Opinion ID: 196422
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Levasseur's encounter with the blond girl

Text: 43 After removing the tainted hearsay evidence from our consideration, we conclude that the remaining evidence about the blond-girl incident is still moderately probative of Levasseur's guilt. Before assessing its probative strength, we recount the evidence as it came in at trial. 44 Inspector Boutselis introduced the blond-girl incident by testifying that two weeks after Doe's rape he saw Levasseur drive up to an approximately sixteen-year-old blond girl walking on the sidewalk, beckon to her, and say Come on; the young girl kept walking and did not get in the truck. Boutselis also testified that when he and Guilfoyle subsequently pulled Levasseur over, Levasseur told Boutselis that the girl was his cousin and he was going to give her a ride. When Boutselis asked Levasseur her name, Levasseur did not answer. 45 Levasseur's testimony provided a different account of the blond-girl incident. Levasseur testified that he had been swimming with his aunt and cousin, that he had taken his aunt home first, and that he was dropping his cousin off when Inspectors Boutselis and Guilfoyle arrived on the scene. He testified that his cousin's name is Tina Guillemette, she was twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old, and he does not know where she lives now. 46 Although she was not a witness to the blond-girl incident, Levasseur's wife, Judith Levasseur, testified to historical facts underlying Levasseur's explanation of the incident. Judith Levasseur testified that Tina Guillemette is Levasseur's cousin, she was approximately twenty-eight years old on July 13, 1988, and does not look sixteen years old. Judith Levasseur also testified that Tina Guillemette is not a good friend of her husband's, it would be unusual for Levasseur to go swimming with Tina Guillemette and his aunt, and she knows how to get to Tina Guillemette's house in Lowell. 47 To rebut the Levasseurs' testimony, the district attorney called Inspector Guilfoyle. Consistent with Boutselis, Guilfoyle testified to seeing a young blond girl walking on the sidewalk, Levasseur's truck pulling up next to her, Levasseur motioning to her, and the girl continuing to walk on. After having spoken with the blond girl in close proximity, Guilfoyle presumed that she was sixteen or seventeen years old. 48 We begin our assessment of the strength of the blond-girl incident by noting that although the Inspectors and Levasseur provided competing explanations of the blond-girl incident, consideration of the nature, source and extent of the contradictions between the stories reveals the weakness of Levasseur's explanation. Boutselis' and Guilfoyle's testimony, Levasseur's prior statements to the police, and his wife's testimony all contradict Levasseur's explanation on significant details. We briefly note each of the contradictions. 49 After talking with the blond girl face-to-face, Guilfoyle testified that the blond girl was sixteen or seventeen years old, and Boutselis estimated that she was sixteen after seeing her from the police car. Levasseur, however, testified that Tina Guillemette was twenty-eight years old and Levasseur's wife testified that Tina Guillemette does not look sixteen. Boutselis and Guilfoyle both testified that Levasseur had beckoned and called Come on to the blond girl, consistent with offering her a ride, whereas Levasseur testified that he was dropping his cousin off. Similarly, Guilfoyle testified that the blond girl was walking along the sidewalk before Levasseur pulled over, which is also inconsistent with Levasseur's claim that he was dropping her off. 50 Levasseur's statement to Boutselis immediately following the blond-girl incident contradicted his trial testimony. Boutselis testified that when he questioned Levasseur on the day of the blond-girl incident, Levasseur explained his encounter with the blond girl as offering to give his cousin a ride and he did not provide his cousin's name when asked. However, Levasseur testified at trial that he was dropping his cousin off and his cousin's name is Tina Guillemette. 51 Most telling, perhaps, is that even Levasseur's wife, testifying to seemingly innocuous background information, indirectly contradicted Levasseur. While Levasseur claimed that he had gone swimming with his aunt and his cousin on July 13, 1988, Judith Levasseur testified that Levasseur and Guillemette were not good friends and such an event would have been an unusual occurrence. Similarly, after Levasseur testified that he did not know where Tina Guillemette now lives, Judith Levasseur testified that she knows how to find Guillemette. This testimony raises the question why Levasseur would not have contacted Guillemette to have her testify and corroborate his testimony if his wife knows where she lives. 9 Given her importance to Levasseur's explanation of the blond-girl incident, Tina Guillemette is notably absent. 52 Having noted the contradictions discounting Levasseur's explanation, we must assess how strong Inspectors Boutselis' and Guilfoyle's testimony about the blond-girl incident is as evidence of Levasseur's guilt. Even without the hearsay evidence, Boutselis' and Guilfoyle's testimony presents circumstantial evidence that the blond girl did not know Levasseur and he had offered her a ride. For instance, that Levasseur did not know the blond girl can be inferred from Boutselis' and Guilfoyle's testimony that the blond girl kept walking, did not stop and talk with Levasseur and did not get in his truck. Similarly, that Levasseur offered the blond girl a ride can be inferred from the testimony that Levasseur beckoned to her and said Come on. 53 These two inferential facts support the prosecution's suggestion that, two weeks after Doe's rape, Levasseur followed the same modus operandi with the blond girl as was used to lure Doe into the truck. Because this evidence makes it more probable that Levasseur raped Doe, it is moderately probative of Levasseur's guilt. 10 54 Considering the prosecution's case cumulatively, we find Doe's strong identification of Levasseur corroborated by moderately strong evidence of modus operandi. Levasseur's defense, in contrast, is too unsound to weaken the prosecution's case. 55