People v. Herman

Defendant police sergeant was convicted, after bench trial, of multiple offenses relating to alleged criminal sexual assault while officer was on duty, official misconduct and kidnaping. Victim's admitted crack addiction bears upon her propensity for deceit and her capacity to observe and retain information accurately. Court's findings that victim's testimony was corroborated, and was uncontradicted, were erroneous, and that testimony was highly relevant to the proof necessary to establish whether Defendant was acting in his official capacity at time of incident. Inconsistencies seriously undermined victim's testimony on material points and made it impossible for any fact finder reasonably to accept any part of her testimony; and court relied on an improper inference and misstated evidence. Thus, Defendant was not proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. (KARNEZIS and HARRIS, concurring.)