Tyrone Loftin - Perjury / False Accusation

Loftin, Tyrone ; sexual assault; NRE: perjury/false accusation, no crime

[896:789]; 4th Dept. 3/26/10; reversed, due to evidentiary errors

"County Court erred in precluding [defense counsel] from cross-examining the victim with respect to the petit larceny charge. According to that charge, the victim had assaulted and robbed an ex-boyfriend but suddenly reported to the police that it was the ex-boyfriend who had assaulted her. Those allegations are similar to allegations made by [Loftin] in the [present] case..."

"[T]he court [also] erred in failing to conduct a...hearing with respect to his statements to police that 'in the past he had tried forcing sex from women' and that 'it was difficult to take sex if they didn't want to give it up.'...The court was required to determine whether the probative value of those statements outweighed the potential for prejudice inasmuch as those statements were not admissions related to the [present] charges but, rather, constituted evidence of prior bad acts..."

NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"In April 2008, 48-year-old Tyrone Loftin was charged with raping a 19-year-old woman who was cleaning his house in Syracuse, New York."

"Loftin testified and contended that the woman was a sex worker and that she became angry when he refused to pay her.

"A jury convicted Loftin on September 4, 2008 and he was sentenced to 17 years in prison."

"Armed with the ability to cross-examine the victim about her prior accusations against her boyfriend, Loftin went on trial a second time in July 2010. On July 21, he was acquitted by a jury and released from prison."