Commonwealth v. Sealy

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.”1 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…