Opinion ID: 811159
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Prior Arrests

Text: Over Sanchez’s objection, the district court permitted the defense to establish, on cross-examination of Sanchez, that he had been arrested on several occasions in the ten years prior to the trial; the court did not allow evidence concerning Sanchez’s prior convictions. R. 167-1 at 91-92. The district court deemed Sanchez’s arrest history relevant in view of his testimony, on direct examination, that he had suffered emotional distress as a result of the way in which he was treated in the April 5 encounter. Sanchez testified that he had become afraid of the police, that he had nightmares about them, that he did not trust them, and became nervous when he saw them. Id. at 78-80. In the court’s view, that testimony gave rise to an inaccurate impression that Sanchez had no real prior experience with law enforcement officials; and “common sense” suggested that an individual who had many prior interactions with the police would be less likely to suffer emotional distress from an encounter like the one Sanchez described than an individual who had never before had contact with the police. Id. at 85, 86, 88-91. However, in order to limit the prejudice that might result from dis- No. 10-3801 25 closure of Sanchez’s arrest record, which was lengthy (reportedly, Sanchez had a record of more than thirty arrests in the ten years prior to trial), the court directed defense counsel to ask Sanchez only whether he had “several” prior arrests in those years. Id. at 92. Furthermore, immediately after Sanchez answered “yes” to this question, id. at 96, the court instructed the jury that it could consider this information “only insofar as it bears on Mr. Sanchez’s testimony that he suffered extreme emotional distress . . . because of the actions on the night of April 5th, 2008, for that limited purpose only,” id. The court then asked the jury members whether they understood the court’s instruction, and all indicated that they did. Id. At the conclusion of the trial, in his closing argument to the jury, defense counsel returned to the subject of Sanchez’s prior arrests, and based on that history argued that it was unlikely Sanchez had suffered genuine emotional distress: Is this really [a] babe in the woods? This innocent who has been traumatized? He’s been arrested more times than you can shake a stick at. R. 170 at 48. Sanchez’s counsel immediately objected to this characterization of Sanchez’s arrest record. The court sustained the objection and instructed the jury to disregard the statement, reminding the jurors, “You’ve heard the evidence. He was arrested several times.” Id. Sanchez argues that the district court was wrong to allow evidence concerning his prior arrests. He reasons that his arrest history had little if any bearing on the 26 No. 10-3801 degree of emotional distress he suffered as a result of the April 5, 2008 encounter, given that his claim was that he was not simply wrongfully stopped and detained, but beaten by police officers. He reasons further that defense counsel’s intemperate remark in closing both mischaracterized and gave emphasis to this evidence, magnifying its prejudicial effect. Reasonable people might disagree as to the probative worth of Sanchez’s arrest history. Given Sanchez’s allegation that he was manhandled (and worse) by the officers who dealt with him on April 5, the fact that he had been arrested on multiple occasions before— presumably without excessive force—arguably does not undermine his claim of trauma. There is, after all, a material difference between being arrested and being subjected to excessive force in the course of that arrest. On the other hand, Sanchez’s claim was not limited to the alleged use of excessive force; he also alleged that he was falsely detained. Had the jury rejected his allegation that he was beaten, but agreed that he was falsely detained, his prior arrest history arguably might have been relevant to the jury’s assessment of any emotional distress he suffered as a result of the improper detention. In any case, we have a difficult time discerning how Sanchez was materially prejudiced by the disclosure of his prior arrests. The court, as we have noted, limited the evidence to the fact that Sanchez had “several” prior arrests, and gave a limiting instruction admonishing the jury that it was to consider this evidence only insofar No. 10-3801 27 as it shed light on the extent of any emotional harm he experienced. Defense counsel indeed was out of line when he stated in closing that Sanchez had more convictions “than you can shake a stick at,” but Judge Darrah both sustained Sanchez’s objection and reminded the jury what the actual evidence was as to the extent of Sanchez’s arrest history. Thus, even if we were to assume that the court erred in allowing limited evidence of Sanchez’s arrest record, the error was harmless.