The Missouri Southern District Court of Appeals has rejected a Springfield man's attempt to have his conviction for statutory sodomy overturned.
In a decision handed down December 28, the panel rejected the claims of Matt Jenner, 52, that his attorney should have been allowed to question the victim's mother about whether her own history of being sexually abused as a child might have clouded her testimony of what she saw when she walked in on Jenner, who was her boyfriend, with her daughter in the child's bedroom.
Judge Calvin Holden did not allow Jenner's lawyer to interrogate the woman about her history, but both sides stipulated that the mother had been sexually abused. The judge allowed Jenner's attorney to argue that the history might have made a difference in her testimony.
A Greene County jury convicted Jenner on April 27, 2015, and Holden sentenced him to 18 years in prison.
According to the case background provided in the appellate court decision, Jenner had been touching the child's breasts and genital area between August 1, 2012, and January 18, 2014.
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