Commonwealth v. Magdalenski

After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of one count of assault and battery against his sister. During trial, Defendant’s principal contention was that his sister and her boyfriend fabricated their allegations against him in order to justify the boyfriend’s actions of attacking Defendant and accidentally injuring the sister in the process. The Supreme Court reversed and remanded for a new trial, holding that the trial judge abused his discretion in refusing to allow Defendant to pursue his theory through extrinsic evidence and examination of the two witnesses because, if the evidence was credited by the jury, it would have supported an inference of bias, prejudice, and motive to prevaricate. View "Commonwealth v. Magdalenski" on Justia Law