Douglas County, District Court Judge Russell Bowie
Attorney for Appellant: Keith Dornan (Dornan, Troia, Howard, Breitkreutz, Dahlquist & Klein)
Attorney for Appellee: P. Christian Adamski (Nebraska Attorney General’s Office)
Criminal Action: Sexual Assault, Incest
Action Taken by Trial Court:
Portillo was charged with three counts of first degree sexual assault of a child and three counts of incest. After a jury trial, he was convicted of two of the sexual assault charges and two of the incest charges. The district court sentenced him to 20 to 30 years’ imprisonment for each of the sexual assault convictions and 10 to 15 years’ imprisonment for each of the incest convictions. All the sentences were set to run concurrently.
Assignments of Error on Appeal:
Appellant assigns 17 errors on appeal. He assigns that the district court erred by (1) granting the State’s motion in limine regarding his conduct during a pool game; (2) failing to release all of the victim’s therapy records prior to trial; (3) advising and allowing the State to recall the victim’s therapist as a witness; and (4) denying his motion for a mistrial. Appellant also assigns that (5) the evidence was insufficient for a rational trier of fact to find that the State proved the elements of the charged crimes beyond a reasonable doubt.
Appellant additionally assigns that he received ineffective assistance of trial counsel because his trial counsel failed to (6) object to testimony regarding the pool game; (7) introduce the victim’s forensic interview into evidence; (8) impeach the victim based on her prior inconsistent statements made during her medical examination; (9) impeach the victim based on her prior inconsistent statements made during her deposition; (10) motion for a new trial based on prosecutorial misconduct; (11) call him to testify in his own defense; and (12-16) investigate and call five individuals as witnesses at trial. Lastly, Portillo assigns that (17) the cumulative errors of his trial counsel prejudiced his case and did not meet the standards for effective representation.