SHAMROCK man to stand trial for alleged rape, abuse of girls

<br>SAPULPA, Okla. (AP) _ A Creek County judge has ordered a Shamrock man to stand trial on allegations he sexually abused two 12-year-old sisters as they distributed church fliers in his neighborhood.

Thursday, November 8th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SAPULPA, Okla. (AP) _ A Creek County judge has ordered a Shamrock man to stand trial on allegations he sexually abused two 12-year-old sisters as they distributed church fliers in his neighborhood.

Special District Judge Richard Woolery granted prosecutors' request on Wednesday to increase the number of felony counts against Phillip Daniel Durand from 11 to 14. Durand faces charges of first-degree rape, lewd molestation, indecent exposure, child abuse, kidnapping and pornography for the Sept. 9 attacks.

Durand remains in the Creek County Jail on $255,000 bond.

An emergency medical technician who responded to a 911 call early Sept. 10, testified at Durand's preliminary hearing, which ended Wednesday.

Teri Smith said one girl had a ``small blister-like mark'' the size of a pencil eraser on her right arm and the other had a similar mark on her right thigh. Both appeared to have been made by a cigarette, Smith said.

Creek County Sheriff's Sgt. John A. O'Mara testified that he talked with both girls _ two of a set of triplets _ and their stories remained consistent.

One of the girls told O'Mara that after knocking on his door to give him a flier, Durand was showing them some costume jewelry when he ``grabbed them and pulled them inside the house,'' the deputy said. The girl told him Durand was ``talking mean to them and told them to take off their pants,'' he said.

According to the girls, Durand started discussing sex acts and eventually had sex with them, O'Mara said.

He also testified that the girls told him Durand made them smoke cigarettes and that he ``burned them with the cigarettes.''

According to Durand, the girls had come to his house and ``he was worried about them because they said their father beat them. He wanted to give them a safe place,'' O'Mara said the defendant told him.

Durand claimed in his statement that the girls called to him from the bedroom and he found them naked and making sexual overtures.

``They brought this on, and I fell into their seduction,'' Durand reportedly told O'Mara.

Durand released the girls after their father went looking for them, authorities said.