Commonwealth v. Hrabak

A Superior Court jury convicted the defendant of two indictments charging rape (oral and anal) of a six year old boy, John,1 and one indictment charging indecent assault and battery on one of John’s sisters. The defendant appealed from his convictions to the Appeals Court, which affirmed the convictions of oral rape and indecent assault and battery, but reversed the conviction of anal rape because the court held that the prosecutor’s *651closing argument and the judge’s failure to give a requested curative instruction constituted prejudicial error.2 Commonwealth v. Hrabak, 57 Mass. App. Ct. 648,…