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Published Monday, May 12, 2008 in Local

Retrial begins in rape case of Robert Wayne Duke

By Jeff Bishop

The Times-Herald

On Monday in Coweta County Superior Court the jury was selected and sworn in, opening arguments were made, and the first witness was called in the retrial of Robert Wayne Duke, 51, who is accused of three counts of rape.

Duke's first trial, which began the week of March 17, was declared a mistrial by Superior Court Judge Jack Kirby after the court inadvertently allowed jurors to hear inadmissible evidence.

Duke is charged with three counts of rape for alleged incidents beginning in 1992, when the alleged victim, a relative, was 13 years old and Duke was 36, and ending in spring 1994. The victim did not accuse Duke of rape until June 2006.

Duke was arrested at his Newnan home on Sherwood Drive on Oct. 25, 2007 following a sting operation. The prosecution, led by Coweta Judicial Circuit Assistant District Attorney Kevin McMurry, is trying to make the case that Duke implicated himself during a secretly recorded conversation with the alleged victim just prior to his arrest. A CD copy of the videotape was played to the jury late Monday afternoon.

The victim testified Monday afternoon that she was raped by Duke countless times beginning in 1992, when she was 13 years old, and ending in spring 1994.

The first incident of alleged sexual abuse occurred before she moved into Duke's home around late spring or early summer 1993. She said she was trying to get away from her previous home, where she was also allegedly being sexually molested. Both of the victim's siblings, a brother and a sister, moved in with Duke around the same time because they had both also reportedly been molested at their previous residence.

The victim testified that she eventually got pregnant and married at the age of 16 to get away from Duke, whom she said made her sleep in his bed every night and would have forced sexual intercourse with her several nights a week.

Though the alleged victim would allegedly talk openly about being molested in her first home, defense attorney Rick Samper argued that she never accused Duke of raping her until June 2006. In fact, Samper said that the victim had e-mailed Duke throughout the years, praising him and thanking him for being there for her. Samper also said in his opening arguments that the two relatives continued to spend time together until 2006, when she made the sexual allegations.

Shortly after reporting the alleged abuse at the hands of Duke, the victim checked herself into a psychiatric hospital where she stayed for nine days. The victim testified that she had had a nervous breakdown and became suicidal.

The alleged victim spoke about the day she showed up at Duke's home wearing a wire and a hidden video camera that was monitored by law enforcement.

The victim initially confronted Duke, telling him, "you have no idea the pain you have caused me in my life." Duke frequently said during the taped conversation that he "didn't know what to say" and that he "had no idea." At several points Duke said that that part of his life "is a blur."

Among comments by Duke during the recorded conversation played in court were:

-- "I am sorry. I can apologize... for everything. If I could take my own life and make you happy, I would do that."

-- "I don't know what kind of an animal I was, or how I got to be that way."

-- "God saved me in 1996. Everybody makes mistakes -- I've made tons of them."

-- "Had I known what pain you were going through all this time, I would have cut my wrists and bled to death."

-- "In my mind, I really thought you forgave me."

-- "You haven't said anything to me that I haven't said to myself."

-- "I'm plagued with doing the wrong things. In my mind, I think I thought that I was the only one affected. 'I'm sorry' doesn't seem like enough. If I had it all to do over again, I would do everything different."

-- "I live in a facade, every day."

-- "I think God's punishment is that he has condemned me to be alone for the rest of my life."

-- "I am sorry for everything I've ever done that's hurt you. Am I tormented -- yes."

-- "There is nothing I can say. I have no words to express to you how I feel. I'm sorry. I am truly sorry."

Also during the conversation, Duke said he'd wanted to talk with her many times over the years, but he thought she was unaffected by "it" because she never brought it up or acted like it had bothered her.

At the end of the conversation, Duke apologized again and the alleged victim said that she accepted his apology. She also admitted that she had thought about killing him many times, and that she had thought about killing herself.

"I wanted to kill you so bad," she said. "But then you'd be dead, I'd be in jail, and my kids would be without a mother."

The trial will continue today at the Coweta County Justice Center.

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