THE defense said it received a tip that a judicial clerk had exculpatory evidence based on a conversation with the victim in the rape case against William Abraczinskas.
Exculpatory evidence is favorable to a defendant in a criminal trial, helping to prove their innocence or reduce their culpability.
On Sept. 13, 2024, a jury found Abraczinskas, 36, guilty of sexual assault in the first degree, assault and battery, and disturbing the peace.
He was scheduled to be sentenced on April 28, 2025; however, on the same day, his attorney, Richard Miller, filed a motion for a new trial on the grounds of newly discovered evidence.
Superior Court Judge Pro Tem Elyze Iriarte delayed the sentencing and scheduled an evidentiary hearing for June 23 at 10 a.m.
According to Miller, “The new evidence discovered only four days ago (April 24), involves personal knowledge of relevant conversations sometime after April 8, 2023, and before the case was in the news, between the victim and a judicial clerk who has been assisting the trial judge at trial and in post-trial matters.”
“On April 24, 2025,” Miller said, “the defense received a tip that a judicial clerk, Eva Calvo, had exculpatory evidence based on conversations she had had with the victim.”
That afternoon, defense investigator Jeremiah Wolfe interviewed the tipster and confirmed the information, Miller said.
“On April 25, 2025, Mr. Wolfe interviewed Ms. Calvo. Ms. Calvo told him that sometime after the alleged incident, but before the case made it into the news, she and the victim were outside on a smoke break when the victim told her about being with Mr. Abraczinskas, getting kicked out of the pool and going to the beach, and then going back to Mr. Abraczinskas’s apartment, and that the victim related all this with a cheerful demeanor — she ‘kinda laughed about it’ — without giving any indication she had been assaulted.”
According to Miller, “Ms. Calvo told Mr. Wolfe that…the events…of April 8 didn’t sound like what was later portrayed in the news. In a second, later conversation, also before charges were brought, the victim showed Ms. Calvo a photograph of a man’s genitalia [which] was ‘light skinned.’ After that, Ms. Calvo stayed away from the victim because she was uncomfortable. Ms. Calvo was assigned to serve as Judge Pro Tempore Elyze Iriarte’s judicial clerk in this matter and was present at the bench throughout the trial. She addressed the jury venire [potential jurors] and took roll call on Day 1 of the trial, September 9, 2024.”
Miller said the evidence that “Abraczinskas proffers meets all requirements for a motion for new trial based on newly discovered evidence.”
He said the evidence was not discovered until months after the trial concluded and was brought to the court’s attention within days of its discovery.
According to Miller, there was no reason for trial counsel, the Office of the Public Defender, to suppose they should try to interview Calvo.
“The Commonwealth’s discovery did not indicate she was in any way a witness or might have information that was material to this case. Her acceptance of an assignment to assist the trial judge in this case would lead to a reasonable inference that she had no personal knowledge of facts that would create a conflict of interest,” Miller said.
“The evidence is material to whether Mr. Abraczinskas assaulted the victim and disturbed her peace on April 8, 2023,” he said. “It shows that she was not at all disturbed, that she happily described the events of April 8 without any hint that there had been an assault. Not only could it have been used to impeach the victim’s credibility on cross-examination, but Ms. Calvo could have been called by the defense to testify directly. Her testimony as to what the victim told her would have been admissible under the hearsay exception for statements showing the declarant’s state of mind,” Miller added.
“In a case such as this, where there is no physical evidence of a sexual assault and the Commonwealth’s case and the verdict rests almost entirely on the victim’s testimony and credibility, it is probable that this evidence would change the result,” Miller said.
The defense has subpoenaed Calvo to testify in the evidentiary hearing on June 23.
Background
On May 26, 2023, police received a walk-in complaint from a judicial employee, who accused her co-worker, Abraczinskas, of sexually assaulting her on April 8, 2023, at Beach Garden Apartments.
She also told investigators that she had learned that Abraczinskas filed a sexual harassment complaint against her with the judiciary’s human resources office.
After meeting with HR and opening up to her supervisor about the sexual assault, she said she found the courage to come to the Department of Public Safety and tell her side of the incident.
Abraczinskas has denied the charges.
