Criminal Law: Sexual Abuse, Sufficiency of Evidence, Variance from Indictment

Defendant was convicted of sexual abuse and attempted witness-tampering, stemming from an assault on his girlfriend. On appeal, defendant challenged the sufficiency of the evidence, argued that the district court erroneously admitted hearsay evidence and alleged there was a fatal variance from his indictment on the witness-tampering charge.

Where jury heard evidence that defendant placed the victim in such fear of her safety that she agreed to a sexual act, and urged the victim to recant her story to avoid negative consequences to defendant, the evidence was sufficient to support defendant’s conviction for sexual abuse and attempted witness-tampering.

Judgment is affirmed.

U.S. v. Iu (MLW No. 72871/Case No. 17-3237 – 13 pages) (U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit, Shepherd, J.) Appealed from U.S. District Court, District of North Dakota, Hovland, J. (Neil Fulton for appellant; Christopher P. Bellmore and Bryan Dean on brief) (Jonathan O’Konek for appellee; Jonathan O’Konek on brief)