Joe is convicted of child sexual abuse. There is a civil lawsuit filed by Joe’s victim seeking damages for the same abuse. Is Joe’s criminal court conviction admissible? And, what is the effect of admitting the conviction into evidence.
Yes. In Bowen ex rel. Doe v. Arnold, 502 S.W.3rd 102 (Tenn. 2016) the Tennessee Supreme Court held that a judgment in favor of the prosecuting authority is preclusive in favor of a third person in a civil action against the defendant in the criminal prosecution. The Court allowed the use of the doctrine of offensive collateral estoppel to allowed the plaintiff in the civil suit to use the conviction to conclusively establish the wrongful acts proved in the criminal case. In doing so, the Court adopted Section 85 and Section 29 of the Restatement (Second) of Judgments.