What is the test for admitting evidence of sexual assault where the alleged victim pled guilty to prostitution?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Casas, 181 Cal.App.3d 889, 226 Cal.Rptr. 285 (Cal. App. 1986):

People v. Varona (1983) 143 Cal.App.3d 566, 192 Cal.Rptr. 44, upon which defendant relies is not applicable. In that case, the two defendants were convicted of rape and false imprisonment and one of them was convicted of forcible oral copulation. The defendants had offered evidence the alleged victim had pled guilty to prostitution. The reviewing court found it was an abuse of discretion to exclude the evidence under section 782. However, the court acknowledged the particular facts were compelling. "We do not, here, hold that in every rape case where the prosecutrix is a prostitute, evidence of the fact must be admitted to show consent. The official records offered here show, not only that the woman was a prostitute, but: (1) that, in pursuit of her profession, she walked the night streets, in this very area, to solicit customers; and (2) that, in the practice of that profession, she not only engaged in normal intercourse, but that she specialized in oral copulation. The first fact is here of special significance in that it casts light on the woman's story that she was walking to the bus stop because the 'friend' who had driven her from the friend's home had callously refused to drive [181 Cal.App.3d 897] two blocks further, to the bus stop because the friend had, at 11:30 p.m., an urgent appointment at home. The second fact is also very significant in that it tends to support the defense claim that the oral copulation, on which count IV was based, was voluntarily engaged in by the woman." (Id., at pp. 569-570, 192 Cal.Rptr. 44.)

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