State v. Ross

Defendant, who was convicted of various sexual offenses involving multiple victims, appeals. We write only to address defendant’s assertions that the trial court committed reversible “plain error” by (1) admitting “vouching” testimony by a witness, Muggia, relating to victim RW’s credibility with respect to Count 4 (first-degree unlawful sexual penetration) and (2) failing to instruct the jury as to the requisite mental state for forcible compulsion, a material element of first-degree sodomy and attempted first-degree sodomy, as charged in Counts 1 and 5. As explained below, the asserted…