Opinion ID: 163124
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Victim's Story

Text: 23 The Victim testified that early on the morning of January 31, 1992, he awoke from his sleep on the couch in his mother's apartment when he felt Petitioner, who was living with the Victim and his mother at the time, rubbing [the Victim's] butt. Id. at 198. After rubbing his buttocks for a time, Petitioner began to rub the Victim's penis. The Victim stated that he then pretended to wake up, at which point Petitioner ceased fondling him and proceeded to choke one of the Victim's cats to death by thrusting his fingers down the cat's throat. The Victim then told his mother, who did nothing. 24 Later that day he told several other people about the incident, the police were called, and the Victim spoke with a police officer. Eighteen days later the Victim spoke with Detective Betz about the incident. 25 Evidence at trial revealed that the Victim had described the incident differently to different people. For example, the Victim was inconsistent with regard to (1) whether he awoke before or after Petitioner pulled his pants down; (2) whether Petitioner rubbed his penis, his buttocks, or both; (3) whether Petitioner rubbed his buttocks with his face or hands or kissed it; (4) what prompted the incident to end; (5) who pulled up the Victim's pants when the assault was over; (6) whether Petitioner had a knife; (7) what happened to the kitten; and (8) his accounts of what he had told various adults. 26 In addition to establishing inconsistencies in the Victim's statements, the defense attempted to discredit him in other ways. First, the defense suggested that the Victim had a motive to fabricate — that his mother had had a string of live-in boyfriends, of whom Petitioner was only the latest, and the Victim resented having to share her affections. Second, the defense presented evidence that the Victim could be retaliating against Petitioner because the Victim was inordinately fond of his cats and believed that Petitioner had killed one of them. (Petitioner admitted at one point that he had killed the cat, but he said that he accidentally stepped on it, as opposed to choking it.) Third, the defense presented evidence that six years earlier the Victim had falsely accused another man of molesting him. Fourth, although the Victim stated in his first interview with the police that Petitioner had also molested a 13-year-old girl, the girl testified that Petitioner had never touched her and that she had never told the Victim that he had. Finally, the girl's mother testified that the Victim was subject to mood swings and sometimes lied to get attention.