Evidentiary Hearing.

Byline: Derek Hawkins

WI Court of Appeals District I

Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. Antonio L. Bell

Case No.: 2018AP1593-CR; 2018AP1594-CR

Officials: Brash, P.J., Kessler and Fitzpatrick, JJ.

Focus: Evidentiary Hearing

Antonio L. Bell appeals his judgments of conviction for second-degree sexual assault of a child and third-degree sexual assault, as well as the order denying his postconviction motions. The victims in this case are Bell's daughter, C.B., who was nine years old at the time the charges were filed, and his stepdaughter, S.E., who was fourteen. Bell pled no contest to these charges but maintained his innocence, stating that he entered the pleas to spare his children from having to testify at a trial.

After the assaults were reported, both girls tested positive for a sexually-transmitted diseasechlamydia. In his initial postconviction motion, Bell argued that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to investigate S.E.'s boyfriend as a potential third-party perpetrator, because he was known to have tested positive for chlamydia, whereas there was no evidence that Bell ever had chlamydia.

In his supplemental postconviction motion, Bell argued the existence of newly discovered evidence relating to C.B. Prior to Bell entering his pleas, C.B. had recanted her statement that Bell had assaulted her. After he was sentenced, however, C.B. made a second, more detailed recantation: not only did she again state that Bell had not assaulted her, she declared that the...