Admitted rapist enters KTRK's blind-date contest

A couple of weeks ago, KTRK set up a matchmaking segment on its morning news program — the goal, of course, was to match local singles, but what ended up happening was a lot more interesting: The first eligible bachelor turned out to be an admitted rapist.

The guy in question is swingin' single Dean Duff, who went to the KTRK studio Feb. 8 along with 29 other singles to tape interviews as the first step of Channel 13's blind date contest; Duff and the other contestants signed nine-page releases stating that they had never been convicted of anything more serious than a traffic violation. But when KTRK checked up on Duff, they found that he was actually Larry Dean Duff, registered sex offender. Turns out that, in 1994, Duff met a woman at a northwest Houston nightclub, drove her to a dead-end road in Galena Park, sexually assaulted her and then dumped her on the side of the road. He pleaded guilty to rape and got five years' probation, deferred adjudication and a listing on the sex offenders' registry — but he wasn't convicted, so he was telling the truth on the release he signed for KTRK. "A good thing," Channel 13's Jessica Willey noted. "Lying, he told us during his contest audition, is one of his pet peeves."

KTRK caught up with Duff, who said he didn't see anything wrong with entering a blind-date contest, and asked him about the 1994 incident. "I didn't do anything bad," he said. "I met somebody at a bar. We were both drinking and had consensual sex and they changed their mind afterwards." The victim had a different recollection: "I said, 'Do not do this to me,' and he just kept on. I kept fighting," she said. As for dumping the woman alongside a dead-end road after sex, we suppose all Duff's dates end that way.

KTRK called everyone in Duff's matchmaker group and let them know about his background — no report on how they reacted.