## Facts

- Gerald Zimmerman was convicted in New Mexico district court of **first-degree criminal sexual penetration** involving his **stepdaughter**.
- Zimmerman filed a **direct appeal** to the **New Mexico Court of Appeals**.
- In the appellate briefing, the parties used the **names of the children** involved in the case rather than initials or other identifiers.
- The Court of Appeals decided the appeal in an **unpublished** decision reported at **2010 WL 4550716 (N.M. Ct. App. 2010)**.
- Available secondary information identifies the opinion as authored by **Robles, J.**

## Issues

1. What action should the New Mexico Court of Appeals take when appellate briefing in a criminal appeal identifies children involved in the case by **name**?

## Decision

- The New Mexico Court of Appeals resolved Zimmerman’s appeal in an unpublished decision reported at **2010 WL 4550716 (2010)**.
- The decision addresses, at least in part, the fact that the appellate briefs used the **children’s names** in connection with a prosecution for first-degree criminal sexual penetration of Zimmerman’s stepdaughter.
- Because the full opinion text is not available in the materials provided here, the case brief cannot state the court’s full reasoning or the appeal’s final disposition (for example, affirmed, reversed, or remanded) without risking error.

## Legal Principles

- Appellate courts commonly treat the identity of minors involved in sexual-offense prosecutions as confidential and may require the use of **initials**, **generic descriptors**, or **redaction** in briefs and other filings, consistent with court rules and any case-specific protective orders.
- When filings disclose protected identifying information, an appellate court may respond through case-management measures such as directing corrected briefs, restricting public access to certain filings, or ordering redactions in the record.
- Unpublished New Mexico appellate decisions distributed primarily through a Westlaw citation generally have restricted precedential use, subject to New Mexico’s rules governing citation of unpublished memorandum opinions.

## Conclusion

*State v. Zimmerman*, 2010 WL 4550716 (N.M. Ct. App. 2010), is an unpublished New Mexico Court of Appeals decision in which Gerald Zimmerman appealed a first-degree criminal sexual penetration conviction involving his stepdaughter; the appellate briefing used the names of the children involved, and the decision reflects the court’s handling of that circumstance, though the full holding and disposition cannot be stated from the limited publicly available summary referenced here.


State v. Zimmerman, 2010 WL 4550716 (2010)