State v. Awbery, 367 P.3d 346

Awbery was convicted in October 2013 in Montana Tenth Judicial District Court on six felonies including incest, sexual assault, and sexual intercourse without consent.
Victims A.A., J.G., I.A., and N.H. testified describing various acts of sexual abuse by Awbery, with threats made to ensure silence.
The State presented three expert witnesses regarding abuse dynamics and PTSD-related symptoms in the victims; the court cautioned that expert testimony cannot prove guilt or truthfulness of victims.
During trial, the defense sought to introduce evidence of prior sexual assaults on the victims by others to explain PTSD and possible false allegations; the district court restricted this evidence under the Rape Shield Law and balancing tests.
The district court found no sufficient foundation for admitting the prior assaults and concluded the evidence risked prejudice, confusion, and time-wasting, and would not satisfy Rape Shield exceptions.
Awbery was sentenced in March 2014 to prison terms after a jury conviction on all counts.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
admissibility of prior-abuse evidence under rape shield	Awbery	Awbery	District court properly excluded
prosecutorial misconduct in closing argument entitling new trial	Awbery	Awbery	No plain-error review; no reversible misconduct
cumulative error entitling new trial	Awbery	Awbery	Declined due to disposition of prior issues

State v. Higley, 190 Mont. 412, 621 P.2d 1043 (1980) (rape shield protections; limits on admissibility)
State v. Johnson, 288 Mont. 513, 958 P.2d 1182 (1992) (defense right to present evidence; balancing with rape shield)
State v. MacKinnon, 288 Mont. 329, 957 P.2d 23 (1998) (confrontation and patient presentation of defense evidence)
State v. Colburn, 382 Mont. 223, 366 P.3d 258 (2016 MT 41) (reversed conviction; error in excluding interviewing-evidence and rape shield application)
State v. Lindberg, 347 Mont. 76, 196 P.3d 1252 (2008) (courtalyze balancing test under evidentiary rules)
State v. Aker, 371 Mont. 491, 310 P.3d 506 (2013) (plain-error review and fundamental rights framework)
Commonwealth v. Fernsler, 715 A.2d 435 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1998) (evidence of prior sexual conduct and relevance balancing)
State v. Colburn, 298 P.3d 291 (2016) (see above; included for comparison of evidentiary rulings)
Michigan v. Lucas, 500 U.S. 145 (1991) (rape shield principles in federal context)
State v. Hayden, 345 Mont. 252, 190 P.3d 1091 (2008) (plain-error review framework)
Beehler v. Eastern Radiological Assoc., 367 Mont. 21, 289 P.3d 131 (2012) (abuse of discretion standard in evidentiary rulings)