Case Name: Commonwealth vs. Benjamin F. Bean
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1873-01
Citations: 111 Mass. 438
Docket Number: 
Parties: Commonwealth vs. Benjamin F. Bean.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 111
Pages: 438–438

Head Matter:
Commonwealth vs. Benjamin F. Bean.
On an indictment for an indecent assault upon A. B., A. B. having testified that the defendant took indecent liberties with her person, on a day when he took her to drive, and npon cross-examination, that, on a subsequent day, she did not tell the defendant that she would kiss him if he would take her to drive, the defendant may show that she did so tell him.
Indictment for an indecent assault committed upon Caroline E. Howe on August 21, 1872.
At the trial in the Superior Court in Suffolk, before Paeon, J., Caroline E. Howe testified that she was the wife of Frank B. Howe ; that on August 21,1872, the defendant took her to drive, visited a house belonging to him, and there, against her consent, took indecent liberties with her person. On cross-examination the defendant asked her if she had not, in September 1872, in the presence of a Mrs. Brownlow, asked him to take her to drive, and said that she would kiss him if he would. She answered that she did not think she ever had, but would not swear she had not. The defendant offered to prove by the testimony of Mrs. Brown-low that she had so asked and said, but the judge excluded it.
The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and the defendant alleged exceptions.
J. M. Bradley S. A. Bolster, for the defendant.
W. Gr. Colburn, Assistant Attorney General, (O'. R. Train, Attorney General, with him,) for the Commonwealth. .

Opinion:
By the Court.
The testimony of Mrs. Brownlow ought to have been admitted. Exceptions sustained.