State high court affirms man’s assault convictions

PORTLAND – The Maine Supreme Judicial Court unanimously affirmed Friday the conviction of a Guilford man for repeated assaults on his ex-wife.

Mark J. Durant, 31, was found guilty in September 2003 by a Piscataquis County jury of 13 counts of assault, and one count each of terrorizing, reckless conduct with the use of a dangerous weapon and criminal threatening with the use of a dangerous weapon.

He was sentenced in December to four years in prison with all but two years suspended and four years probation.

The Maine supreme court in September considered written briefs in Durant’s appeal of his conviction.

His attorney, Randy Day of Garland, argued that the evidence was insufficient to support a conviction and the judge erred in not dismissing a juror.

“The jury found the victim’s testimony to be credible; therefore Durant’s argument that the evidence was insufficient fails,” Justice Jon D. Levy wrote for the court in a six-page opinion.

The court also rejected the argument that Durant was denied a fair trial because after one juror was dismissed, a second, whom Day claimed was biased by the first, also was not dismissed.

Levy wrote that Superior Court Justice Nancy Mills “responded to the specter of juror bias in an exemplary manner” by interviewing the second juror in her chambers.

Durant’s ex-wife, Shannon Durant Dorr, testified at the trial that the abuse started shortly after Durant moved into her Mansfield, Mass., condominium in 1998. The incidents behind the charges occurred in 2001 and 2002 after they had moved to Parkman. It was during those years that Dorr kept a calendar and recorded any abuse that left a body mark with a dash or triangle on the respective dates.

She escaped the relationship when Durant became drunk and passed out. She went to a local physician, where she was scheduled to have some tests, and reported the abuse.