Criminal Sexual Assault of a Child.
Found Not Guilty
E.A.’s cousin accused him sexually assaulting her when she was 16 years old. If found guilty, E.A. would likely have spent the rest of his life in prison.
At trial, Mr. Bolotin blew E.A.’s cousin’s story out of the water. E.A. claimed the assault occurred on the bottom bunk while another family member was in the top bunk. E.A. claimed the other family member wore expensive noise cancelling headphones and that’s why he did not hear or stop the assault from occurring.
Mr. Bolotin pointed out the family had limited means and did not have the funds to purchase expensive headphones. Mr. Bolotin also pointed out that the cousin did not want to live with E.A.’s family and was adamant about moving to Florida to be with her biological father.
E.A.’s cousin also claimed, for the first time on the stand, that she specifically remembered E.A. having a cut on his thumb the day she claimed he assaulted her. While most attorneys never ask questions they don’t know the answer to during cross examination, Mr. Bolotin recognized this was the perfect opportunity to show the cousin’s capacity to make up fantastical stories. He asked her to describe the cut further. She testified at length describing the how deep the cut was, how disgusting it looked. The cut, she testified, was burned into her memory.
It was burned into her memory, Mr. Bolotin asked, yet she never once described it to a single person before trial? Not to the police during in any of her multiple interviews? Not even in her creative writing essay where she first made the allegation? Her story made no sense.
At the close of the evidence, E.A. was found Not Guilty.
