Tuesday, March 4, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
Gerald DuPerry didn't admit in court that he was the man who masturbated in front of two 10-year-old girls and sexually assaulted a 7-year-old girl.
But as his trial on those and other charges was ready to get under way Monday, the 33-year-old man, wearing a rumpled shirt and bound hand and foot in chains, chose to take a plea bargain.
His guilty pleas to sexual assault and lewdness charges could result in a life prison term and is guaranteed to keep him behind bars for at least 10 years.
District Judge Mark Gibbons set an April 7 sentencing date for the polite and articulate man who says he has attended six years of college.
His achievements, however, mask a dark side that prosecutors say was memorialized in sexually explicit writings found in his car.
Deputy District Attorney Teresa Lowry indicated one of two stories in DuPerry's handwriting told of the sexual assault of a pre-teen girl who was sick and stayed home alone from school, only to be accosted by two burglars.
The second story, according to the prosecutor, involved the gang rape of an adult woman.
DuPerry also was convicted of gross sexual misconduct in Maine in 1981 and of burglary in New York in 1989.
DuPerry's guilty plea came under a legal provision that does not require him to admit responsibility, but only concede that the state likely could prove its case. The motivation is to avoid the harsher penalties if convicted of all charges.
Lowry said the state could prove the charges in the plea bargain plus others involving additional 10-year-old girls.
Lowry explained that the children all picked DuPerry's picture out of a photo lineup as the man they say sexually victimized them in September and October. The three 10-year-old girls all lived in neighborhoods near Sahara Avenue and Valley View Boulevard. The 7-year-old girl was attacked by her home near Nellis Air Force Base.
Lowry said that girl testified before a grand jury that DuPerry approached her and identified himself as a police officer, explaining that he was there to arrest the girl's father.
Instead, the prosecutor said, DuPerry grabbed the girl and slid his hand into her pants, assaulting her so roughly that he drew blood.
Lowry indicated that part of the evidence against DuPerry came from the friend of one of the 10-year-old girls. Two weeks after the defendant had masturbated in front of her, his car was again spotted in the neighborhood and the friend gave chase, obtaining a license plate number and a look at the driver -- DuPerry.
"We take issue with many of these allegations," Deputy Public Defender Daren Richards explained to the judge, who will be sentencing DuPerry to either a life prison term or 25 years behind bars, each with parole only after 10 years has been served.
As part of the plea bargain, any sentence DuPerry gets on the open and gross lewdness charge will run concurrently, or at the same time, as the sexual assault sentence.
Prosecutors, according to the deal, are prohibited from pursuing any as-yet-unreported lewdness allegations, although any new sexual assault allegations could still be charged.
Habitual criminal charges also will not be filed as a result of the negotiation.
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