Michael William Pierson v. the People of the State of Colorado

Summary

The court affirmed the exclusion of evidence that the child victim had been sexually abused by a teenage cousin during the same period. It held that the evidence did not fall within the rape-shield statute's exception for evidence concerning the source of semen, pregnancy, disease, or similar evidence of sexual intercourse, and that the evidence was not sufficiently probative of an alternative source for the victim's knowledge or pain to require admission. Chief Justice Bender, dissenting, would have held that excluding the evidence denied Pierson a meaningful opportunity to present a defense and confront the prosecution's witnesses.