Sexual assault trial starts Monday

PORTALES — The final preparations were made Friday before the trial of a Portales man accused of sexual assault.

Roy Brown, 29, is accused of breaking into a woman’s home two miles south of Portales in June 2016 and attacking her as she slept. His trial begins 9 a.m. Monday.

Judge Donna Mowrer responded to a motion by Brown’s attorney Gokul Krishna Sripada by ordering a state witness — a sexual assault nurse who examined the woman — not to testify as to the cause of her injuries.

Sripada asked that the witness not testify as to how the injuries were caused to avoid “vouching” for the state.

“(The testimony) should be limited to the extent that all she can maybe testify about is what injuries she saw; not where they came from, not where she believed they came from, but just what she saw,” he said.

District Attorney Andrea Reeb argued that stating the cause of the injuries is not “vouching,” but simply making an observation.

“For her to say that it’s consistent with penetration or consistent with forced penetration is not vouching for the victim. It’s permissible. It’s been permissible in every rape trial I’ve ever been in over the years.”

Mowrer ruled that the nurse “may testify that the injuries are consistent with what the victim said, without saying what the victim said.”

Also addressed at the hearing:

n The disclosure of a U-Visa application by the woman was made available to the defense.

n Mowrer ruled that the nurse was qualified to give testimony about sexual assault, but not about strangulation.

n Mowrer denied a request by the defense that the jury be able to visit the scene of the alleged crime.