Personal Injury

ELEMENT: PERSONAL INJURY
FIRST DEGREE CRIMINAL SEXUAL CONDUCT

For purposes of charging the accused with First Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct, “personal Injury” can be established when the accuser suffered scratches, abrasions , and after the penetration the accuser was emotionally distrubed, screamed, cried and was visibly shaken.

Evidence of mental anguish is sufficient to establish the personal injury element of first-degree criminal sexual conduct so long as a rational trier of fact could find beyond a reasonable doubt that the accuser sustained extreme or excruciating pain, distress, or suffering of the mind.

BLANK LAW, PC EXAMPLE – PERSONAL INJURY
Where the accuser claimed that she was raped (penetration), she claimed she had a sore neck, was upset, did not return to work for quite some time and took up another job was sufficient for the “personal Injury” element to charge First Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct.

Sufficient evidence was produced to satisfy the “personal injury” element of first degree criminal sexual conduct where it was shown that the accuser was subjected to both bodily injury and mental anguish in six different incidents of penetration, including having her hands tied tightly, having her legs forced apart, being struck with an open hand, having a necktie wrapped around her throat, being threatened, being tied and strapped to a vehicle, and being locked in a sauna.

Sufficient evidence was presented to support a finding of “personal injury” under the First Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct statute, even if that statute’s reference to mental anguish is construed to mean extreme mental anguish, where, as a result of the trauma suffered by the accuser by reason of the sexual assault, the accuser claimed she was unable to return to work for some time and then only to another job.