State v. Rivera, 2019 UT App 213 (Nov. 21, 2019)

In this appeal from a conviction for three counts of child abuse, the defendant argued that the district court should have rejected the children-victims’ testimony as inherently improbable.  The court of appeals discussed and applied the “inherent improbability exception” articulated in State v. Robbins, 2009 UT 23, and State v. Prater, 2017 UT 13, and held that the defendant had not satisfied the requirements for the exception, such that the district court could not have reconsidered the victims’ credibility.  The defendant had failed to show that one of the three required elements of the exception was present: that there was no corroboration of the victims’ testimony.