Sexual assault charge dropped for disoriented drinker

PALMER -- A Wasilla man was sentenced Friday to serve a year in jail on a burglary conviction stemming from an alcohol-related incident in which he entered a woman's home and allegedly tried to rape her.

Duane J. Burke, 32, made a plea agreement with the state in which the state agreed to drop the sexual assault charge in exchange for Burke's no contest plea to burglary.

Burke was arrested July 4 by Alaska State Troopers and was charged with second-degree sexual assault and first-degree burglary 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 awoke to find a man in her bed trying to have sex with her.

At his sentencing, Burke told Judge Eric Smith that he is "deeply sorry … beyond words" for what happened. On the night in question, he was out with friends drinking at a bar, he said, and was dropped off by a cab driver about a block from his house. "All I wanted to do was go home and go to sleep," he said.

Instead, disoriented from drinking, he said, he went into the victim's house, though he doesn't remember the events of that night.

"I have never been violent and do not believe there is anyone who would say they were scared to have me around," Burke said.

Burke grew up in the Valley and graduated from Wasilla High School in 1988. He said he has many friends and former teachers in the Valley who have read or heard of this incident. The judge was presented with letters contending that Burke is a responsible professional and of good character.

Burke said he never had problems with alcohol until recently. In a two-year period, he said, he went from 315 pounds down to 190 pounds after undergoing surgery to help him lose weight.

"It was an all new learning experience in seeing what I could eat without making me sick," Burke told the court. "It affected me in terms of alcohol, caffeine, food."

On May 30, 2000, and again on Dec. 13, 2000, Burke was convicted of driving while intoxicated. He contended both events stemmed from the new way alcohol was affecting his body.

The victim told the judge that the incident has impacted her life emotionally. "I am afraid to walk to my car at night. This is Wasilla, not Los Angeles. I shouldn't have to be afraid and constantly watching over my shoulder."

Defense attorney Kenneth Goldman asked the judge to give Burke a suspended imposition of sentence on the grounds that, though the woman was frightened by Burke, nothing actually happened. Burke has agreed to pay restitution to the victim for her moving expenses and therapy. A civil case is pending in which the victim is suing Burke.

Assistant District Attorney Dave Berry said it wouldn't be appropriate to give Burke no jail time, since he is not a first-time offender.

"He has had two prior DWI's, and this event was also alcohol-related," Berry said. He asked for the judge to impose time that had been suspended in the previous DWI convictions.

Smith said he found that the offense did harm to the victim, though it was committed by a man whose background showed favorable conditions for rehabilitation.

"Mr. Burke got very, very drunk that night and the victim had to suffer the consequences," Smith said.

Smith sentenced Burke to nine months in jail on the burglary conviction and imposed 91 days of the prior suspended sentences. He placed Burke on probation for five years, to begin Friday.