EUGENE MAN GUILTY OF RAPE, STAGED BURGLARY COVER-UP
A jury in Eugene found Michael Lee Persinger, 31, guilty of attacking a 12-year-old girl and staging a burglary to cover up the crime.The incident occurred in April within an apartment on North Grand Street.
The jury deliberated for three hours after hearing six days of evidence and convicted Persinger of two counts of first-degree rape and one each of sodomy, unlawful sexual penetration, and sexual abuse.
The case was primarily based on the DNA evidence found on Persinger's body, which matched the victim's, and the fact that the crime scene did not suggest the presence of an intruder.
Persinger had claimed that a stranger broke in and committed the crimes, but investigators were suspicious because evidence at the scene did not support this.
Eugene police investigator Tracey Belshee noted, "The whole case revolved around the claim by Mr.
Persinger that somebody had crawled in and out the victim's bedroom window.
The crime scene did not indicate that at all and obviously suggested no one had come in or out of that window.
With the victim's corroboration of not hearing anybody leave via the window, that was part of the case right there." Persinger is scheduled for sentencing before Judge Maurice Merten on November 1, with each charge carrying a mandatory Measure-11 prison term that could total 39.5 years if served consecutively.
The sentencing will determine the actual length of his imprisonment, and efforts to deny the allegations by Persinger were based on claims of an intruder, which the investigation proved false.
