People v. Guthreau

In People v. Guthreau (1980) 102 Cal.App.3d 436, the Court held the testimony from a "rape expert" was inadmissible in a criminal prosecution for forcible rape (Pen. Code, 261, subd. 2). The Court explained the issue is not whether in some abstract sense the victim's resistance was reasonable, but whether the resistance was sufficient to reasonably manifest her refusal to the defendant. ( Id., at p. 441.) The expert's opinion of the prosecutrix's resistance was irrelevant to the defendant's good faith reasonable belief as to the resistance. ( Id., at p. 442.)