Woman testifies against ex-husband

DOVER-FOXCROFT – A Piscataquis County Superior Court jury on Tuesday heard the testimony of a woman who claimed she was battered and terrorized by her ex-husband, Mark J. Durant, 30, of Guilford.

Durant was indicted earlier this year on 15 counts of assault, one count each of terrorizing, reckless conduct and criminal threatening, crimes that allegedly occurred over the four years Mark Durant and Shannon (Durant) Dorr were together.

Chief Justice Nancy Mills is presiding over the trial.

On the stand Tuesday, Shannon Dorr recalled a life full of fear prompted by Durant’s anger and controlling nature. She testified that Durant had an arsenal of guns and ammunition in their home and had threatened to use them on her. When in a rage, “he always had a gun out and it would be loaded and the safety would be off,” she said. At times, Durant aimed the gun in Dorr’s direction and reportedly advised her that if she ever left him, he would find her and kill her, she reported. She testified that Durant also made it known he knew where her family lived. “I was terrified,” she said.

Dorr told the jury of 10 women and four men that after one of Durant’s episodes, he fired a loaded 9 mm Glock pistol from a second story bedroom into the floor over the laundry room where she was tending the laundry. The bullet shattered the ceiling tiles overhead and sounded like an explosion, she said.

On several other occasions, Dorr alleged, Durant battered her, from driving his closed fist into her face breaking her nose, to slamming her head into walls, incidents that often occurred after Durant had consumed alcohol. She testified that she continually had bruises and bumps on her body, some of which were seen by relatives, friends and co-workers. Those alleged abusive episodes were recorded as a dash or a triangle on a calendar she kept. To those who inquired about the bruises in early years, Dorr would say she fell or bumped into something, worried that if she told the truth Durant would find out and react violently.

Durant occasionally shook his head in the courtroom and smiled at some of Dorr’s statements. His court-appointed attorney, Randy Day of Garland, suggested that if the abuse was so bad she could have escaped when Durant was working or when Dorr attended church-related activities, and he suggested she could have told her father or a police officer.

Dorr said she often thought about fleeing the relationship, but each time she was terrified that Durant would come home while she was in the process. “He made it clear from the very beginning that I was his and if I left he would kill me and I felt in all honesty he would make good on that,” she said. As for telling her father, she said, “part of the deal was I stayed and [her family would] be OK.”

Letters Dorr had written to family members that never mentioned any abuse, were introduced by Day. Dorr responded that she could not write about the abuse because Durant would read the letters before he mailed them.

Her escape from the relationship came the day she was scheduled to have blood tests performed, Dorr testified. Durant had planned to take her to the appointment as he normally did, she said, but he was drunk and had passed out. She testified she left the house in the truck her father had given her, went to the local physician she was scheduled to see and asked the physician for help. The Maine State Police were notified and Durant was later arrested.

The trial is expected to resume today.