Commonwealth v. Lanning

At his jury trial on indictments charging him with two counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under the age of fourteen years and two counts of rape of a child by use of force, there was evidence of uncharged bad acts by the defendant and of fresh complaint by the two victims, sisters. The defendant claims on appeal, as to the bad acts, that this evidence was inadmissible, overwhelmingly prejudicial, and insufficiently instructed upon by the trial judge. In respect to the fresh complaint testimony, he argues that the complaints were not prompt and that the trial judge failed to…