The State of Washington, Respondent v. Frederick H. Kevin Coe, Appellant

Summary

The Washington Supreme Court reversed Coe's four first-degree rape convictions, finding that the accumulated evidentiary errors and discovery violations by the prosecution required a new trial. The court held that Coe's prior third-degree theft conviction was improperly admitted for impeachment under ER 609(a)(2), that testimony about his sexual relationship with a former girlfriend and an uncharged jogging-trail incident were inadmissible under ER 404(b), and that cross-examination about his sexually oriented writings was irrelevant and unduly prejudicial. The court also found the prosecution violated CrR 4.7 by failing to disclose that witnesses had been hypnotized and by withholding exculpatory evidence. The court affirmed the trial court's decision to require Coe to repeat the rapist's statements before the jury and held that the reasonable doubt instruction, while disapproved for future use, did not constitute reversible error.