P. v. Whicker
Defendant Richard Scott Whicker was convicted of sexually molesting his two prepubescent sons. On appeal he contends that the trial court committed numerous errors in the admission and exclusion of evidence. We agree that the court erred in at least four respects, by admitting extremely flimsy evidence of other inappropriate behavior by defendant toward children; by admitting irrelevant or marginally relevant but highly prejudicial evidence concerning his sexual predilections toward adults; by admitting incriminating extrajudicial statements by his sons without following the clearly prescribed statutory procedure for assessing their reliability; and by misapplying the rule of evidence permitting the admission of an entire conversation, or its relevant portions, when part has been admitted. The sheer number of unsustainable evidentiary rulings makes it impossible for us to conclude that defendant received a fair trial, or that the verdict was not the product of these errors. Accordingly, Court reverse the judgment.
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