Court upholds man's rape bribery case in Mercer Co.

MERCER, Pa. (AP) — An appeals court has upheld the conviction of a South Carolina man who is serving 16½ to 33 years in prison for twice raping a Mercer County girl and then trying to bribe her to recant in exchange for an all-terrain vehicle.

Thirty-four-year-old James Burk II, of Murrells Inlet, S.C., was convicted last year in Mercer for raping the girl in 2009, when she was 12 or 13. He was also convicted of witness intimidation for jailhouse phone calls made to a woman who relayed the bribe offer to the girl.

The Superior Court rejected Burk's claims that a judge shouldn't have allowed testimony that Burk told police he was molested as a child, or details about another alleged rape involving the girl at a North Carolina rest stop.