Judge won't loosen reigns on assault suspect

PALMER -- A Palmer judge Monday denied a request to relax third-party restrictions on a man who is accused of breaking into a Wasilla home as a woman slept, then climbing into her bed and trying to rape her.

Duane J. Burke, 32, has been on 24-hour sight-and-sound release to his parents since the July 4 incident for which he is charged with second-degree sexual assault and first-degree burglary. He appeared in court Monday to change his plea on the the burglary charge to no contest, and to request the court let him free of the sight-and-sound requirement from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. each night.

In exchange for his plea, the state agreed to drop the sexual assault charge. He is scheduled to be sentenced on the burglary charge on March 8.

Burke was arrested by troopers and charged July 4 after police received a 911 call from the victim at her apartment near Wasilla-Fishhook Road. The woman told police she had returned home about 3:30 a.m. from her bartending job and went to bed. She said she'd locked the front door, but failed to lock the door's deadbolt.

At Monday's hearing Burke's attorney, Kenneth Goldman, told Superior Court Judge Eric Smith that Burke is complying with court orders by attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and is scheduled to enter a 13-week treatment program. He said Burke is living responsibly and that on the night of the event, other details about what happened would show that Burke presented no substantial risk.

On the night of event, Burke was to be driven home from a Wasilla bar in a taxi cab. Burke was behaving responsibly by not driving drunk, Goldman said. The problem was that the taxi driver let Burke out highly intoxicated "in the middle of nowhere." He was disoriented and went into the home believing it was where he lived, Goldman said.

Burke had been arrested in May 2000 after Palmer police stopped him for drunken driving. He had an alcohol level of .096 at the time of his arrest. In October of that year, Burke showed an alcohol level of .259 after being pulled over by a trooper. Burke was convicted of both DWIs.

Assistant District Attorney Dave Berry objected to easing restrictions on Burke, contending he had not yet completed treatment and that keeping him under constant watch helped keep him out of trouble.

"It's apparently working," Berry said.

The victim, who appeared at Monday's proceedings, told the judge she, too, objected.

"There's a lot of hours between 5 and 10. I'm not comfortable with that," she said.

The woman had told troopers she awoke to a man lying in her bed with his hands down her pants. It took about three to four seconds to realize what was happening, she said. When she did, she began to scream.

"I started screaming, 'Get the hell out of my house,' and he looked at me, then mumbled something. It looked like he was pretending to pass out and laid his head down on the pillow," she said.

She pushed the man away from her, but he grabbed for her pants again. The intruder got out of the bed when the woman picked up the telephone by the bedside and called 911. The call was made at 5:45 a.m., according to court records.

The man eventually stumbled out of the apartment while the woman was talking to the 911 dispatcher.

After law enforcement officers combed the area around her apartment, they failed to find the suspect and the search was suspended. Troopers and Wasilla police left as did the victim, who went to a friend's home in Palmer, she said.

A trooper went back to the scene about a half-hour later, according to court records, and found an intoxicated Burke standing at the door of the woman's apartment. She would later identify Burke in a photograph as the man she alleged tried to rape her.

A test of Burke's blood at the scene showed an alcohol level of .250.

Burke's own home was less than a mile away from the woman's residence. The taxi driver who failed to get Burke home that night has since been fired, Goldman told the judge.