PTSD On Trial: Husband Guilty of Setting Wife on Fire

Thurston County man to serve time for setting wife on fire
The Olympian
BY AMELIA DICKSON
Staff writer
September 9, 2014

A Thurston County man was sentenced Tuesday to six years and seven months in prison after he pleaded guilty to pouring lighter fluid on his wife’s legs and igniting it in 2011.

In March of 2012, Duane M. Rader was found guilty of first-degree arson, felony harassment, unlawful imprisonment and fourth-degree assault and sentenced to 10 years in prison, with the court acquitting him of first-degree attempted murder charges.

But the sentence was overturned by the Washington State Court of Appeals in January of this year because the court improperly calculated his offender score during the original trial.

At a court appearance Tuesday, he pleaded guilty to the same charges — first-degree arson, felony harassment, unlawful imprisonment and fourth-degree assault — in addition to three charges of violating a no-contact order.

The main charges stem from a Feb. 13, 2011, assault that left Rader’s wife with second degree burns on her legs. She initially told Thurston County Sheriff’s deputies that she was trying to refill her lighter and accidentally lit her legs on fire, according to charging documents. The deputies didn’t arrest Rader at the time because they weren’t sure what had happened.

Rader served in the Army for 15 years and completed three overseas tours. The experience left him with post-traumatic stress disorder, and he “self-medicated” with alcohol, O’Connor said.

But Hirsch argued that post-traumatic stress disorder isn’t an excuse for committing violent crimes.

“Although that was an awful experience for you, I don’t believe that PTSD causes domestic violence,” Hirsch said.
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