Bowling v. State

ELDRIDGE, Judge.

Under the circumstances of this case, we hold that the doctrine of collateral estoppel prevents the State from criminally trying the defendant on charges of sexual assault and related offenses when, in a prior civil proceeding based upon the same alleged incidents, the court dismissed the action on the ground that the State had failed to prove that the defendant had committed the acts.

On November 7,1981, Staci Lenee Bowling, then fourteen years old, went to the Charles County Sheriffs Department and alleged that, beginning in August 1981 and on other occasions thereafter, her…