Commonwealth v. Sealy (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-059-14)
NOTICE: All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.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 SJC‑11416 COMMONWEALTH vs. TYRONE SEALY. Suffolk. January 9, 2014. ‑ April 1, 2014. Present: Ireland, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Duffly, & Lenk, JJ. Alien. Rape. Constitutional Law, Confrontation of witnesses. Practice, Criminal, Confrontation of witnesses, Discovery, Waiver. Evidence, Cross‑examination, Impeachment of credibility, Motive, Bias, Relevancy and materiality, Privileged record. Witness, Cross‑examination, Impeachment, Bias. Indictment found and returned in the Superior Court Department on June 22, 2006. A pretrial motion for production of privileged third-party records was heard by Carol S. Ball, J.; the case was tried before Thomas E. Connolly, J.; a motion for posttrial discovery was heard by him; and a motion for a new trial, filed on January 21, 2010, was considered by him. The Supreme Judicial Court on its own initiative transferred the case from the Appeals Court. James A. Reidy for the defendant. Amanda Teo, Assistant District Attorney (Holly Broadbent, Assistant District Attorney, with her) for the Commonwealth. Susan M. Finegan, Andrew N. Nathanson, John B. Koss, & Kimberly A. Parr, for Boston Area Rape Crisis Center & others, amici curiae, submitted a brief. Eric A. Haskell, Anthony D. Mirenda, Jennifer Kirby Tanney, Stacy A. Malone, & Lindy L. Aldrich, for Victim Rights Law Center & others, amici curiae, submitted a brief. LENK, J. After a jury trial in the Superior Court, the defendant was convicted of rape. His defense at trial was consent; he maintained that the victim, an undocumented immigrant, characterized consensual sex as rape in her report to police in order to obtain immigration benefits, such as eligibility for a “U-Visa.” See 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(15)(U) (2012). The defendant timely appealed from his convictions to the Appeals Court, where proceedings were stayed so that he could pursue a motion for a new trial. The defendant’s subsequent appeal from the denial of his motion for a new trial was consolidated with his direct appeal, and we transferred the case to this court on our own motion. The rape conviction arose from events that occurred on March 19, 2006. The victim first complained of rape to the defendant’s mother on March 21, and sought counselling at the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center (BARCC) on March 23. A BARCC staff member referred her to the Victims’ Rights Law Center (VRLC). There, she met with an attorney with whom she […]