Kerry Armstrong won a thirty-to-life Penal Code 288.7(b) trial in Vista on Wednesday before a Judge. Kerry’s client had been in jail for fifteen months awaiting trial, and he is now happily at home with his two teenage children and other family members.
The alleged victim, now sixteen, claimed that the client forcibly made him orally copulate him between three and nine times back in 2013 when he was about four-and-a-half years old. Kerry’s client had dated and lived with the alleged victim and his mother for three years, from 2010-2013.
The DA’s Office filed two counts of P.C. 288.7(b), making the client eligible for a thirty-to-life term in state prison. The Judge allowed the DDA to introduce testimony from the alleged victim and his mother that the client also physically abused the boy for several years both before and during the supposed child sexual abuse (even though no physical abuse counts were filed against the client).
Kerry reports that about half the trial centered around this alleged physical abuse. Kerry picked that apart through inconsistencies and the kid’s medical records. They excluded evidence that the client had supposedly physically abused his own two children and also the mother of the alleged victim. However, in about ten minutes, the alleged victim testified three times that Kerry’s client had indeed abused his children.
That forced Kerry to ask for a mistrial twice the same morning. Both requests were denied (which, in hindsight, was lucky for the client). Kerry had the alleged victim on the stand for three-and-a-half hours last week. While the alleged victim was riddled with inconsistencies, he was adamant that the client had abused him.
Without being too graphic here, the alleged victim described one sex act with such specificity that Kerry just knew he had lost the trial. Social worker, Laurie Fortin, testified for the prosecution about delayed disclosure, the patterns of child abuse, etc.
The DDA also called the alleged victim’s mother, aunt, and another fresh complaint witness. (The aunt’s testimony made two jurors cry.) Three of the client’s family members testified (although not very well due to poor recollection). However, Kerry’s client testified very well. Although the client did not express much emotion, his memory was very good, and he came across well overall. After four hours of deliberations without notes, the jury returned with not-guilty verdicts.
At that point, all hell broke loose in the courtroom. The client started crying, wailing, and praying VERY loudly, including dropping to the floor and shaking uncontrollably. At the same time, the alleged victim began crying and shouting from the audience. A bailiff grabbed the client and put him in the nearby tanks as the judge read the final departing jury instruction. The alleged victim then ran toward the courtroom door and slammed it as hard as he could as he left while shouting curse words. The shaken jury was then released from the courtroom (with none sticking around to talk). Kerry and about twenty members of his client’s family then walked into the hallway, only to find that the alleged victim was waiting for them.
He approached Kerry, got very close to him, and started pointing his finger at him and shouting profanity and curse words as loud as he could. A bailiff grabbed the alleged victim and walked him out of the courthouse. There was a whirlwind of excitement from the client’s family.
Kerry L. Armstrong
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