State v. Read

Decided April 3, 1877

Supreme Court of Iowa · decided 1877-04-03

One Elizabeth Dewees filed a complaint against the defendant, charging him with being the father by her of an illegitimate child. On the trial she testified that the defendant was the father of the child, and that she called on him for assistance and he gave her $25. The defendant testified that he never had sexual connection with her. He admitted that he paid her $25, but he said he obtained it for her, at her request, from a friend of hers.

Decided 1877-04-03

Adams, J.

¶1i. criminal bastardy. If the complainant was accustomed, both before and after the child was conceived, to occupy the same bed with a person who might have been the father of the child, evidence of such fact, we think, was admissible, as tending to affect the credibility of the complainant’s testimony.

¶2In excluding such evidence we think that the District Court erred.

¶3Reversed.