 Her first front-burner storyline was a six-week trial in which she defended local villain Todd Manning (Roger Howarth) and his fraternity brothers, who were accused of gang-raping college coed Marty Saybrooke (Susan Haskell).The actress said in an interview with "Soap Opera Digest", "When [then-Executive Producer] Linda Gottlieb told me [Nora] would be representing the rapists and would get them off, I was nauseated.To let the rapists get off — I thought that was a really bad message."