Commonwealth v. Wray (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-151-15)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports. If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us 14-P-368 Appeals Court COMMONWEALTH vs. GERMAINE WRAY. No. 14-P-368. Hampden. April 1, 2015. – September 28, 2015. Present: Vuono, Meade, & Carhart, JJ. Practice, Criminal, Objection, Offer of proof. Evidence, Offer of proof, Prior inconsistent statement, Impeachment of credibility, Credibility of witness. Witness, Impeachment, Credibility. Complaint received and sworn to in the Springfield Division of the District Court Department on November 20, 2012. The case was tried before Mary E. Hurley, J. Peter J. Brewer for the defendant. Alyson C. Yorlano, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. CARHART, J. The defendant appeals from his convictions of assault and threating to commit a crime.[1] He claims that the judge erred by barring defense counsel from eliciting from the alleged victim, Rosa Cruz, the sole witness in the case, whether she had made certain statements to defense counsel that were inconsistent with her testimony at trial. We reverse. Background. The jury could have found the following facts based on the evidence presented at trial. The defendant and Cruz had been in a dating relationship for about one month, when, on November 19, 2012, they both attended a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in West Springfield. Before the meeting began, the defendant saw Cruz hug another man. The defendant became upset, started yelling at Cruz, and said that he was going to come back and “fuck [her] up.” That night, Cruz was interviewed by and gave two statements to the police. In her first statement, Cruz did not say that the defendant pushed her. In her second statement, Cruz stated that the defendant did, in fact, push her.[2] At trial, Cruz testified that the defendant tried to push her, but said several times that she could not remember if he actually touched her. Subsequently, the prosecutor refreshed her memory with the second statement that she gave to the police on the night of the incident. The following exchange ensued: Prosecutor: “Did he make physical contact with you?” Cruz: “He pushed me, yeah, but it wasn’t a push that I fell.” Prosecutor: “Okay. But he touched you?” Cruz: “Yes.” On the day of trial, before it began, defense counsel spoke with Cruz about the incident that formed the basis for the charge of assault and battery.[3] Specifically, defense counsel asked Cruz […]