Questions a prosecutor asked about a defendant’s homosexuality elicited irrelevant and prejudicial information that warrants reversing his conviction for child sex abuse, an upstate appeals court determined.
A divided Appellate Division, Fourth Department, panel found that the prosecution also was allowed to ask a police investigator about how youthful victims typically reveal details about sex abuse incidents, which the investigator was not qualified to answer but which bolstered the prosecution’s contention that the youth was abused.
