State v. Alvarez

Citations

• 346 Conn. 530

Syllabus

The defendant, who had been convicted of sexual assault in the fourth degree and risk of injury to a child, appealed to the Appellate Court. The Appellate Court reversed the judgment of conviction, concluding that the state had failed to establish that the trial court's improper withholding of certain sealed medical records of one of the victims, A, was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt and that the trial court had abused its discretion in allowing the state to introduce evidence of uncharged sexual misconduct that was not sufficiently similar to the conduct at issue in the present case. On the granting of certification, the state appealed to this court. Held that, after an examination of the record and briefs on appeal and consideration of the parties' arguments, the Appellate Court's judgment was affirmed, and this court adopted the Appellate Court's thorough 346 Conn. 530 MAY, 2023 531 State v. Alvarez and well reasoned opinion as the proper statement of the issues and the applicable law concerning those issues: This court undertook a thorough and independent review of the sealed records at issue and identified multiple references to A's history of untruthfulness and of having made false allegations, those records con- tained information relating to behavioral, cognitive and emotional issues that could have affected A's ability to observe, understand and accurately narrate the events in question, and, because that information was not available elsewhere in the trial court record, defense counsel's cross- examination of A was limited. Moreover, the record supported the Appellate Court's determination that the uncharged sexual misconduct evidence at issue was not sufficiently similar to the conduct at issue in the present case. Argued March 22—officially released May 2, 2023