The Third District Appellate Court in Ottawa says a Seneca man wasn’t denied a fair trial. 24-year old Kevin J. Paulsen claimed that prosecutors misrepresented DNA evidence during his criminal sexual assault trial in 2021. Prosecutors said the chances of another DNA profile being on the 72-year old victim he sexually assaulted was one in twenty octillion, which has got to be the same odds as being struck by lightning every day for the rest of your life if you lived to be 100. Paulsen’s lawyers said the odds are more comparable to being struck seven times a person’s lifetime until they’re 100, so the prosecutors greatly exaggerated the numbers and caused him to not have a fair trial. All three Appellate judges ruled that prosecutors are allowed to exaggerate during the closing arguments and the jury would have reached the same guilty verdict without the statement. Paulsen is serving a sixteen year prison sentence for inappropriately touching the elderly woman in her Seneca trailer in 2020.
Appellate Court says Seneca man got fair criminal sexual assault trial
Feb 21, 2023 | 5:39 AM