Background
Robert MacLean was convicted by a federal jury of abusive sexual contact while in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States. The charges stemmed from multiple instances of unwanted touching of a female passenger, W.J., during a flight from Chicago to Salt Lake City in March of two thousand and twenty-two. The district court sentenced MacLean to fifteen months of imprisonment.
The court’s reasoning
The panel addressed two primary arguments. First, regarding the exclusion of a Salt Lake City police report, the court held that no Sixth Amendment right exists to show a witness a document containing prior inconsistent statements when the document is not offered into evidence. Second, regarding the lesser-included offense instruction for simple assault, the court reasoned that abusive sexual contact is a granular offense. The knee-touching incident was a separate event from the breast contact charged in the indictment, so simple assault was not a lesser-included offense of the specific charge brought.
What it means going forward
The decision reinforces the granular nature of abusive sexual contact charges in the Tenth Circuit and clarifies the limits of cross-examination regarding police reports that are not admitted as evidence.