Child sexual assault added to Cude's charges

Charges have been expanded to include sexual abuse of a child and burglary against a man arrested in a tense confrontation in Burnet Tuesday, March 28.

In summary, the charges against 55-year-old Danell “Danny” Cude are now aggrivated kidnapping aggrivated sexaul assault and assault of a child and burglary of a hapitation, all state jail felonies and possession of two ounces or less of marijuana.

Burnet police first arrested Cude for sexually assaulting a woman at her apartment while her two small children were inside the home. According to Burnet Police Chief Paul Nelson, Cude allegedly made entry into an apartment in the 800 block of Dixie Drive, where the female victim was alone with her children.

It was alleged Cude sexually assaulted the woman multiple times, putting a knife to her throat and threatening to kill her and her children.

When police arrived, the victim and the children answered the front door of the apartment with Cude standing behind them with the weapon.

Burnet officers, with assistance from the Texas Rangers, were able to negotiate with Cude to surrender himself and he was arrested without further incident. He was also charged at that time with misdemeanor marijuana possession.

“I am very proud of the officers on this call; they were able to keep the crime scene secured and gather important information on the case for investigators,” Nelson said.

This is not the first time Cude has been arrested for a sex crime by Burnet police. On Oct. 12, 1998, Cude was arrested by BPD officers for attempted sexual assault of a 25-year-old woman in Llano County.

He was sentenced to seven years in prison for that crime and required to register as a sex offender. His ending registration date was projected to be Jan. 15 this year and Texas Department of Public Safety had listed him as a “low-risk offender.”

Cude did not register as a sex offender until January 15, 2016, when he was released from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He had been convicted July 28, 2015, for failure to register and had been sentenced to six months in a state jail facility.

His rap sheet also includes multiple prior arrests for driving while intoxicated dating back nearly 30 years and evading arrest charges.