J-A30009-16

NON-PRECEDENTIAL DECISION - SEE SUPERIOR COURT I.O.P. 65.37

COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THE SUPERIOR COURT OF

PENNSYLVANIA

v.

RODRIGO M. ALVARADO

Appellant No. 1949 MDA 2015

Appeal from the Judgment of Sentence August 18, 2015

In the Court of Common Pleas of Cumberland County

Criminal Division at No(s): CP-21-CR-0002058-2013

BEFORE: BOWES, OLSON AND STABILE, JJ.

MEMORANDUM BY BOWES, J.: FILED APRIL 07, 2017

Rodrigo M. Alvarado appeals from the August 18, 2015 judgment of 

sentence imposed following his conviction of aggravated indecent assault of 

a child, aggravated indecent assault, and two counts each of corruption of 

minors and indecent assault. We affirm.

We summarize the facts from the certified record. The convictions 

stem from Appellant’s repeated sexual assault of his minor nieces, K.C. and 

G.Z., over a period of years. At the time of the first incident, K.C. was five 

years old. While she was practicing her cheerleading at Appellant’s home, 

he told her to remove her clothes. She complied until he directed her to 

remove her underwear. At that point, she refused as she felt uncomfortable. 
J-A30009-16

- 2 -

On another occasion around that same time, Appellant removed his 

own clothes, and entered the bathtub with K.C. and began to wash her body. 

Later, when K.C. was in the fourth grade, there were four or five incidents 

during weekend visits to Appellant’s home where Appellant removed his 

clothes and entered the shower with K.C. and washed her back and 

posterior. When she was ten or eleven years of age, Appellant brought her 

into his bed and massaged her while he was physically aroused. On all of 

the aforementioned occasions, K.C. felt uncomfortable, but she did not tell 

anyone for fear of the effect upon her family. 

By the time K.C. was twelve or thirteen years old, she no longer 

wanted to go to Appellant’s home. Approximately three years later, she 

confided in her boyfriend about the incidents. It was about one year later, 

during her junior and senior years in high school, that K.C. learned from her 

sister that she too had been a victim of Appellant’s abuse. K.C. wrote a 

letter to her mother detailing Appellant’s sexual assaults. At the time of 

trial, K.C. was nineteen years of age. 

G.Z., age fourteen at the time of trial, testified about two incidents 

when Appellant touched her inappropriately. During a game of monster in 

the basement of Appellant’s home when she was nine or ten years old, 

Appellant touched her breasts and led her into a laundry room where he 

instructed her to remove her underwear. He digitally penetrated her 

vaginally but stopped when she told him he was hurting her. The second 
J-A30009-16

- 3 -

incident occurred when she was eleven or twelve. Appellant told her to get 

in the shower and he followed, naked, and washed her back. She was 

uncomfortable and asked him to stop after a couple of minutes. G.Z. 

testified that she did not report the abuse as she feared it would ruin her 

relationship with her cousins who resided with Appellant. When she 

eventually told K.C., the abuse was reported to authorities and criminal 

charges were filed. 

Appellant denied the allegations and maintained that the lock on the 

bathroom door was difficult to unlock from the outside. His wife disputed 

that the basement area where the abuse allegedly occurred was used as a 

play area and denied all knowledge of any assaults. Several character 

witnesses testified to Appellant’s reputation for truthfulness. The jury found 

Appellant guilty of the above-delineated charges. 

On August 18, 2015, the court sentenced Appellant to an aggregate 

sentence of seven to twenty years imprisonment followed by five years of 

probation. Thereafter, Appellant filed a timely post-sentence motion on 

August 26, 2015, which the court denied by order dated September 30, 

2015. Appellant filed the within appeal on November 5, 2015. He raises 

two issues:

I. Did the trial court err in denying Appellant’s motion for a 

new trial when the verdicts were against the weight of the 

evidence?
J-A30009-16

- 4 -

II. Did the trial court err in precluding Appellant from 

questioning the alleged victims regarding their refusal to 

submit to a medical exam on the basis that such testimony 

was irrelevant?

