A jury convicted David L. Perkins of numerous crimes

A jury convicted David L. Perkins of numerous crimes arising out of his conduct in providing alcohol to and engaging in sex acts with his daughter’s teenage friends. County Court had imposed the maximum sentence, an entire sum of 36 years in prison.

According to a reporter, Perkins asserted that there was legally insufficient evidence to convict him of sexual abuse because the court had failed to establish that the victim was physically helpless but the court asserted that the victim’s testimony that she blacked out and “was so drunk that she didn’t know what was going on,” was sufficient to establish the presence of physical helplessness.

A person who witnessed the trial said that each victim testified consistently and with particularity about the sexual acts committed against them by Perkins and to being provided with alcohol at Perkin’s house. The court said that contrary to Perkin’s testimony, the record clearly revealed that the victims were under the age of 17 at the time of the crimes. The court also stressed that although some of the victims could not recall the precise dates or times of the incidents, “any consistencies regarding date and time did not render all of their testimony incredible as a matter of law, and we find no basis upon which to disturb the jury’s resolution of this credibility issues”.

A friend of one of the victims, Nicole Garrison, testified that the victim complained that Perkins had sexually assaulted her the day after the incident occurred and at the victim’s first opportunity. A source explained that while such out-of-court statements are generally inadmissible to bolster a witness testimony, evidence that a victim of sexual assault promptly complained about the incident is admissible to corroborate the allegation that an assault took place.

Perkins also asserted that his statement to the police, in which he admitted to providing alcohol to his daughter’s friends but denied, having sexual contact with the girls, was involuntarily made and should have been suppressed. The court replied that after Perkins voluntarily went to the police station for questioning, he was advised of his Miranda rights, offered food and drink, and did not request any lawyer or state that he wished to remain silent. He then discussed, without incident of any kind, various allegations of underage drinking in his home and signed the statement.

Upon appeal to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, a judge noted that Perkins’ lawyers find that the County Court erred in imposing consecutive terms upon certain of his convictions. They said that Penal Law provides that concurrent sentences must be imposed “for two or more offenses committed through a single act or omission, or through an act or omission which in itself constituted one of the offenses and also was a material element of the other”. With respect to the first victim, Perkins was convicted of two counts of sexual misconduct, sodomy in the third degree and rape in the third degree based upon an act of oral sex and sexual intercourse, as well as unlawfully dealing with a child in the first degree (for providing alcohol to the victim) and endangering the welfare of a child (for providing alcohol and subjecting the victim to oral sex and sexual intercourse). The higher court said that these convictions were based on only one act of deviate sexual intercourse, one act of sexual intercourse and one instance of providing alcohol. It stated that the remaining convictions “comprise separate, distinct and independently punishable offenses” and thus, according to a person familiar with the case, consecutive sentences or the crimes were warranted.

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