Melanie Curtin’s rape retrial ends with closing arguments | Courts

Prosecutors and protection attorneys painted two totally different footage of a 17-minute video of an alleged rape throughout their closing arguments Tuesday within the retrial of defendant Melanie Curtin, which is linked to the case of former sheriff’s deputy and convicted little one intercourse abuser Dennis Perkins.

Prosecutor Cassidy Smith, with the Attorney General’s workplace, honed in on the primary “nine minutes and 59 seconds” of the video the place the alleged sufferer didn’t transfer throughout sexual exercise.

“If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then a lewd and lascivious video won’t shut up,” Smith instructed jurors concerning the video of Perkins, Curtin and the alleged sufferer.

While Jeanna Wheat, a protection legal professional, argued that the alleged sufferer, after these almost 10 minutes, was transferring their fingers to take part within the sexual exercise in a method.

“Does that seem like non-voluntary control to you? It didn’t to me,” Wheat instructed swearers.

She additionally spoke about Perkins’ sexual historical past involving girls pretending to be asleep throughout intercourse.

“Dennis Perkins has a documented sleep kink,” she stated.

Curtin, of Denham Springs, was initially convicted of first-degree rape in 2021 and sentenced to life in prison with out the potential of parole in 2022.

But in 2023, a courtroom of appeals dominated that Curtin, 46, should obtain a brand new trial, saying the courtroom “improperly admitted evidence that unfairly prejudiced the defendant.”

Curtin is now being tried on decreased fees of straightforward rape, also called third-degree rape, and video voyeurism.

The jury started deliberating late Tuesday following closing arguments.

The state introduced in its final witness Tuesday, a toxicologist who testified within the final trial. Judge Brian Ok. Abels initially ordered the testimony to be excluded, after Curtin’s protection staff argued it “steps into juror’s role.”

However, a courtroom of appeals dominated that the toxicologist may typically testify how an intoxicated particular person would possibly seem, however couldn’t make particular conclusions concerning the defendant or the alleged sufferer within the video.

Curtin turned down the chance to testify Tuesday and his protection solely introduced one witness to the stand for the trial.

A Livingston Parish lady who had a sexual relationship with Perkins round 2015 testified and described how Perkins would ask her to take her prescribed sleep remedy and faux to be asleep whereas they’d intercourse.

“If I woke up… I’d have to pretend I wasn’t awake,” the lady stated whereas crying.

Curtin may withstand 20 years for the easy rape cost, and one to 5 years on the video voyeurism cost at onerous labor and with out profit if convicted, stated Lester Duhé, a spokesperson for the Louisiana Attorney General’s workplace. The AG’s workplace is prosecuting the case.

Curtin, a former actual property agent and a former worker of the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office, was one of the defendants to face charges following a probe into former Sheriff’s Office Deputy Dennis Perkins.

Perkins and his ex-wife, Cynthia, a former parish college instructor, had been convicted of various levels of intercourse crimes involving kids, starting from little one pornography to inserting bodily fluids onto cupcakes served to junior excessive college students.

Curtin’s case doesn’t contain kids.