Commonwealth v. S

Facts

The seventeen-year-old victim went out with friends to look for a party and ended up at a bowling alley/pool hall at about 11:00 P.M. The victim and two girlfriends, Lonnie and Jennie, decided to leave with Jennie's boyfriend and his cousin, D. D offered to drive the group back to their homes, a short ten to fifteen minutes away. The victim was the last passenger to be dropped off. She gave directions to her home, which was nearby. D passed the street to which she had directed him; he then turned left when she instructed him to turn right. D continued to take wrong turns and began driving faster. The victim became increasingly agitated and began screaming at Dt for not following directions. D told the victim that because of her yelling and being mad at him, he was going to rape her. D told her that he 'just didn't care,' that he was going to rape her, and that she might never see her parents or family again. D stopped the car, got out, and came around to the passenger side where he attempted to pull the victim from the car, saying she should get out so they could 'fuck for a minute.' She began crying, apologized for yelling, and asked him not to do anything to her. D agreed to take her home, saying, 'If you don't trust me, here, I will give you my wallet so you can trust me.' The victim took the wallet. After driving for about an hour, the victim saw signs for Concord and Boston. At this point, D said, 'I could really kill you if I wanted to and nobody would know.' He then pulled the car to the side of the road in a wooded area, got out, put a dark plastic bag on the back windows, and said, 'All right. Let's go. Let's go.' The victim begged to be brought home. The defendant demanded to know if she was ready, and said that he could kill her and she would never see her family again and that he could put her in a bag and throw her in the woods and nobody would know. Still crying, the victim eventually got into the back seat of the saying: 'You can do whatever you want, but you know for sure, we both know that you are really raping me.' D removed her pants and underwear, then penetrated her vaginally from behind with his penis, turned her over, climbed on top of her, and twice inserted his penis into her vagina, and once entered her vagina with his fingers. She screamed and struggled until he stopped. As she put on her clothes he said he was 'sorry' and that 'he really didn't want to do this.' D drove the victim to her boyfriend's house, where he dropped her off at about 5:30 A.M. The victim told her boyfriend what had happened to her and asked him not to tell anyone. The victim went to bed and fell asleep; upon awakening at 11:00 A.M., she and her boyfriend engaged in sexual intercourse. A friend convinced her to report the incident to the police and drove her to the police station, that she reported the crimes. She was taken to a hospital, where tests using a rape kit were performed. D claimed consent. D sought to introduce evidence that the victim had engaged in sexual intercourse with her boyfriend a few hours after arriving at his home. The court denied the motion because of the rape shield law. D was convicted and appealed. 

Issues

Rule of Law

Holding and Decision

Legal Analysis

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