Wood v. Commonwealth

Opinion

BARROW, J.

In this appeal of an extortion conviction, we conclude that the Commonwealth was not required to prove the falsity of an allegation underlying a threat to injure a victim’s character. The crime of extortion addresses the malice found in obtaining money or other value by threatening to harm another’s character; it is not concerned with whether the accusation, by which the harm is threatened, is true or false.

At trial there was evidence that the defendant attempted to extort money from Kubacki by threatening to claim that he had raped her if he did not give her the money she…