S-17-0761 State v. Anthony L. Swindle (Appellant)
District court for Douglas County, Honorable Thomas Otepka
Attorneys: Glen Th. Parks (Attorney General’s Office) --- James J. Regan (Appellant)
Civil: 1st degree sexual assault of a child, two counts; sex trafficking of minor; sex trafficking; habitual criminal
Proceedings below: Following a jury trial, Appellant was convicted and sentenced to 60 years to life for Count 1, 60 years to life for Count 2, 40 to 60 years for Count 3, and 20 to 60 years for Count 4.
Issues: The district court erred in 1) instructing the jury on the elements of Count 3 of the
Amended Information by failing to instruct that an element of the offense was that Appellant knew or should have known that the alleged victim in question had not attained the age of 16 years, 2) refusing to allow Appellant to question M.M., as allowed by Neb. Rev. Stat. §27-412, about her history of making false claims of forcible rape when she got in trouble for running away, a line of questioning that went to her credibility, 4) applying Neb. Rev. Stat. §27-412 to prohibit questioning of a witness of matters of credibility, thereby denying Appellant his constitutional right of confrontation, 4) its rulings concerning the admissibility of evidence allowed by Neb. Rev. Stat. §27-801(4)(b)(i) by not requiring evidence of the actual statement of Appellant and allowing witnesses to attribute statements to Appellant without adequate foundation, 5) refusing to order a mistrial based upon the prosecution’s misconduct in arguing its case to the jury based on claims that it knew, or should have known, were false and inflammatory, and 6) imposing a sentence that was excessive under the circumstances.