People v. Fonseca CA1/2

BACKGROUND

The complaining witness (E.L.) is related to defendant through her father, who is defendant’s first cousin.1 Defendant is about 10 years her elder, and she always referred to him as her uncle, or “tio.” They did not grow up together and saw each other infrequently, only at family gatherings a couple of times a year. At the time of the events in question, defendant had recently graduated from medical school and was looking ahead to start a career in medicine. E.L. was 20 years old and on summer break after her sophomore year of college, living at home in San Francisco with her parents and her younger brother who then was around 17 years old. E.L., by her own account, had a “pretty high” tolerance for alcohol. Unbeknownst to her parents, she had begun occasionally drinking in high school and in college she drank frequently. She estimated she had blacked out from drinking around five times in the past (and at the preliminary

1The parties referred to her below as defendant’s “second cousin,” although technically she is defendant’s first cousin once removed. For purposes here, we refer to her as his “cousin.” 2 hearing, put the figure at five to ten times), and testified…