Opinion ID: 241468
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Certain Objections to Evidence.

Text: 29 The defendants claim prejudice when the trial judge refused to allow them to show the remarks of the sentencing judge at the time the bank cashier was convicted. This is not a proper subject for complaint. The extent to which a witness may be rehabilitated after his credibility is attacked by showing that he has been convicted of a felony is a matter in which the trial judge has, and must have, wide control. United States v. Boyer, 1945, 80 U.S.App.D.C. 202, 150 F.2d 595, 166 A.L.R. 209. 30 There were certain exhibits to which objection was made. These consisted of a notice sent out by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco to the Pittsburgh Branch, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, notices of claim of loss from the plaintiff bank addressed to the Pittsburgh Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and a copy of a notice circulated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the area of the Pittsburgh Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. It is not claimed that any of these reached the Indiana Bank so as to charge it with the knowledge which these notices contained. The judge limited their use to the establishment of the loss by the plaintiff and that notices of the loss went out through banking channels. This was not error. The analogy of the 'hue and cry' immediately suggests itself. And we think that the fact of a notice being broadcast in the bank's vicinity is admissible on the question of whether the bank may have had some knowledge. 31 The lack of possible harm from these exhibits even if the judge was too lenient in admitting them is observed when one reads the interminable colloquy which preceded their admission. At least six lawyers were involved and questions and objections came with rapid-fire frequency. One may seriously doubt whether the documents had any significance at all as they got to the jury. Nothing was said about them in the judge's charge and no one asked the judge to say anything more than he did on the point. It seems clear to us going through the record of a vigorously contested trial that instances of this kind are swallowed up in the sum total of the testimony and have no significance until lawyers examine the record to find error. 32 The case was technical. The trial judge instructed the jury fully and accurately. The jury has reached a permissible conclusion. 33 The judgment of the district court will be affirmed.