MOISES ALVELO, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE
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Affirmed conviction for lewd acts upon a child; trial court properly excluded evidence of victim's father's violent nature as hearsay and properly excluded character evidence regarding appellant's reputation for not committing such offenses.
A trial court does not err in excluding evidence of a victim's father's violent nature when such evidence is hearsay or otherwise inadmissible, and in excluding character evidence that the defendant had a reputation for not committing child abuse, as such reputation would not be openly exhibited to the community.
[1] Character evidence that a defendant had a reputation for not committing child abuse is inadmissible because such conduct would not be openly exhibited to the community an…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAppellant was convicted of committing lewd acts upon a child. Appellant sought to introduce evidence that the victim's father was violent and hated ho…
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HARRIS, J.
Appellant was found guilty of committing lewd acts upon a child. He now contends that the court erred when it would not permit him to fully inquire into the violent nature of the victim’s father in order to establish his theory of the case, that the victim fabricated the charge against appellant out of fear of his father. The victim’s fear of his father’s hatred of homosexuals (the victim was an admitted homosexual) was clearly established by the record. The proffered evidence excluded by the court was either hearsay or otherwise inadmissible.
Appellant also urges error in the court’s refusal to permit him to put on character evidence that he was of good moral character, specifically, that he had a reputation for not committing this kind of offense. We agree with the trial court that this is not the kind of evidence contemplated by character testimony. Unlike one’s reputation for honesty or peacefulness, traits that might be noticed by the community, whether one secretly molests children or does not would not be openly exhibited to the community. We find no error in the court’s not permitting a string of witnesses to testify that appellant had never abused them or anyone they knew. Such would be irrelevant to the question as to whether appellant abused the victim.
AFFIRMED.
W. SHARP, and GRIFFIN, JJ., concur.
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Hendricks v. State, 34 So. 3d 819 (Fla. 1st DCA 2010)…ntroduce evidence of his reputation for sexual morality for the purpose of showing he does not have the character trait necessary for committing acts of child molestation. However, the Fifth District addressed this issue in dicta in Alvelo v. State, 769 So. 2d 476, 477 (Fla. 5th DCA 2000). There, the defendant, who was accused of committing lewd acts upon a child, attempted to call “a string of witnesses to testify that [he] had never abused them or anyone they knew.” Id. at 477. Although the defendant in Alv…1 / 2
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Othlone Russ v. State, 934 So. 2d 527 (Fla. 3d DCA 2006)…stated by the Fifth District, “[u]n-like one’s reputation for honesty or peacefulness, traits that might be noticed by the community, whether one secretly molests children or does not would not be openly exhibited to the community.” Alvelo v. State, 769 So. 2d 476, 477 (Fla. 5th DCA 2000). We therefore affirm Russ’s conviction on all counts except for Count I which we reverse on the State’s proper concession of error. Affirmed in part, reversed in part. . Russ also claims, and the State concedes, that the…