the assault trial, but the motion was ignored.
The Denton County prosecutor assigned to Dalton’s case failed to return phone calls seeking comment.
Sons said the accusation that her son tried to hurt Francis is implausible.
“If he wanted to hurt somebody, he’s a big boy,” Sons said. “He could hurt you.
Sons said she believes that Francis filed the complaint “out of spite” because he asked her to leave his house. Francis, whom the entertainer met about a year ago, seemed to be obsessed with Dalton. One of his neighbors suggested Francis had a “fatal attraction” for him, his mother said.
“I knew this girl was trouble when I first met her, and I tried to tell him that,” Sons said.
His mother said she had given him the same advice on occasion about some new men he had met.
Sons said that Francis had a habit of getting her mother or a friend to drop her at Dalton’s house. She then stayed until Dalton told her it was “time to leave.”
If Dalton was not home, the girlfriend would wait outside Dalton’s house until he returned, his mother said.
“Usually, it wouldn’t be a problem,” Sons said. “She’d be gone for weeks at a time then she would show back up.”
Francis and her mother, Roxie Francis, who took her daughter to the Denton Police Department to file a complaint against the entertainer, stand by their claim that Dalton assaulted his girlfriend.
Francis said the argument started because Dalton objected to the people she was calling on his phone.
“I had whelps on my back and cuts and bruises everywhere,” Francis said. “It makes me angry that he doesn’t think he did anything wrong.”
Francis acknowledged that she maintained a residence apart from Dalton’s.
“We kind of lived together,” Francis said. “I stayed there all of the time.”
Francis said the April incident marked the second time he had harmed her. During a previous argument he pushed her out of his car into a parking lot, leaving her with a fractured wrist, she said.
Her mother, Roxie Francis, said she insisted her daughter go to the police.
“I said, ‘This is it,’” she said.
The girlfriend’s mother said police officers took pictures of her daughter’s injuries, and that probably led the judge to take the action he did.
“The pictures speak for themselves,” she said.
Francis, who said she “loved and cared for” Dalton when she was with him, said she signed the affidavit to stop Dalton’s prosecution because she “didn’t want to get him in trouble.” He kept his criminal history and probation status secret from her, she said.
“He’s a good guy,” Francis said. “He just makes wrong choices.”
Francis’ mother said they are not contemplating filing a civil suit against Dalton.
“We don’t have the funds for that,” she said. “If this keeps going on with his family, I don’t know what will happen.”
The girlfriend said that Dalton continued to pursue her romantically after his arrest, but that she refused to see him for about a month.
But Dalton said that he started “hanging out” with Francis a week after the incident because he had decided to “let it slide and give her another chance.” She never mentioned going to the police, and his arrest afterwards was a shock, he said.
Dalton said Francis has cost him his freedom and created an enormous financial burden for him and his family.
“The lawyer bills are eating a hole through my pockets and my parents’ pockets,” he said.
The news that Dalton was accused of assaulting a girlfriend and that he was on probation for previous convictions surprised his booking agent, video producers and fans. Dalton acknowledged keeping his legal problems a secret from his business associates.
“I kept it all a secret, just for the fact it was all crap,” Dalton said.
Dalton said his conviction for controlled sub-
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stances arose from the discovery of GHB, which is known as a date rape drug, on him. The bodybuilder said he bought the liquid at a health food store in 2000 before it became illegal, and that he used it as a muscle-building supplement. The drug was marketed legally at one time as a supplement to help body builders increase their muscle mass through better sleep.
In yet another surprise to his gay fans, Dalton acknowledged last week that he has a wife of two years. His estranged wife, Heidi Martin, from whom he separated after only six months of marriage, also supports his bid for freedom and regularly visits him in jail, he said.
“That slipped out, didn’t it?” said Dalton, who has kept his heterosexual lifestyle a secret and still declines to discuss his sexual orientation.
Dalton appears solo in gay videos and magazines, dances in gay nightclubs and escorts gay men, in addition to his work as a fitness model. Most of his fans are men, he said.
The entertainer said he receives about 1,000 e-mails weekly from fans. About 40 percent come from people living in other countries, he added. Dalton said he received a letter from a fan last week, which was mailed directly to him in jail. The man offered to do anything he could to help him, he said.
“Some people want me to be gay, and some people want me to be straight,” Dalton said. “If I answer the question, I’m ruining somebody’s fantasy.”
None of his girlfriends ever seemed to mind his fans’ infatuations with him.
“They would rather it was guys than girls,” he said.
Sons said that she was surprised when her son got married, and that she considered it more of a friendship than a love affair. Dalton paid his wife a salary to accompany him on trips because he hates to fly, she said.
“I didn’t think he was ready for marriage,” Sons said.
Francis said that she was unaware of Dalton’s marriage for several months after she met him. His sexual orientation is as unclear to her as it is his fans, she said.
“That’s still up for question for me, too,” Francis said.
Dalton, who said he receives $350 an hour and $1,500 a night and up for escort services, said he does not engage in sexual activities with his clients. Some of the clients have flown him to exotic locations such as Hong Kong and Tokyo for companionship, he said.
