Doctor Skates Into Trouble

From:Internet   Author:Admin   Time:2007-04-19   Font: [big center small]  

Sept. 24, 2001 -- Joy Marshall, MD, is pumped.

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"I use my blades for transportation; when I get where I'm going I feel better, I'm less stressed, and I haven't harmed the environment," says Marshall.

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Marshall looks at least a decade younger than her 52 years. It's evidence, she says, of the benefits of her daily workout. Marshall traded her running shoes for "blades" about 15 years ago because she was worried that running was beginning to cause injuries to her knees and hips.

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"I used to be a figure skater, " says Marshal. At age 4 she started figure skating with dreams of finding fame at the Olympics or, at least, the Ice Capades. Like many people, Marshall saw inline skating as a close cousin to ice skating, but found out that she was only half right.

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For example, she quickly discovered that stopping on roller blades used different skills than stopping on figure skates. At first she stopped simply by putting out her hands and finding an immovable object, like a tree, to stop her. Now that she's finally got the hang of it, "all my figure skating friends make fun of me because they say I have no form."

Have Blades, Will Travel

With or without form, Marshall decided to turn to inline skates as her main means of transportation. That meant strapping on the blades and heading out from her home in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, to either Case Western Reserve University where she is an instructor at the medical school -- a nearby, mainly downhill run for her -- or inline skating to her office at Huron Road Hospital in East Cleveland, a commute of about five miles each way.

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And she doesn't confine her skating to at-home transportation. "When I travel to medical conferences, I never take cabs, I just take my blades with me. I skate in New York, Chicago, Washington, D.C. -- wherever the meeting is held," she says.

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But her "rolling along" came to an abrupt halt on March 30. "I got busted," says Marshall. In official terms she was issued a summons from police in Shaker Heights, Ohio, for "operating a toy vehicle in the street." She says she uses streets rather than sidewalks for her skating because the smoother surfaces are safer and less likely to cause falls.

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Her case goes to trial Sept. 27.

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Sitting in her office at Huron Road Hospital, Marshall seems pretty far removed from a candidate for America's Most Wanted. Wearing a summer dress patterned with blue flowers and constantly fidgeting with either her shoulder-length hair or the fork-and-spoon earrings that dangle almost to her shoulders, Marshall is frank, funny, and more than slightly annoyed by her recent run-in with the law.

One Stop Too Many

The evening the police stopped her, Marshall says she was trying to work off what had been a very difficult day at work. She spent the waning hours of daylight counseling a mother and daughter regarding sexual abuse. The daughter was abused and as a result had an advanced sexually transmitted infection. When she examined the girl, Marshall said she began to sob at what she saw. "I was crying that this child, this girl had been the subject of such abuse, such pain," says Marshall.

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Thoughts of the girl and her mother proved difficult to shake, so Marshall set out on her blades to run a number of errands before heading home. She says she often turns to exercise as a way to shed the blues or stress or to help her focus her thoughts.

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"Then, for whatever reason, I decided to head to Night Town (a popular bar) to see if a friend was there and maybe have a glass of wine and unwind," she says, adding, "I used to be a barmaid there." As she was heading into the bar, "I heard this voice telling me to stop." When she turned, "I saw the police."