Appellant’s brief at 8. 

Preliminarily, the Commonwealth contends that this Court lacks 

jurisdiction to hear the within appeal as Appellant’s notice of appeal was filed 

thirty-seven days after the order denying his post-sentence motion. It relies 

upon Pa.R.Crim.P. 720(1)–(2)(a), which provides that an appeal must be 

filed within thirty days from the entry of the order deciding the postsentence motion. The Commonwealth cites our decision in Commonwealth 

v. Valentine, 928 A.2d 346, 349 (Pa.Super. 2007), for the proposition that 

time limitations on appeal are to be strictly construed absent a breakdown in 

the operation of the courts. 

Our review of the certified record reveals that the trial court’s order 

denying Appellant’s post-sentence motion, although dated September 30, 

2015, was not docketed in the record until October 9, 2015. Thus, 

Appellant’s notice of appeal filed on November 5, 2015 was timely, and this 

Court has jurisdiction to entertain the within appeal. See Pa.R.A.P. 301(a) 

(“[N]o order of a court should be appealable until it has been entered in the 

appropriate docket in the lower court.”); see also Pa.R.A.P. 903(a) (“[T]he 

notice of appeal . . . should be filed within 30 days after entry of the order 

from which the appeal is taken.”) (emphasis added).
J-A30009-16

- 5 -

Appellant’s first issue presents a challenge to the weight of the 

evidence, which was preserved in a timely filed post-sentence motion and 

addressed by the trial court in its Pa.R.A.P. 1925(a) opinion. At trial, “[t]he 

weight given to trial evidence is a choice for the factfinder. If the factfinder 

returns a guilty verdict, and if a criminal defendant then files a motion for a 

new trial on the basis that the verdict was against the weight of the 

evidence, a trial court is not to grant relief unless the verdict is so contrary 

to the evidence as to shock one's sense of justice.” Commonwealth v. 

Ferguson, 107 A.3d 206, 212-13 (Pa.Super. 2015). 

When a trial court denies a weight-of-the-evidence motion, and 

when an appellant then appeals that ruling to this Court, our 

review is limited. It is important to understand we do not reach 

the underlying question of whether the verdict was, in fact, 

against the weight of the evidence. We do not decide how we 

would have ruled on the motion and then simply replace our own 

judgment for that of the trial court. Instead, this Court 

determines whether the trial court abused its discretion in 

reaching whatever decision it made on the motion, whether or 

not that decision is the one we might have made in the first 

instance.

Id. at 213 (citations omitted). An abuse of discretion by a trial court is not 

merely an error in judgment, but “bias, partiality, prejudice, ill will, manifest 

unreasonableness or a misapplication of the law.” Id. 

Appellant claims that the Commonwealth’s evidence was “inconsistent 

and overly vague.” Appellant’s brief at 21. He points to the fact that the 

teenage victims were unable to remember the timing of the incidents of 

abuse or the details of the events leading up to the occurrences. Appellant 
J-A30009-16

- 6 -

focuses on discrepancies in the victims’ factual accounts and argues that 

they undermined the credibility of those witnesses, and that his witnesses 

should be deemed more believable. Thus, he contends that it was 

manifestly unreasonable for the trial court to find that the verdict did not 

shock one’s sense of justice. 

The trial court noted that defense counsel “ably cross examined both 

victims to expose the infirmities of their memories.” Trial Court Opinion, 

3/1/16, at 5. While the teenage victims’ recollections of the abuse were “not 

perfect,” it “found their testimony credible and persuasive.” Id. The 

contrary evidence offered by the defense was “simply not so weighty as to 

counterbalance the credible victim testimony.” Id. The trial court concluded 

that the verdicts did not shock its conscience and that they should not be 

disturbed on appeal. We find no abuse of discretion on the part of the trial 

court and, hence, no basis to disturb its finding that the verdicts were not 

against the weight of the evidence. 

