Melanie Curtin, the Denham Springs woman who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in a rape case connected to former Livingston Parish sheriff's deputy Dennis Perkins, may get a new trial after the Louisiana Supreme Court declined to hear an appeals court ruling Tuesday.
The charges stemmed from a sweeping probe into Perkins, a former high-ranking deputy. Curtin was accused of helping Perkins rape and film an unconscious woman in 2014.
Curtin was convicted in December 2021 and sentenced in March the following year. But in October 2023, an appeals panel found the court "improperly admitted evidence that unfairly prejudiced the defendant," and improperly excluded other evidence.
"We just received the Supreme Court’s ruling on our writ application. We are going to evaluate it and make a decision as to how we will proceed," Lester Duhé, a spokesman for Attorney General Liz Murrill's office, said in a statement.
The AG's office began an investigation into Perkins and his ex-wife Cynthia after receiving a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The video involving Curtin was discovered during the investigation.
Dennis and Cynthia were arrested in October 2019. In separate cases, they faced 150 counts alleging they raped two children and an adult, produced child pornography and served schoolchildren baked goods on which Dennis Perkins had ejaculated, among other alleged crimes.
Curtin was not accused of participating in the crimes involving children. A former real estate agent and former employee of the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office, she had no prior criminal record before her aggravated rape conviction.Â
Cynthia Perkins, a former teacher at Westside Junior High School in Walker, accepted a plea deal in February 2022 and was sentenced to 41 years in prison. Dennis Perkins pleaded guilty in January and was sentenced to 100 years in prison.
