Opinion ID: 564844
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: 2 On May 15, 1990, a branch of the First Federal Savings and Loan Association located at 3710 S. Franklin Street in Michigan City, Indiana insured with the F.D.I.C. was robbed of $9,580.95 in currency and bait money. 3 The Michigan City Police Department (MCPD) responded to a telephone call reporting the robbery and to an alarm triggered by a teller, who also activated two surveillance cameras located in the bank. The robber was described as a white male approximately twenty-six years old, between 5' 10 and 5' 11 tall with a muscular build, light brown hair, and thin mustache. He was described as wearing blue jeans, a black jacket, white tennis shoes, a baseball cap, and light colored hosiery over his face. The robber was carrying a semi-automatic weapon, which he pointed at the two tellers whom he ordered to put the contents of their cash drawers in the blue duffel bag that he was carrying. 4 Shortly after the robbery, the film from the surveillance cameras was removed and sent to a laboratory to be developed. Stormer was identified as the robber in the photographs. A warrant was issued for his arrest and he was apprehended in Tampa, Florida on May 21, 1990. A search of Stormer's room incident to his arrest revealed a black jacket, a shirt, and a blue duffel bag similar to the ones depicted in the surveillance photographs. 5 Stormer entered a plea of not guilty to the charges and his trial commenced September 4, 1990. On the first day of trial, Stormer made an oral motion in limine, seeking to prevent the four police officers scheduled to testify for the government from giving opinion testimony as to the identity of the robber in the surveillance photographs. Stormer alleged that the probative value of the testimony was outweighed by its prejudicial effect in that Stormer would be precluded from engaging in extensive cross-examination of the police officers due to the circumstances surrounding his resignation from the police force. Stormer, formerly an officer with the MCPD, resigned in 1988 after being given the choice of resigning or facing a full investigation into allegations that he had been committing burglaries while on midnight patrol. Stormer maintains that he was not able to effectively cross-examine the police officer witnesses to expose their bias because to do so would have had the disastrous effect of revealing the allegations of improprieties leveled against him while he was a police officer. 6 The court withheld final ruling on the motion and permitted Stormer to question the police officers out of the presence of the jury to afford Stormer the opportunity to establish bias. After the voir dire of the officers was completed, Stormer renewed his motion in limine and the trial court denied the motion. At trial, the judge gave a preliminary instruction and a limiting instruction to the jury regarding the weight to be given the opinion testimony of the police officers. The trial court also ordered that the government could not disclose to the jury the occupation of the two police officers who were not involved in the investigation. In addition, the court directed that no reference be made to the allegations of improprieties associated with Stormer during his tenure with the police department or the circumstances surrounding his resignation. 7 At trial, the defendant Stormer was identified as the person depicted in the surveillance photographs by the two tellers who were the victims of the robbery. Stormer was also identified as the person depicted in the photographs by seven other witnesses, three friends and the four police officer identifications at issue in this appeal. The jury found Stormer guilty on each count of the indictment. Stormer was sentence to fifty-one months on Count I to run consecutively to the sixty-month sentence on Count II. He was also ordered to serve five years of supervised release following his imprisonment and further ordered to pay $8,580.95 in restitution during the period of supervised release. This appeal followed.