Appellant’s second contention is that the trial court erred by precluding 

him from cross-examining G.Z. and K.C. regarding their refusal to submit to 

a medical examination.1 The impeachment was deemed irrelevant. 

____________________________________________

1 The record reveals that K.C. testified prior to G.Z., and Appellant did not 

question K.C. about her refusal to submit to a medical examination. Thus, 

we limit Appellant’s argument to G.Z. only. 
J-A30009-16

- 7 -

It is well settled that, “[a]dmission of evidence is within the sound 

discretion of the trial court and will be reversed only upon a showing that the 

trial court clearly abused its discretion.” Commonwealth v. Tyson, 119 

A.3d 353, 357-58 (Pa.Super. 2015). Furthermore, 

Admissibility depends on relevance and probative value. 

Evidence is relevant if it logically tends to establish a material 

fact in the case, tends to make a fact at issue more or less 

probable or supports a reasonable inference or presumption 

regarding a material fact.

Commonwealth v. Drumheller, 808 A.2d 893, 904 (Pa. 2002) (citation 

omitted). Additionally, this ruling limited the scope of cross-examination. 

The trial court has broad discretion "to determine the scope and limits of 

cross-examination and that this Court cannot reverse those findings absent a 

clear abuse of discretion or an error of law." Commonwealth v. Rivera, 

983 A.2d 1211 (Pa. 2009) (quoting Commonwealth v. Nolen, 634 A.2d 

192, 195 (Pa. 1993)). 

Appellant contends that G.Z.’s refusal to submit to a medical 

examination was relevant as it would support a reasonable inference that 

the accusations were fabricated and that there was no evidence of trauma. 

The Commonwealth argues that the issue should be deemed waived since 

Appellant failed to develop this argument or cite any pertinent authority in 

support of his position. See Commonwealth v. Walter, 966 A.2d 560, 

566 (Pa. 2009) (issue waived for failure to preserve it below and develop it 

on appeal). We decline to find waiver on this basis. Secondly, the 
J-A30009-16

- 8 -

Commonwealth contends that the trial court properly exercised its discretion 

to preclude inquiry into an irrelevant matter. 

The issue arose during the cross-examination of G.Z. Defense counsel 

asked her whether, during her conversation with the nurse at the Child 

Resource Center, she was asked or encouraged to have a medical 

examination. N.T., 5/11-13/15, at 154. The Commonwealth objected, and 

discussion followed at sidebar. Defense counsel informed the court that she

intended to elicit testimony from G.Z. that she refused a medical 

examination. Id. at 155. Counsel represented further that K.C. had also 

refused a medical examination. Id. The Commonwealth argued that this 

fact was irrelevant and victim-blaming. Id. The court agreed the evidence 

was irrelevant and sustained the objection on that basis. The 

Commonwealth added that neither party had a medical expert ready to 

testify about the nature or likelihood of such injuries or whether trauma 

would have been detectable years after the abuse. 

Appellant has failed to demonstrate an abuse of discretion on the part 

of the trial court. The trial court found that G.Z.’s refusal to submit to a 

medical examination years after the abuse had “remarkably low probative 

value[,]” which would be far outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice. 

It declined to impute knowledge to G.Z., who was fourteen years old at the 

time, that there could have been evidence of scarring years after the 

molestation. We find no abuse of discretion in the trial court’s rationale for 
J-A30009-16

- 9 -

precluding this line of inquiry. In addition, without expert medical testimony 

establishing that a medical examination performed years after the 

molestation likely would reveal physical evidence of such abuse, such an 

inference was not present. 

Judgment of sentence affirmed. 

Judgment Entered.

Joseph D. Seletyn, Esq.

Prothonotary

Date: 4/7/2017