United States v. Male N.A. Juvenile

MEMORANDUM *

The defendant appeals his conviction for sexually assaulting his six-year-old cousin. He argues that his conviction should be reversed because (1) the prosecutor engaged in misconduct; (2) the indictment failed to provide sufficient notice of one of the crimes charged; and (3) the jury instructions were erroneous. We affirm the judgment of conviction.

I.

The defendant first argues that the prosecutor engaged in misconduct by repeatedly questioning him regarding the fact that the FBI had interrogated him about sexually assaulting other young cousins of his, and by making reference to those interrogations during closing argument. By doing so, he claims, the prosecutor inappropriately created the impression that the defendant was a serial child molester. We conclude that there was no prosecutorial misconduct.

On direct examination, the defendant claimed that, under FBI questioning, he confessed to sexually assaulting his young cousin because the FBI’s persistent interrogation left him unable to deny the charge, even though it was false. On cross-examination, the prosecutor introduced evidence that during the interrogation the defendant denied sexually assaulting…