Michael William Pierson v. the People of the State of Colorado — Bender, J., Dissenting

Summary

The dissent would conclude that the trial court abused its discretion by excluding undisputed evidence that the child victim was sexually assaulted by her cousin during the same period and in a substantially similar manner. In the dissent's view, that evidence was highly relevant to an alternative source of the victim's precocious sexual knowledge, to impeachment, and to the defendant's constitutional right to present a meaningful defense and confront witnesses. Chief Justice Bender, dissenting, would reject the majority's conclusion that the evidence was insufficiently probative.