Randal Curtman
Managing Editor
EL DORADO — Imagine someone did something unspeakably horrible to your child. That person was caught, convicted and sentenced to prison for what he did.
Now, imagine having to open your home to that person.
That’s what happened to Renee Pitard yesterday.
At 2 p.m. on Tuesday, Pitard had to allow her ex-husband Randy Duck to come into the home where Duck molested her teenaged, mentally challenged daughter so Duck could retrieve his belongings following the finalization of their divorce.
The odd part about that visit was that Duck was in chains.
Duck was convicted in Union County of raping Pitard’s daughter in September 2015, and he is serving a 15-year sentence in the Arkansas Department of Corrections.
“I just don’t think the judge considered what impact that would have on us,” Pitard said on Wednesday.
Duck was in jail uniform and handcuffs and was accompanied by two Union County Sheriff’s deputies, along with several members of his family and a U-Haul truck when he arrived at Pitard’s home near Calion.
Pitard was married to Duck for 13 years, and she said she thought they had a good marriage until January 2015, when she discovered Duck in bed with her 18-year-old daughter, who suffers from mental retardation, cerebral palsy and limited seizure activity, according to the testimony of her doctor, Dr. Michael Chandler.
Chandler testified in September that the daughter's mental age was that of one in early childhood – 4- to 7-years-old. She can not make her own medical decisions and her disability would affect her ability to make decisions.
The jury only took a few hours to return with a guilty verdict.
This week, however, Duck returned to El Dorado from the East Arkansas Region Unit in Brickys, which is in Lee County near the Mississippi River, for a divorce hearing on Monday.
During the hearing, Judge David Guthrie ordered that Duck would taken by the sheriff’s officers to Pitard’s house to retrieve his things.
“The judge ordered this and I don’t know why he ordered it. I just don’t want anyone else to ever have to go through this,” Pitard said. “It was very stressful.”
Judge Guthrie was out of town on Monday and was unavailable for comment.
Pitard said she had to remove her daughter from the house so she wouldn’t be there when Duck returned. She also had a number of family members on hand for support.
Likewise, Duck had several members of his family there to help retrieve his property, and even the sheriff’s deputies were seen carrying items out of the house and loading them into the U-Haul.
“The judge ordered that he could do a walk-through to search for items that he had listed that I had not located,” Pitard said. “There were a lot of little things.”
“We do a lot of things people don’t realize,” said Union County Chief Deputy Bill Hickman on Tuesday. “We go for children exchanges if people are hostile, and it’s the same thing with property exchanges, it’s not unsual to go there and stay a little while.”
Hickman said Union County deputies are called out for property exchanges quite frequently. “Especially if there is a court order or order of protection where a subject can’t go within so many feet,” he said.
Hickman said Duck was in the Union County Detention Center for his divorce hearing. “He was in jail out here trying to work things out with his lawyer.”
“Look at it another way,” Hickman said. “He is the property of state of Arkansas, so we have to accompany him.”
Hickman said often in these cases, the attorneys for the divorcing couple come up with lists of property and how it is divided, so the judge doesn’t have to deal with the actual division of assets.
Duck was at the Pitard residence for about three hours retrieving his property. “I was just exhausted,” Pitard said after the moving was over.
“Both of the attorneys did a remarkable job, and the sheriff’s office was just amazing,” Pitard said.
Asked what lessons for other parents Pitard may have learned from her experience, she said children need to learn that not all threats come from strangers.
“We have got to do a better job of teaching our children about appropriate behavior, what is and what is not acceptable,” Pitard said. “I know we teach about ‘stranger danger’ in the schools, but we need to teach children about other behavior, what is OK and what’s not OK.”
Randal Curtman may be reached at 870-862-6611 or by email at [email protected].