Commonwealth v. Johnson

A Bristol County jury found the defendant, Joseph Johnson, guilty of the rape of an eight year old girl, committed in the fall of 1985. We are obliged to reverse the judgment of conviction because of errors in the trial of the case involving the admission, over objections, of (i) so-called “fresh complaint” testimony that was in fact very stale, and (ii) prejudicial testimony about alleged “bad conduct” by the defendant long postdating the alleged rape.

The complainant, Theresa Smith, 2 testified at trial on April 2, 1991 (she was now aged fourteen). Her aunt Marla Gambino and Gambino’s…