“There’s no sexual tension at all, and I’m man enough that I can handle that kind of stuff,” Dalton said.
Earlier this year, California law enforcement agents charged Dalton’s Los Angeles agent, David Forest, with two counts each of pimping and pandering by procuring and one count of possession of narcotic controlled substances. The agent, who is free on $35,000 bond, has pleaded not guilty and faces trial on the charges.
Dalton said Forrest’s involvement with his career is confined to nightclub bookings, and that he is unconnected to any of the agent’s legal troubles.
Since news of his legal problems surfaced, fans and detractors of Dalton have speculated about him and his private life on Internet sites. The accusations of drug use by him are untrue, the entertainer said.
Dalton said he took a hair follicle test just before his court hearing that proved he had not used any drugs within the past nine months. Urine tests he took as part of his probation showed the same results, he said.
Dalton said he had paid all of his probation fees and completed his community service in excess of what was required of him.
“Two or three years ago I was a different person,” Dalton said. “I was a little wilder than I should have been, and I got caught doing stuff I shouldn’t have. I’ve changed my life since then.”
His criminal record includes convictions for driving while intoxicated and driving with a suspended license.
Dalton said that he has not had “as much as a speeding ticket” in over two years.
“This totally caught me by surprise because I thought I had control over everything,” Dalton said.
Dalton, who was a champion pole-vaulter and football star in high school, said he “stands out like a sore thumb in Denton,” and that it seems to have contributed to his legal troubles.
“I’ve been around the world,” Dalton said. “I’ve never been in trouble anywhere except for Denton.”
Dalton’s mother said she agrees that some people — both in Denton and on the Internet — seem to be determined to cause her son harm. She attributes the detractors’ motives to jealousy.
Sons said two police officers who are friends of her son told him many police officers suspect him of being a drug dealer because of his flashy lifestyle. Dalton drives a Dodge Viper and owns a boat, she said. Intense speculation also occurs about his source of income, his mother claimed.
“My husband calls it the pit bull syndrome,” Sons said. “You see normal people walking around, and they let them do whatever. You see someone like Jeremy — he’s like a pit bull. He’s big, he’s muscular, he stands out.”
Sons, who is a medical assistant, said that Dalton only takes health supplements that are sold over the counter and medications that are prescribed by a physician. His health is monitored regularly, and he consults with his father, Mark Sons, who is also a bodybuilder, about the supplements he takes, she said.
“His hormone level is normal for a man his age,” Sons said. “He’s not using anything in excess, he’s not using anything illegal.”
Sons said she believes the punishment meted out to her son is excessive. She is determined to push forward with her efforts to free him, she said.
“I know when Jeremy is telling the truth, and when he is not,” Sons said. “I have a special connection with him.”
Initially, Francis’ filing of assault charges against Dalton caused him to become depressed and withdraw from everyone, his mother said.
“He just didn’t want to deal with anybody,” Sons said. “Everything that happens to him goes all over the Internet.”
Dalton said he has come to believe that “any publicity is bad publicity.”
Sons and Dalton claim that someone has impersonated both him and his wife on the Internet.
Someone purporting to be Dalton’s wife sent three e-mail messages to Dallas Voice. The sender’s identity could not be confirmed.
Sons said she is planning a family Christmas celebration to include Dalton.
“I’m setting up a Christmas tree at Jeremy’s house whether he’s out for this Christmas or its several Christmases from now,” Sons said. “The Christmas presents will sit under the tree until he’s out, and we’ll have a Christmas celebration then.”
Sons said she approves of her son’s choice of a career. He began dancing for the female clientele at La Bare when he was 18.
“I’m not embarrassed one bit by what he does,” Sons said. “I’m very proud of what he does, and what he’s made of himself.”
Dalton said he also considered becoming a wrestler, a football player, a model or a paramedic before he embarked on his current career.
“It just sort of fell into my lap,” Dalton said.
Sons said that although she has not looked inside any of the magazines that feature her son on the cover, she has framed all of them.
Dalton’s whole family stands behind him, Sons said.
While his family is fighting for his freedom on the outside, Dalton is spending his days doing calisthenics, playing handball and waiting. In his jail locker he has a photograph of his female pit bull, Little Red, who sleeps with him when he is at home.
“I already miss my dog and my family,” Dalton said.
Dalton said that his only fear at this point is of the “unknown.”
“I don’t pick fights,” Dalton said. “I don’t start fights and usually no one starts fights with me.
Dalton said he is considering making some changes in his professional life once he is free again. One possibility is using one of the rooms in his five-bedroom house for personal training, he said.
Dalton hopes his soon-to-be-released video, “Super Soaked,” directed by Chi Chi La Rue, will be followed by others, he said. La Rue and Falcon video officials impressed him, he said.
“I’m not gone for good, and hopefully, I’ll be out sooner than later,” Dalton said.
Dalton said that he is trying to remain philosophical about his confinement and to view it as a learning experience, because “everything happens for a reason.”

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Posted by: nate at December 5, 2004 4:29 AM

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