Wife’s testimony doesn’t shake abuse charge

A Duluth man accused of burning his wife’s son with a lighter will face those charges after a preliminary hearing Wednesday in Douglas County Circuit Court, despite his wife’s testimony that she had lied to police about the incident.

Robert Charles Duhaime, 26, faces arraignment on one count felony physical abuse of a child.

He also faces misdemeanor charges of battery and intimidation of a victim in connection with a domestic abuse incident involving his wife, Heather Duhaime.

According to the criminal complaint:

Heather Duhaime had been questioning her husband the morning of April 26 about his whereabouts the night before when he pulled her hair and told her to leave with her 3-year-old son.

She refused to leave and walked into the bedroom to call 911 for help. When Robert Duhaime learned his wife was calling police he unplugged the phone and left the house, resulting in the intimidation charge.

After officers with the Superior Police Department arrived, Heather Duhaime told officers about an incident that happened about a week earlier involving her husband playing with a lighter while she took out the garbage and her son crying when she returned. She said the 3-year-old told her Robert Duhaime, who is not the boy’s biological father, said the child was a candle.

Evidence submitted during the preliminary hearing Wednesday — photographs taken by police — showed red marks with small blisters on the boy’s left shoulder.

Arraignment on the felony charge is scheduled for July 27.

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