Jеsse Donald Richardson (appellant) appeals his conviction by a jury of aggravated sexual battery under Code § 18.2- 67.3. 1 At trial, appellant sought to attack the victim’s credibility by introducing evidence that the victim made prior false allegations of sexual assault. The sole issue on appeal is whether the trial court abused its discretion in finding inadmissible evidence of alleged prior false allegations by the victim. We hold that the trial court did not abuse its discretion because appellant failed to provide a sufficiеnt proffer to allow the trial court to make the requisite threshold determination that a reasonable probability of falsity existed. Thus, we affirm the conviction.
I. BACKGROUND
Under familiar principles of appellate review, we examine the evidence in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth, granting to it all reasonable inferences fairly deducible therefrom.
See Juares v. Commonwealth,
On the evening of February 9-10, 2002, A.P., who was twelve years old, spent the night at the home of Rose Harris. Appellant, who was Harris’ brother, came to the house to change his clothes. When Harris left to run an errand, appellant went into Harris’ bedroom and pulled A.P. into the room. He touched hеr buttocks, put his hand under her shirt and rubbed her breasts, and exposed himself to her, saying, “You can’t handle this.” Appellant told her that he would be back later that night and that she should be waiting for him. When Harris returned home, A.P. told her what appellant had done, and Harris told her to sleep upstairs with the smaller children because appellant did not usually go upstairs. While in bed that night, appellant came into the room upstairs where the victim was sleeping, and sexually assaulted her. He threatened to kill her if she told anyone.
II. PRETRIAL MOTION
Prior to jury selection, appellant filed a “Notice of Admission of Evidence” pursuant to Code § 18.2-67.7 to allow him to present evidence of earlier false allegations of sexual assault against “Rose Harris’s son Ronny Prillaman ... and an adult male Matthew Hart.” Appellant stated that he could present evidence that A.P. had made two prior false accusations agаinst Ronny Prillaman and that Prillaman was “ready to testify that both of these allegations are untrue.” The
After rеviewing the standard for the admission of this type of evidence, the trial judge ruled as follows:
I have considered the [Clinebell] case,235 Va. 319 ,368 S.E.2d 263 . I have also considered the law of evidence in Virginia by Professor Friend and the proffеr of evidence from counsel for the defense. And it is the court’s opinion that the evidence listed on the Notice of Admission of Evidence pursuant to statute 18.2-67.7 would not be admissiblе.
Appellant was subsequently convicted of aggravated sexual battery under Code § 18.2-67.3. On appeal, appellant contends that the trial court abused its discretion in ruling that thе evidence proffered was inadmissible and that he was deprived of his constitutional right to cross-examine the witness. We disagree.
III. ANALYSIS
The issue we must decide in this case is whether the trial court abused its discretion in excluding the proffered testimony of Prillaman denying that he had earlier sexually assaulted the complaining witness. In effect, we must address whether a mere denial was sufficient to establish “a reasonable probability of falsity.”
“The admissibility of evidence is within the broad discretion of the trial court, and a ruling will not be disturbed on appeаl in the absence of an abuse of discretion.”
Blain v. Commonwealth,
The “reasonable probability of falsity” test enunciated by the Supreme Court in Clinebell, controls the admissibility of the proffered evidence in this case. In Clinebell, the trial court found that a father accused of rape by his daughter had a right to question her about two prior “patently untrue” claims that when she was ten and eleven years old she was pregnant and that she had earlier accused her uncle and grandfather оf sexual assault. 3 Because the victim’s prior claims were “obviously false,” the Supreme Court held that a jury could properly infer that her claims of sexual misconduct against hеr grandfather and uncle, and her pending claim against her father, were also false.
Unlike the factual scenario outlined above, the proffered evidence of fаlsity in the instant case is the mere denial by Prillaman of
Appellant’s reliance on
Winfield v. Commonwealth,
Thus, we hold that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in ruling that the proffered denial of Prillaman and the total absence of any proffer about the validity of her complaint of fondling by Matthew Hart does nоt satisfy the Clinebell threshold requirement of reasonable probability of falsity. Defense counsel conceded that he was unsure of the details of the allegations other than “what [hе could] piece together from, you know, talking to Rose [Harris (appellant’s sister) ] and the evidence that was presented at the preliminary hearing.” There was no evidence presented to support the prior allegations other than Prillaman’s denial, and no evidence at all was proffered about the complaint against Matthеw Hart. Thus, it was not an abuse of discretion of the trial court to find that this testimony, standing alone, would not provide a reasonable probability that the victim’s allegations were falsе. We, therefore, affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Affirmed.
Notes
. Appellant was also charged with statutory rape under Code § 18.2-61, and was acquitted of that charge at trial.
.
Because the evidence appellant sought to admit consists of prior allegations, not "sexual conduct” under Code § 18.2-67.7, the Rape Shield statute is not implicated in the instant case.
See Clinebell,
. Her grandfather was acquitted after a trial.