Margaret’s Sexual Abuse

## Margaret’s Circle

Margaret Marks

**Margaret Elizabeth Marks** is an American HSI Special Agent and former ballerina. Between 2008 and 2012 while Margaret was attending the School of American Ballet in New York City, Margaret was sexually abused by her temporary guardian Angela Hadid.

## Background

Between 2008 and 2012, from age of 12 to 16, Margaret was the victim of **sexual abuse** from her legal guardian, Angela Hadid. The abuse started shortly after Margaret went to live with her Angela while she was attending the School of American Ballet in New York City. Margaret’s abuse started out with seemingly harmless comments and complaints about Margaret, it turned to inappropriate comments and sexually explicit conversations, this led to touching and in turn led to full sexual assault and abuse. As the abuse continued it grew more and more severe with Angela coming to become sexually aroused by Margaret’s discomfort and pain. Some of the abuse included Angela performing oral and digital sex on Margaret, forcing Margaret to perform oral sex on her, as time passed the abuse got more and more serious, it culminated with Angela forcibly penetrating Margaret with various objects and eventually her hand. Angela kept Margaret from reporting her by threatening to ruin her aspiring career, and worse by threatening to do the same to her own daughter if Margaret didn’t comply. The abuse culminated with a trip to the hospital after Angela injured Margaret during an especially aggressive assault on night. Angela used her position as a lawyer to avoid the nurse reporting the incident as suspected child abuse.

Eventually on Thursday July 26, 2012, Margaret who was then 16 confided in Lindsey about the years of abuse she had suffered. Despite asking Lindsey to promise not to tell anyone else, Lindsey contacted the NYPD and reported what had happened. Detectives from the 20th Precinct along with Special Victims Division detectives came to her workplace to speak with her to avoid tipping off Angela. Despite initially refusing to discuss her abuse, Margaret reluctantly shared her story with the detectives after they promised to protect Angela’s daughter from any retaliatory abuse as Angela had always promised to do. Angela was arrested without incident that afternoon at her home in Central Park West. The following day Margaret’s mother Jennifer flew to New York City to be by Margaret’s side during her grueling and emotional interview about her years of abuse at the hands of Angela. Jennifer not only had to hear the horrific details of Margaret’s abuse but also deal with the fact that her best friend, the person she’d picked to be Margaret’s guardian, was the person responsible for abusing her daughter. Angela was arraigned and pled not guilty, alleging Margaret had an inappropriate fixation on her and had made up the abuse when Angela rebuffed her advances.

### Trial

Angela’s trial took place between Friday September 13, 2013 and Friday September 27, 2013, Angela was prosecuted by Gina Taylor from the New York County District Attorney’s Office. Angela stuck to her original story and tried to portray herself as a victim of Margaret’s misplaced infatuation. Unbeknownst to Angela at the time of the abuse, Margaret kept a detailed journal in her email account which covered her entire history of abuse in excruciatingly lengthy and graphic detail. Despite the defense knowing about the journal and its contents since discovery, they still tried to portray Margaret as an entitled young woman who was infuriated when Angela rebuffed her then made up abuse allegations to retaliate. The prosecution argued that there was no way Margaret could have made up such a detailed account prior to her accusations against Angela, they also brought in a digital forensics expert who testified that the journal entries were made on the days the abuse had occurred and had not been edited or even accessed once they were created.

Angela was found guilty by unanimous decision of sexual conduct against a child in the first degree, a Class B felony, and at her sentencing hearing on Thursday November 28, 2013, she was sentenced to 10 years plus 5 years of post-release supervision. The judge remarked that Angela had a good chance for rehabilitation as it was her first offense. Margaret’s victim impact statement was especially moving, with Angela and even the judge being visibly emotional as Margaret read it.

## Aftermath

The verdict caused significant outrage, with various commentators saying that had Angela been a male offender and being convicted of the same offense, she would have been given a much harsher sentence as the potential maximum sentence is 25 years. Margaret spoke out about the stigma of being the survivor of sexual abuse where the perpetrator was a woman. She explained how several people had disregarded or tried to minimize her abuse by suggesting it was less serious than if it was a male offender. She even recounted people making lewd comments about her abuse, including unnamed male members of her dance company.

Margaret’s mother, Jennifer became a victim’s rights advocate and advocated for significant reforms in sentencing for crimes against children. Angela was released on Wednesday December 15, 2021 after serving 8 years of her 10 year sentence. Angela was considered a model prisoner and was released early for both good behavior and due to the pandemic. Despite her release, Angela still has to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life and complete 5 years of post-release supervision until December 2026. After her abuse came to light, Margaret’s mother tried to convince her to come back home, Margaret refused however at her mother’s insistence, she did go to live with Miranda Snow and three other female colleagues in a shared apartment for the remainder of her dance career. Jennifer believed, and Margaret concurred, that she wasn’t ready to live alone, nor should she be alone during that especially difficult period of her life.

Margaret sought therapy at the suggestion of her mother, Margaret tried a group therapy program but found it wasn’t helpful. She eventually found a therapist in Morningside Heights who had previously counseled female survivors of sexual abuse in which their abuser was female. Margaret immediately clicked with her new therapist and continued seeing her until she moved to Los Angeles in 2019. It was her therapist who suggested Margaret write down her thoughts and feelings, this led to Margaret writing and eventually publishing her memoir, **Dancing Through the Pain: My Journey from Abuse to Strength**, in 2015. Margaret’s memoir became a modest success and was praised by children’s safety advocates and child psychologists.

## Information

The case was prosecuted by ADA Gina Taylor, Margaret developed a lifelong friendship with Gina after the trial.