By Mary Beth Lane
The Columbus Dispatch
DELAWARE COUNTY, Ohio — A Delaware County jury was unable to reach a verdict Monday in the trial of a Columbus firefighter accused of raping a relative when she was 5 years old.
Jurors told Common Pleas Judge Everett H. Krueger that they were deadlocked after eight hours of deliberations. The judge thanked the jurors and discharged them. County Assistant Prosecutor Kyle Rohrer said he intends to retry the case.
Timothy Durbin was charged with three counts of rape, and single counts of attempted rape, gross sexual imposition and kidnapping. He was accused of sexually assaulting the girl between July 1, 2003 and July 31, 2004, after her father hired him to build an addition to their Westerville home.
Durbin, 52, of the Northwest Side, has been a Columbus firefighter for more than 20 years. He has been placed on administrative leave pending a resolution to the case.
Durbin declined comment after the jury could not reach a verdict.
“We will be retrying it,” Rohrer said.
“We are disappointed in the outcome,” said defense attorney Rick Reeder. “Obviously, we were hopeful for an acquittal.” Co-defense counsel Michael Hoague told jurors in closing arguments that the allegations were from a young woman with a “tortured, tormented, fractured” mind.
She has been diagnosed and treated for depression with psychotic features and for post-traumatic stress disorder, county assistant prosecutors Amelia Bean-DeFlumer and Rohrer told jurors, but that is because she suffered deep, lasting trauma from being raped.
“It’s about time he was held responsible for the damage he has done,” Bean-DeFlumer said.
The young woman listened to the closing arguments with her parents and other family members. They were not in the courtroom when jurors later announced they were unable to reach a verdict.
She testified last week about how she was raped by Durbin when she was 5. She said he came into her bedroom several times during the construction project, and each time stroked her hair and told her she was pretty and special. One time, he touched her vagina over her clothing, and then stopped and told her not to tell anyone. Another time, she said, he reached inside her clothing and rubbed her vagina. When she pulled away, she said, he slapped her and resumed rubbing before he inserted his finger into her vagina.
A few years later, when she was in fourth grade, she cut her hair short and started wearing boy’s clothing. “I didn’t want to look pretty,” she told jurors.
The girl began cutting herself and thought about killing herself. She has been hospitalized several times for psychiatric treatment. She told her mother of the abuse when she was 15.
All the therapy she has received could have planted false memories in her mind, the defense lawyers said.
Prosecutors said, however, that her mental state is a common and easily explained result of her trauma.
Copyright 2016 The Columbus Dispatch