Jury convicts Douglas County man of raping two women

A jury this afternoon convicted a 49-year-old Douglas County man of raping two women in incidents in December 2005 and April 2006 at his apartment south of Lawrence.

After deliberating Friday afternoon and this morning, jurors found Randy Coffey guilty of three counts of rape. Douglas County District Judge Robert Fairchild will sentence Coffey on June 24.

Prosecutors had argued that in December 2005 Coffey overpowered and twice rape a woman who was staying with him. She was hired to drive him to work in the Kansas City area because of what was described during the trial as “driver’s license issues.”

The third rape charge stemmed from April 2006, when Coffey was free on bond from the earlier attacks. Prosecutors said he raped a longtime female friend, who had come to his apartment early one morning to collect money he owed her.

Defense attorney Sarah Swain argued the sex was consensual in both cases, the medical evidence showed the women suffered no trauma and that the women had other motives to accuse Coffey of the rapes.