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People v. Croft

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Fourth Department
Oct 4, 1991
176 A.D.2d 1225 (N.Y. App. Div. 1991)

Opinion

October 4, 1991

Appeal from the Monroe County Court, Wisner, J.

Present — Doerr, J.P., Boomer, Pine, Balio and Lawton, JJ.


Judgment unanimously affirmed. Memorandum: Defendant contends that the court erred in allowing the complainant to testify, over objection, that she did not resist defendant's sexual contact because she was afraid of him, based on her knowledge that, when he "fought people he had hurt them and stuff." While defendant is correct that the People should have obtained an advance ruling on the admissibility of this testimony, pursuant to People v Ventimiglia ( 52 N.Y.2d 350), any error was harmless. The prosecutor stated that he had not known about the testimony when defendant's pretrial motion for Molineux material (see, People v Molineux, 168 N.Y. 264) was made, and the court excused the jury and ruled on the issue before the complainant had answered the prosecutor's question, "Had [defendant] ever told you any things in the past about things he did?". Further, the probative value of the testimony on the issue of forcible compulsion (an element of two of the crimes charged) outweighed its prejudicial effect (see, People v Thompson, 72 N.Y.2d 410, 416, rearg denied 73 N.Y.2d 870; People v Alvino, 71 N.Y.2d 233, 241-242; People v Allweiss, 48 N.Y.2d 40, 46-47).

We further reject defendant's contention that the court erred in allowing the complainant's mother to testify that, about two months after the incident, defendant and his wife came to her place of work and that defendant told her that she had "better watch out" and that what her daughter said "wasn't true." That testimony was probative on the issue of consciousness of guilt (see, Richardson, Evidence §§ 167, 220 [Prince 10th ed]).

Finally, we reject defendant's contention that the prompt complaint exception to the general rule against bolstering (see, People v Rice, 75 N.Y.2d 929, 931) should be "abandoned."


Summaries of

People v. Croft

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Fourth Department
Oct 4, 1991
176 A.D.2d 1225 (N.Y. App. Div. 1991)
Case details for

People v. Croft

Case Details

Full title:THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, Respondent, v. RAYMOND A. CROFT…

Court:Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Fourth Department

Date published: Oct 4, 1991

Citations

176 A.D.2d 1225 (N.Y. App. Div. 1991)

Citing Cases

People v. Hartsfield

Even assuming, arguendo, that the court erred in permitting the testimony (cf. People v Croft, 176 …

People v. Hartsfield

Even assuming, arguendo, that the court erred in permitting the testimony (cf. People v Croft, 176 …