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Victim said she blacked out before being raped at former deputy's home, learned about it years later

2 years 4 months 2 weeks ago Wednesday, December 01 2021 Dec 1, 2021 December 01, 2021 11:00 PM December 01, 2021 in News
Source: WBRZ

LIVINGSTON - A person who was raped at a sheriff's deputy's home while she was unconscious said she first learned of the assault years later when investigators stumbled across video of the crime.

The victim, whom WBRZ is not identifying by name, took the stand in day three of Melanie Curtin's trial for aggravated rape and video voyeurism. Closing arguments are scheduled for Friday, with a verdict expected to come shortly afterward. 

Curtin did not testify at any point in the trial. 

Prosecutors say Curtin and Dennis Perkins, a Livingston Parish sheriff's deputy who was fired in 2019 amid an avalanche sex crime accusations, raped the woman while she was unresponsive at Perkins' home in 2014. 

The victim, who was at one time romantically involved with Perkins, told jurors that she went to his house to watch a movie the night of the assault. She only remembered having drinks and that she woke up with a hangover the next day.

That victim wouldn't learn about what happened that night for another five years, when Dennis Perkins and his wife Cynthiaa former school teacherwere arrested in a child sex crimes case. Investigators uncovered a recording of the rape while combing through a stash of illicit photos and videos found in the couple's home. 

Detectives were able to identify the woman by her tattoo and notified her of the video. She told the court Thursday that "I felt like I literally wanted to die" after realizing what happened.

While the victim was unsure whether she was drugged, she said she did not remember taking any drinks from Perkins or Curtin. She added that the former deputy would sometimes bring home evidence bags containing narcotics, though she wasn't certain what kind of drugs were in those bags. 

The woman's testimony comes a day after jurors were made to watch the graphic 17-minute recording of the assault. 

Dennis and Cynthia Perkins, who have filed for divorce since their arrests in 2019, are slated to go to trial separately for a slew of sex-related crimes. 

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