LIVINGSTON - A woman convicted of raping an unconscious victim at the home of a sheriff's deputy will spend the rest of her life in prison.

Melanie Curtin appeared in court Monday for sentencing on charges of video voyeurism and aggravated rape. Curtin and several members of her family tearfully pleaded for mercy from the judge, but she was ultimately handed a life sentence with no parole.

Curtin was first implicated following the arrests of Dennis and Cynthia Perkins, a couple arrested in 2019 on more than 150 combined charges including child pornography and rape.

Dennis, who was a high-ranking sheriff's deputy at the time, was fired from the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office. His wife, Cynthia, resigned from her teaching job after her arrest and later admitted to feeding some of her students pastries laced with her husband's bodily fluids. 

At the couple's home, investigators found a cornucopia of evidence including hard drives loaded with videos depicting some of the crimes. That included a 17-minute recording of Curtin, who had a relationship with the former deputy, raping an unconscious woman at Dennis Perkins' home back in 2014.

The victim told investigators she blacked out while drinking with Curtin and Perkins that night and had no idea what happened. It wasn't until years later, when the video emerged during the investigation into Dennis and Cynthia Perkins, that she learned what happened.

“When I saw parts of the video, I wanted to literally die,” the victim said during Curtin's trial last year.

The footage was key in convicting Curtin and was shown to jurors multiple times before they finally came to a decision following seven hours of deliberations. After the verdict, Curtin's attorney filed a motion—which was denied—seeking a new trial. Her legal team argued an undecided juror was ultimately pressured to convict, which required a unanimous decision from the jury. 

Though Curtin apologized in court Tuesday for her actions, she maintained that she had no memory of what happened.

Read the latest on the ongoing Perkins case here.