Commonwealth v. Rivera

A Superior Court jury convicted the defendant on one indictment charging rape, G. L. c. 265, § 22(b).1 The main issue of this appeal is the admissibility of first complaint testimony in circumstances in which the alleged victim had complained initially about the defendant’s physical abuse but then waited one week to complain about sexual abuse. The defendant contests also the trial judge’s admission of purported hearsay evidence and a separate judge’s pretrial denial of the defendant’s motion to subpoena the victim’s treatment records from a community health center. For the following reasons,…