Pennsylvania’s Rape Shield Law does not apply in a prosecution on charges of endangering the welfare of a child, the state Superior Court has said, reversing the conviction of a woman who failed to call police after her adoptive daughter reported she had been sexually assaulted.
A unanimous three-judge panel of the Superior Court ruled recently in Commonwealth v. Schley that the plain language of the Rape Shield Law should not have been used to bar the defendant from introducing evidence that the victim had previously made false sexual-assault allegations against others. The decision outlined in the court’s published opinion overruled an Allegheny County judge’s decision to bar the evidence.
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