State v. Guenther

Defendant Kenneth Guenther was convicted of sexual assault and other crimes related to the abuse of his stepdaughter. At trial, he was denied the opportunity to present evidence of a prior false accusation of sexual abuse that his stepdaughter made against a neighbor. N.J.R.E. 608 embodies the common law rule that generally forbids admission of specific instances of conduct to attack a witness’s character for truthfulness. We must decide, pursuant to N.J.R.E. 608, whether the credibility of a witness who has accused a defendant of sexual abuse may be impeached by evidence that she made a…