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Williams v. State

The victim's prior unprosecuted molestation accusation was inadmissible in the absence of evidence that the accusation was false.

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Curtis Williams was found guilty by a jury of aggravated sexual battery, two counts of aggravated sodomy, two counts of child molestation, and two counts of aggravated child molestation. Judgments of conviction were entered on the jury’s verdict, and Williams’s motion for new trial was denied. The trial court granted Williams leave to file this out-of-time appeal, in which he contends the trial court erred by refusing to allow him to impeach the victim by cross-examining her about prior false accusations of child molestation and by denying his motion for mistrial. Finding no reversible error, we affirm the judgments. Because of the parents’ poor housekeeping skills and financial problems, the victim and her younger brother, who are Williams’s minor children1 , were removed from their home by the Carroll County Department of Family and Children Services DFACS when the victim was not quite six years old. By that time, she had been sexually abused by her father many times. Williams had also made the younger brother fondle him.

Some time after the children had been placed with foster parents, the foster mother noticed a discharge in the victim’s panties. Although at first the victim was reluctant to talk to her foster mother about the abuse, after some urging by the foster mother she told the foster mother that her father had been abusing her and her younger brother.2 The foster mother reported this to DFACS.

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