LIVINGSTON — A woman at the center of a rape case being heard in Livingston Parish weeped Monday after failing to recall  key events from a dozen years ago.

Melanie Curtin is accused of simple rape and video voyeurism. State prosecutors say she took part in a videotaped assault with Dennis Perkins, a former Livingston Parish deputy serving a 100-year prison term for sex crimes involving minors. The charges against Curtin have nothing to do with juveniles.

The victim last week described being extremely intoxicated in late 2014, and being told years later that she had been assaulted in an encounter caught on videotape.

She sat silently after defense lawyers asked why she waited until last week to address her sobriety. When they asked whether she had told anyone she couldn't remember that night, she said, "It's been a long time."

Tears welled in her eyes during a break in the trial, as she reviewed pictures in an attempt to jog her memory. She later said she was told by the attorney general's office that she was in a video with Perkins and his wife Cynthia, not Curtin. She said, however, that she was not involved with Perkins while he was married to Cynthia Perkins.

She also testified that Perkins had mentioned an interest in having a sexual encounter with multiple partners, but wasn't sure if he was serious about it. She also said that while she remembered other sexual experiences while friends were present, she could not recall one involving Curtin from Nov. 7, 2014.

Earlier Monday, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal said a toxicology witness scheduled to testify at Curtin's trial will be allowed to speak generically about signs of intoxication but cannot opine on whether the woman was drunk or incapacitated at the time of the sexual encounter.

State prosecutors wanted Dr. Patricia Williams to weigh in.

The victim testified last week that she had so much to drink she wasn't aware of who initiated sexual activity among her, Curtin and Perkins, the former deputy at the center of a yearslong sex-crimes investigation.

The state has said the victim appeared on the video to be incapacitated and, therefore, unable to consent.

The 1st Circuit said Monday that Williams can provide "general testimony" about how an intoxicated person may appear, act or behave. The appeals court said the information may help jurors, but Williams cannot offer an opinion on whether the woman captured on videotape was intoxicated.

The woman who testified at Curtin's trial told jurors last week that, late on Nov. 7, 2014, she had invited Curtin and her son to her home to watch a movie. At the time, the woman knew Curtin from the ballpark where their sons played. According to texts on Nov. 8, 2014, Curtin told the woman she had passed out.

As sex-crimes investigators looked into Perkins' activities, including assaults involving children, they came across a videotape of the 2014 sexual encounter. Ultimately, the state determined that a crime had taken place.

Perkins and his wife Cynthia were arrested in October 2019 and ultimately faced 150 counts alleging they raped two children and an adult, produced child pornography and served schoolchildren baked goods contaminated with a bodily fluid. Perkins is serving 100 years in prison after pleading guilty to a number of charges, and Cynthia Perkins was sentenced to 41 years.

Curtin was previously convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but the 1st Circuit said the trial judge erred when he admitted some evidence harmful to Curtin and rejected other items that could have benefited her case.

The trial resumes Tuesday morning.