What is the test for inadmissible evidence in a sexual assault case?

"We reject defendant's claim that because the distinctions between the two incidents render their similarities more apparent than real, the evidence was inadmissible." (People v. Dancer (1996) 45 Cal.App.4th 1677, 1690, disapproved on other grounds in People v. Hammon (1997) 15 Cal.4th 1117, 1123.) Defendant has noted specific differences in the two matters; however, these specific differences "do not negate the basic similarity between the two incidents." (Dancer, at p. 1690.)

Despite defendant's claimed dissimilarities in the cases, the evidence on the uncharged offense was highly probative. Each offense showed defendant, in the privacy of his own home with a sleeping or relaxed teenage girl late at night, fondling her, removing her pants and underpants, beginning a sexual assault with his hands on her genitals, and refusing to stop despite her pleas for him to do so. In each, he also made efforts to dissuade the girl from reporting the offense or testifying about it. The offenses were sufficiently similar that the prior uncharged offense had substantial probative value, despite the differences between the offenses. (See People v. Escudero (2010) 183 Cal.App.4th 302, 311.)