Commonwealth v. Kjersgaard

DOWLING, Judge:

Defendant’s principle exception to the judgment of sentence imposed following his conviction of rape1 and corruption of minors2 is the propriety of admitting evidence of a prior offense.

“It is black letter law that evidence of one crime is inadmissible against a defendant being tried for another crime because the fact of the commission of one offense is not proof of the commission of another. See, Commonwealth v. Foose, 441 Pa. 173, 272 A.2d 452 (1971). However, there sometimes exist special circumstances which operate as exceptions to the general rule and bring the case within…