P. v. Pacheco CA5
Steven Adrian Pacheco was convicted of 14 counts of sexually molesting his stepdaughter, who was 15 years old when the abuse was revealed. At trial, Pacheco admitted to certain acts of touching, but said they happened when he and his stepdaughter were roughhousing and he had no sexual intent. In this appeal, he argues that the trial court abused its discretion when it admitted some evidence of prior acts to prove that his touching the victim did have a sexual intent. Specifically, the court admitted: (1) evidence that Pacheco possessed numerous items of pornography with the word “teen” in the title; and (2) a document handwritten by Pacheco describing means by which a lesbian sexual predator might take advantage of a victim. Pacheco maintains that this was evidence of his character, was being used to prove his conduct on specific occasions, and thus was inadmissible under Evidence Code section 1101, subdivision (a). The trial court admitted the evidence as probative of intent
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