Commonwealth v. Haraldstad

Robert B. Haraldstad and Michael J. Purcell, the defendants, were convicted by a jury of the rape of Cathie A. and of assaulting her by means of a dangerous weapon. The victim set the incident during the early hours of July 5, 1980, near Fort Revere in Hull. She charged a third man as joining in the sexual assault. 2

The defense was that the incident simply did not occur; that the defendants were elsewhere when the victim said they raped her; and that her story was a fabrication. In support of that view of the case the defendants called as a witness Dr. D. Colm Armstrong, a specialist in…