Arguments in rape case continue Wednesday as courts resume jury trials

Sep. 16--A Hanceville man arrested in 2017 on rape and sexual abuse charges is standing trial this week for a single count of first degree rape, allegedly perpetrated against an underage victim.

In the first criminal trial docket to be conducted in Cullman County Circuit Court since the state supreme court suspended in-person proceedings earlier this year, arguments in the trial of Wade Allen Waldrop will continue Wednesday after both sides spent Tuesday calling witnesses.

Waldrep, 43, was arrested in December of 2017 in connection with the alleged abuse of three minor-age victims. He was charged with rape, sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12, and enticing a child for immoral purposes.

Waldrep was freed after posting bond in connection with those charges, but was later arrested on a separate alleged offense and has since been incarcerated at the Cullman County Detention Center, where he has awaited trial on the current rape charge.

The alleged female victim in the current case, who is unnamed in court documents because she was a minor at the time of the alleged offense, was born in Jan. of 2001. In Feb. 2018, a Cullman County Grand Jury indicted Waldrop on a single count of 1st degree rape in connection with that case.

In-person jury trials resumed locally this week after being halted in May by the state high court, in a precautionary response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The courts are conducting trials with pandemic precautions in place, including remote juror summonses that limit person-to-person contact, as well as distancing measures inside the courtroom and sanitization treatments of all court facilities at the end of each trial day.

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