Second Court of Appeals

Summaries of Civil Opinions and Published Criminal Opinions Issued - Week of October 6, 2014

NOTE: Summaries are prepared by the court's staff attorneys and law clerks for public information only and reflect his or her interpretation alone of the facts and legal issues. The summaries are not part of the court's opinion in the case and should not be cited to, quoted, or relied upon as the opinion of the court.

Links to full text of opinions (PDF version) can be accessed by clicking the cause number.

Johnson v. State, No. 02-11-00253-CR (Oct. 9, 2014) (en banc) (Gabriel, J., joined by Livingston, C.J., Gardner and Walker, JJ.; Dauphinot, J., dissents with opinion, joined by McCoy and Meier, JJ.).

Held:  Appellant was convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child.  The trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting evidence of Appellant’s prior conviction for aggravated sodomy or by excluding evidence of the complainant’s previous sexual behavior and resultant juvenile adjudication.  Because the conduct alleged in the charge of indecency with a child was subsumed into the conduct alleged in one of the charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child, the conviction for indecency with a child is reversed and a judgment of acquittal entered.

Dissent:  Regarding the two aggravated sexual assault counts, the trial court abused its discretion and violated Appellant’s rights under the Sixth Amendment and the Due Process Clause by prohibiting him from cross-examining the complainant and other adverse witnesses with evidence of the complainant’s prior sexual victimization of his little sister and thereby barring Appellant from putting on his defense.