Opinion ID: 2170937
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Evidence of Prior False Allegations

Text: For his third point on appeal, Martin argues that the trial court erred in refusing to allow him to present evidence that the victim's older sister previously had made false allegations that Martin sexually abused her. Martin contended that this evidence was relevant because the victim in this case was aware of the prior allegations and their effect, namely that Martin was removed from the house. It was Martin's defense that Cassy had fabricated the charges against him so that the police would again remove him from the home, and she would then be free of Martin's strict discipline. He asserted that the evidence of her sister's allegations would establish Cassy's bias and prejudice against Martin and her knowledge, preparation, and motive for lying about him. Initially, during a preliminary hearing, the trial court indicated some hesitancy to allow the evidence. After hearing further argument, however, the court ruled that Martin could present the evidence at trial, provided that he could lay a foundation connecting the prior allegations to the current charges against him. Later, during Cassy's cross-examination at trial, the court again indicated that it would allow the evidence only if defense counsel could lay a proper foundation. No further attempt to admit the evidence was made by Martin until after he had rested his case. At that point, Martin's counsel made a proffer of evidence about the prior allegations. Counsel stated that he would call Cassy for the purpose of establishing knowledge that she had of her sister's false allegations. Counsel also proffered a portion of Cassy's statement to police concerning that knowledge. Additionally, counsel stated that he intended to call Cassy's sister, Melissa Wright, to establish that Melissa had in fact lied about Martin, that Cassy knew about the lie, and that Melissa withdrew those charges after she delivered a child by another father. The prosecutor objected to the evidence on the ground that Martin had failed to lay a proper foundation showing how the evidence was relevant to the charges that Cassy made. The trial court agreed that the evidence was not relevant and denied its admission. Martin now argues that the trial court's ruling is erroneous. He does not, however, make any convincing argument or cite to even one piece of legal authority to support his contention. As stated in the previous point, this failure alone is sufficient to affirm the trial court's ruling. See Mills, 351 Ark. 523, 95 S.W.3d 796; Ward, 350 Ark. 69, 84 S.W.3d 863; Hollis, 346 Ark. 175, 55 S.W.3d 756. Notwithstanding, we affirm because Martin has not shown that the trial court abused it discretion in refusing to allow the evidence. The decision to admit or exclude evidence is within the sound discretion of the trial court, and we will not reverse a trial court's decision regarding the admission of evidence absent a manifest abuse of discretion. Pugh v. State, 351 Ark. 5, 89 S.W.3d 909 (2002); Thomas v. State, 349 Ark. 447, 79 S.W.3d 347 (2002). Moreover, we will not reverse absent a showing of prejudice. Id. Similarly, a trial court's ruling on relevancy is entitled to great weight and will not be reversed absent an abuse of discretion. Clem v. State, 351 Ark. 112, 90 S.W.3d 428 (2002). Relevant evidence is that having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence. Id. (citing Ark. R. Evid. 401). We agree with the State that the trial court did not manifestly abuse its discretion in ruling that the proffered evidence was not relevant to the charges against Martin. As the State points out, the issues to be determined for each of the three offenses that Martin was charged with was whether Martin had sexual intercourse with Cassy and how old she was at the time of the offenses. The State relies on this court's holding in Free v. State, 293 Ark. 65, 732 S.W.2d 452 (1987), to support its contention that the evidence proffered by Martin had no bearing on those issues. In Free , the appellant was convicted of rape. On appeal, he argued that the trial court had erred in unduly restricting his examination of a witness and of the child victim concerning prior statements made by the victim to the witness. According to the appellant, the witness would have testified that he and the victim had had a disagreement during which the victim threatened to tell the police that the witness was going to rape him. This court upheld the trial court's ruling, holding, in part, that the evidence was not relevant to whether the appellant had raped the victim. Here the proffered testimony showed nothing more than the fact that Cassy's sister had lied about Martin in the past. It was not probative of the issue of Cassy's veracity or her bias or prejudice against Martin. Martin simply failed to connect the dots between the proffered evidence and the charges against him. Without more of a foundation, Martin's theory on this point is speculative, at best. Furthermore, Martin has failed to show that he was prejudiced by the trial court's ruling, as he was allowed to vigorously pursue his theory that Cassy had fabricated the allegations against him to get him out of the house, because he was a strict disciplinarian. The record demonstrates that Martin cross-examined Cassy extensively about the facts that she had poor grades in school, that she had been grounded by Martin until she had a C average or higher for two straight semesters, that she had repeatedly disobeyed her mother and Martin about school activities, and that she thought that Martin was too strict. We thus affirm the trial court's ruling on this point.