{"id":153,"date":"2018-04-11T10:04:53","date_gmt":"2018-04-11T14:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clearwatersexcrimeslawyer.com\/?p=153"},"modified":"2026-01-31T09:02:01","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T14:02:01","slug":"prior-claims-raise-credibility-issues-in-florida-sex-crime-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/prior-claims-raise-credibility-issues-in-florida-sex-crime-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Prior Claims Raise Credibility Issues in Florida Sex Crime Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida sexual assault and battery cases often come down to one person\u2019s word against another\u2019s, especially in cases involving a victim and an alleged perpetrator who know each other. In a recent case<\/a>, the state\u2019s Fourth District Court of Appeal took on just one of those cases, including some unique questions about the victim\u2019s previous claims of sexual battery.<\/p>\n

The defendant was charged with armed sexual battery against his ex-wife, with whom he had previously been married for 20 years. The victim said she had just returned to her apartment from dropping her children at school when the defendant showed up. He allegedly told the woman that he had a knife in his backpack, said \u201cnow you\u2019re going to get it,\u201d and warned her not to make a commotion. The woman didn\u2019t scream or fight the defendant when he then had sex with her inside the home, according to the court. She did run to a neighbor\u2019s house when the defendant moved to get his cell phone. She called the police, who arrested him.Some of the details of the couple\u2019s stormy relationship became clear at trial. They were married for 22 years when they separated in 2008. In a deposition, the victim said the defendant had previously tried to rape her in 2001. She also testified at length about being sexually abused by her employer years earlier, according to the court. But the judge blocked the defendant’s lawyer\u2019s attempts to later ask the victim about those allegations at trial. DNA evidence showed his DNA, and a nurse who examined the victim said her injuries were consistent with her version of the events. The defendant was convicted and sentenced to at least 25 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Affirming the decision on appeal, the court said the previous allegations of rape against the defendant and the victim\u2019s claims that she was raped by her employer weren\u2019t relevant to the case. Although the trial judge wrongly found that the allegations were banned from being considered in court under the state\u2019s rape shield law, the court said there was nevertheless no reason for the victim to be cross examined on her deposition testimony.<\/p>\n

Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida sexual assault and battery cases often come down to one person\u2019s word against another\u2019s, especially in cases involving a victim and an alleged perpetrator who know each other. In a recent case, the state\u2019s Fourth District Court of Appeal took on just one of those cases, including some unique questions about the victim\u2019s previous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sex-crimes"],"yoast_head":"\nPrior Claims Raise Credibility Issues Sex<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When officers stop you, a sex crime charge case can hinge on prior claims raise credibility. See how this ruling defense. Learn what to ask your lawyer.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/prior-claims-raise-credibility-issues-in-florida-sex-crime-case\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Prior Claims Raise Credibility Issues Sex\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"When officers stop you, a sex crime charge case can hinge on prior claims raise credibility. See how this ruling defense. Learn what to ask your lawyer.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hanlon Law, PA\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Prior Claims Raise Credibility Issues Sex","description":"When officers stop you, a sex crime charge case can hinge on prior claims raise credibility. See how this ruling defense. Learn what to ask your lawyer.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/prior-claims-raise-credibility-issues-in-florida-sex-crime-case\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Prior Claims Raise Credibility Issues Sex","twitter_description":"When officers stop you, a sex crime charge case can hinge on prior claims raise credibility. See how this ruling defense. Learn what to ask your lawyer.","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hanlon Law, PA","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/prior-claims-raise-credibility-issues-in-florida-sex-crime-case\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/prior-claims-raise-credibility-issues-in-florida-sex-crime-case\/"},"author":{"name":"Hanlon Law, PA","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/03dc1d8f0e988aa69b0efe5d06eeb939"},"headline":"Prior Claims Raise Credibility Issues in Florida Sex Crime Case","datePublished":"2018-04-11T14:04:53+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-31T14:02:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/prior-claims-raise-credibility-issues-in-florida-sex-crime-case\/"},"wordCount":649,"articleSection":["Sex Crimes"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/prior-claims-raise-credibility-issues-in-florida-sex-crime-case\/","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/prior-claims-raise-credibility-issues-in-florida-sex-crime-case\/","name":"Prior Claims Raise Credibility Issues Sex","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-04-11T14:04:53+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-31T14:02:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/03dc1d8f0e988aa69b0efe5d06eeb939"},"description":"When officers stop you, a sex crime charge case can hinge on prior claims raise credibility. See how this ruling defense. Learn what to ask your lawyer.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/prior-claims-raise-credibility-issues-in-florida-sex-crime-case\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/prior-claims-raise-credibility-issues-in-florida-sex-crime-case\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/prior-claims-raise-credibility-issues-in-florida-sex-crime-case\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Prior Claims Raise Credibility Issues in Florida Sex Crime Case"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/","name":"Clearwater Criminal Lawyer Blog","description":"Published by Florida Defense Lawyer \u2014 Hanlon Law","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/03dc1d8f0e988aa69b0efe5d06eeb939","name":"Hanlon Law, PA","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/28c5c60eb08894e1f2f27e2e759788e24587bda0a815ed045456f272f44b2849?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/28c5c60eb08894e1f2f27e2e759788e24587bda0a815ed045456f272f44b2849?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/28c5c60eb08894e1f2f27e2e759788e24587bda0a815ed045456f272f44b2849?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Hanlon Law, PA"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/"]}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1253,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions\/1253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}