Brutally beaten in a Mission District park, a woman recounts her ordeal

A man rests beneath a tree in Franklin Square park near where Jessica said she was camping and the attack occurred. 

With its beaches, beautiful people and “practically legal marijuana,” California was Jessica’s dream.

What she found in San Francisco was a nightmare. 

From a small town in Arkansas, Jessica had wanted to visit the Golden State since she was eight. But that long-awaited trip out West went awry, and the 23-year-old and her former boyfriend ended up homeless living in Franklin Square in the Mission. It was there on Nov. 11, authorities say Marlon Bishop beat her, using a cellphone charger wrapped around his hand, to try to force her to work for him as a prostitute.

Jessica, who didn’t want her last name used, suffered cuts to her head, hands and mouth, broken teeth and internal bruising. She is recuperating at a friend’s house in another state, thankful that things did not turn out worse.

“I’m really lucky. I’m glad I’m not one of those girls caught in a basement for 10 years,” she said. “I had no idea, I just knew he was taking me somewhere and was going to make me work for him.”

Bishop, 37, was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault with weapon, kidnapping, mayhem to commit a sex offense, sexual battery, false imprisonment, human trafficking, mayhem assault with force and stalking. His attorney Betsy Wolkin declined to comment on the case.

Jessica said she did not know Bishop but recognized him; he had been watching her in the park for weeks.

He didn’t say much. She told him repeatedly she had a boyfriend. Mostly, he would just circle the oval path in the park staring, Jessica said, or follow her when she went to the Safeway across the street to use the bathroom. 

The day of the alleged attack Jessica’s boyfriend and a friend went to look for the friend’s food stamp card, leaving her alone in the park. 

Just before 2 p.m., Bishop approached her insisting she go with him, that it was “predestined.

“He was basically telling me that it was fate,” she said. “I was really trying to stick up for myself. The point I was trying to get across to him was, I’m a grown person and I make my own decisions.”

When she turned to walk away, he hit her from behind, knocked her down, punched her in the face and choked her, Jessica said. Pushed down in the dirt on her stomach, she was beaten for 20 minutes, and at one point he tried to put his hand in her pants, she said. 

Jessica stalled, hoping her boyfriend and the friend would come back, saying she needed water.

“He poured it on me,” she said.

Bloodied when they left the park, Jessica said she purposely held onto his bicep rather than his hand, figuring it would be easier to break away. Her chance came after they crossed the street, near 16^th and Bryant. She pushed him and ran, screaming.

Between people in the park, a security guard in front of a cell phone store and bystanders on the street, no one helped, Jessica said. Finally, she approached a man in exercise clothes who called 911 but Jessica just kept running, too scared to stop. Officers arrested Bishop in the area a short time later.

After she was treated at the hospital, Jessica had no choice but to return to the park. A few days later, victim services helped her leave town. She said she is getting counseling but still has problems being alone and would like to somehow use her experience to help others. She’d tell women in San Francisco not to walk alone and women in general to watch how they let people treat them. 

“Just because someone is dressed in a certain way or out at a certain time, doesn’t mean they deserve to have something happen to them,” she said. “This is my life. I wasn’t going to let him dictate [it].”