Opinion ID: 1461893
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Paternity Suits

Text: The trial justice excluded the proffered evidence concerning the paternity suits filed by the victim on the grounds of irrelevance. As the trial justice recognized, the victim's mere filing of these suits did not indicate that her charges against these individuals were deliberately false or that there was anythingvindictive or vengeful in the fact that the victim had filed them. Rather, all that these charges indicated was that the victim was uncertain about which one of the three named individuals was the biological father of her first child and that she was seeking a definitive legal resolution of this question. Most significantly, none of those charges involved a rape case, such as the one for which defendant was on trial. The defendant failed to indicate how the victim's mere filing of paternity suits against these three other men would in any way provide her with a motive or intent to falsely charge this defendant with sexual assault. And the mere fact that blood tests resulted in a dismissal of the suits against two of the three potential fathers did not mean that the suits were frivolous or groundless. Moreover, unlike the rape charges against defendant, the paternity suits did not involve any sexual-assault claim or other nonconsensual sexual activity. Thus, unlike Pettiway, this was not a situation in which the previous charges would suggest that the complainant had a pattern of falsely accusing men of sexually assaulting or abusing her. See also Oliveira, 576 A.2d at 111-12 (allowing evidence of victim's similar charges of sexual assault to be admitted in sexual-assault trial). On this record, the trial justice was entitled to conclude that the defense was merely attempting to disparage the rape victim's character and credibility by proof of specific instances of her bad character or bad acts in the past. We agree with the trial justice's decision to preclude the use of this evidence. In Johnson v. State, 889 P.2d 1076 (Alaska Ct.App.1995), the court upheld a trial justice's decision to exclude evidence of a previous paternity claim made by the complaining witness, stating as follows: The evidence of [complainant's] previous paternity claim that was proffered in this case had no logical bearing on [complainant's] bias, prejudice, or motive to fabricate; given its remoteness in time and dissimilarity to the circumstances of the current case, it did not establish a pattern or scheme of falsification on [complainant's] part. At most, theevidence amounted to character evidence reflecting negatively on [complainant's] general credibility. As such, however, the evidence of [complainant's] past misconduct was classic propensity evidence and was therefore inadmissible. A.R.E. 404(b)(1); A.R.E. 608(b). Under A.R.E. 608(a), the Johnsons were free to ask Palmer to state his opinion of [complainant's] credibility, or to testify as to [complainant's] reputation for truthfulness. But they had no right to impeach [complainant's] credibility by recourse to evidence of specific incidents of past misconduct. Johnson, 889 P.2d at 1081. This rationale is particularly telling when, as here, there is no indication that the victim intentionally had leveled groundless or false charges against any one, let alone against this defendant. B.