Harvard Dental student’s conviction of forcible rape overturned

In 2004 a promising University dental student, age 32, was convicted of forcibly raping a 28-year-old young woman in the back seat of his car after a night of drinking. He was sentenced to six years in state prison and his license to practice dentistry was revoked.

One day into beginning his sentence, the dental student hired the Denner●Pellegrino law firm to orchestrate his appeal. Denner●Pellegrino attorneys Brad Bailey and Jeffrey Denner successfully argued to the Appeals Court that the judge in the first trial had failed to properly instruct jurors on the relationship between a victim’s intoxication and consent. The attorneys further argued that the instruction actually given was insufficient and erroneous because it failed to explain that the jury needed not simply to find that the victim was intoxicated but also that the victim’s level of intoxication was such that she was incapable of consenting. Our attorneys also argued that the dentist did not have a fair trial because the judge promised to give a similar instruction twice, and then failed to do so.

Result:

On September 11, 2006, the State Appeals Court reversed the guilty verdict.

Result, as described in The Boston Herald, (no date noted):

• “Judge’s Error on sex consent nixes rape rap”

And The Boston Herald on 9/22/2006:

• “Appeal frees dentist in rape case”

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