Gomez

Filed 11/3/

CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION

COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

THE PEOPLE, D083403

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v. (Super. Ct. No. SCD299373)

RAYMUNDO GOMEZ,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from a judgment of the Superior Court of San Diego County, Joan P. Weber, Judge. Reversed and remanded. Aurora Elizabeth Bewicke, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorney General, Charles C. Ragland, Assistant Attorney General, Collette C. Cavalier, Joy Utomi and James H. Flaherty III, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent. This case puts into tension two undeniably important rights: a parent’s right to protect their child’s emotional wellbeing and a criminal defendant’s constitutional right to confront the witnesses against him. Raymundo Gomez was accused of committing multiple lewd acts against children he contacted in a public swimming pool. One of the victims, an eight-year-old girl named Katrina G., described the abuse in a forensic interview and a…