Title: State v. Lavalette

State: vermont

Issuer: Vermont Supreme Court

Document:

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under V.R.A.P. 40
as well as formal revision before publication in the Vermont Reports.
Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Vermont Supreme
Court, 111 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05602 of any errors in order
that corrections may be made before this opinion goes to press.


                                No. 88-424


State of Vermont                             Supreme Court

     v.                                      On Appeal from
                                             District Court of Vermont,
Stephen P. Lavalette                         Unit No. 2, Chittenden Circuit

                                             January Term, 1990


Edward J. Cashman, J.

William H. Sorrell, Chittenden County State's Attorney, Burlington, and Jo-
   Ann Gross, Appellate Attorney, Montpelier, for plaintiff-appellee

Charles S. Martin and Catherine Gjessing, Law Clerk (On the Brief), of
   Martin & Paolini, Barre, for defendant-appellant


PRESENT:   Allen, C.J., Peck, Gibson, Dooley and Morse, JJ.


     PECK, J.  Defendant appeals his conviction for sexual assault, claiming
that the trial court erred in excluding evidence of a prior sexual relation-
ship with the victim, and that his right to a speedy trial was violated.  We
affirm.
     At trial, the court refused to permit testimony about the victim's
earlier sexual contacts with the defendant.  Their last encounter occurred
approximately eighteen months before the incident at issue in this case.
The court cited the Vermont Rape Shield Statute, 13 V.S.A. { 3255(a), in
support of its ruling, and concluded that the statements sought to be
excluded had no probative value.  The jury returned a guilty verdict.
     In State v. Gonyaw, 146 Vt. 559,