The Wyoming Supreme Court has reversed a criminal conviction due to the admission of unrelated alleged acts.

On July 1, 2014, eleven-year-old MT, her mother, and sisters were fishing at Lions Park in Cheyenne. MT noticed [defendant] Mr. Dougherty pacing behind her, and when she turned around for the last time, he was within two to four feet of her with his hands in his pants and “playing with himself.” MT reported this to her mother who then observed that Mr. Dougherty was partially exposed and masturbating. MT’s mother then reported the incident to police.

Mr. Dougherty denied any wrongdoing when questioned by law enforcement – he only admitted that he was rubbing himself because of sciatic pain. Nevertheless, Mr. Dougherty was charged with one count of child endangering-obscene act pursuant to Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 6-4-403(b)(iii) (LexisNexis 2015). Under this statute, it is illegal to “[c]ommit any indecent or obscene act in the presence of a child.” The State moved to join the instant case with a previous charge on an unrelated incident in a different park with a different victim where Mr. Dougherty allegedly engaged in similar conduct. The district court granted the State’s motion.

 The court

When considering the evidence against Mr. Dougherty in its entirety, we conclude that there is a reasonable possibility that the verdict would have been more favorable to him if the judgment and sentence documents had not been admitted. Those documents, without any further supporting evidence, existed only to show that Mr. Dougherty had a propensity for committing crimes. W.R.E. 404(b) clearly states: – “Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show that he acted in conformity therewith.” As a result, this Court can only conclude that the error in admitting the judgment and sentence documents was not harmless. We must reverse and remand for a new trial.

(Mike Frisch)