10-2696 U.S. v. Meschino

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Criminal Procedure
Cross-examination

It did not violate the defendant’s right to cross-examination to prohibit him from questioning a witness who accused him of sexually assaulting her about a recent allegation against a different family member.
“For one thing, the court observed that Meschino had no ‘concrete information’ to support his contention that Victim A was lying about her allegation against her stepbrother; Meschino offered only a negative inference drawn from an ambiguous statement Victim A reportedly made to her father that day after the alleged assault. In these circumstances the judge was properly concerned that Meschino was trying to ‘go around fishing on cross-examination hoping . . . to hit the jackpot’ while harassing Victim A, ‘dirty[ing] her up as much as [he] could.’ Furthermore, it was reasonable for the district court to conclude that even if there was some reason to doubt Victim A’s accusation against her stepbrother, this line of inquiry had little bearing on her testimony against Meschino because it was so dissimilar, concerned a different abuser, very different circumstances, and a singular event that took place six years after Meschino’s decade-long abuse had stopped. This was a reasonable exercise of discretion.”

Affirmed.

10-2696 U.S. v. Meschino

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Kocoras, J., Sykes, J.

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