AUGUSTA -- Rapist and kidnapper Albert F. Dumas was back in court on Tuesday, calling his trial a "freak show" and asking a judge to vacate his convictions.

Dumas returned to an Augusta courtroom from Maine State Prison, where he is serving the 40-year unsuspended portion of a 70-year sentence. He pleaded guilty March 7, 2007, to kidnapping a 14-year-old Augusta girl at knifepoint and repeatedly raping and terrorizing her over a three-hour period.

"I took the plea agreement to get it over with," Dumas said during testimony Tuesday in Kennebec County Superior Court.

He told Justice Nancy Mills he feared for his life while walking across the street from the jail to the courthouse for his trial.

"It was a media freak show," Dumas said. "I wasn't getting a fair trial. I wasn't getting anything; it was freak show."

He said Pamela Ames, his defense attorney at the time, told him she was carrying a gun because she received death threats for taking his case. She warned him to be careful.

"It affected everything every time I came to court," he told Daniel Skolnik, the attorney representing him at the postconviction review hearing. "I didn't even want to walk over here."

On Tuesday, only two members of the public watched Dumas testify, and no one was demonstrating outside -- unlilke the response at trial from an public enraged at the allegations against him. He wore blue jeans and a gray sweatshirt and had long brown hair, a mustache and beard in court Tuesday. His ankles were shackled but his hands were free.

He said he grew up in Augusta in a family with a lot of alcohol and drugs. He never really attended high school, he said, instead getting a General Educational Development certificate while in prison on an earlier sex offense.

He said Ames failed to use material at sentencing that might have reduced his sentence, including the educational, anger management and trade classes he took in prison, and voluntary testimony by two people who knew him.

At the time of kidnapping and rape on Aug. 13, 2006, Dumas was on probation for a kidnapping and attempted gross sexual assault. He was living in North Whitefield.

Earlier court testimony indicated Dumas approached the girl on Capitol Street, asked her for the time, then dragged her into nearby woods. He held a knife to her throat, tied her hands and forced her into his car. En route to his house, he stopped several times to sexually assault her.

During Tuesday's hearing, Mills dismissed two of the 10 items Skolnik raised in his effort to get Dumas' conviction overturned. Mills ruled there was no fault in Dumas' being unaware Ames was a prosecutor prior to becoming a defense attorney. Mills also ruled that the sentence was lawfully imposed.

Betty Adams -- 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com