Opinion ID: 64501
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: District Court's Instructions regarding Jimmy Talley

Text: The district court's decision on whether to admit expert opinion evidence is reviewed for abuse of discretion. United States v. Norris, 217 F.3d 262, 268-69 (5th Cir.2000).
During direct examination, Talley testified that Sepeda lacked sufficient information to determine whether Ollison's purchases were personal. Talley's opinion was based on four generally accepted accounting and auditing principles: (1) checking for authenticity, (2) support, (3) accuracy, and (4) completeness. Later on voir dire examination, Talley admitted that these four principles relate to the verification of documents, not on how to conduct an investigation. The Government objected to Talley providing expert testimony, arguing that Talley's expertise in accounting was not relevant to whether Sepeda's investigation was adequate. The district court sustained the objection and advised the jury as follows: Members of the jury, yesterday right before the break, the government had made an objection to Mr. Talley's testimony concerning certain accounting principles. The court sustains the government's objection. Mr. Talley will be testifying, however, he will not be testifying as an expert based upon the four accounting principles that you heard testified about yesterday. After instructing the jury, the district court allowed Talley's lay opinion testimony regarding the adequacy of Sepeda's investigation, and the district court allowed Talley to testify regarding his qualifications as a CPA. Ollison argues that the district court's instruction degraded Talley's testimony by stating that Talley was not an expert. She observes that the district court did not give a similar instruction regarding Sepeda's opinion testimony. Because the district court was ruling on the Government's objection, we find that the error, if any, was harmless. See United States v. Johnson, 488 F.3d 690, 697-98 (6th Cir.2007) (Except in ruling on an objection, the court should not, in the presence of the jury, declare that a witness is qualified as an expert or to render an expert opinion, and counsel should not ask the court to do so.) (citation omitted). Talley testified that generally accepted accounting and auditing principles are not directly relevant to critiquing an FBI investigation, and the jury still heard his lay opinion regarding the adequacy of Sepeda's investigation. The district court's instruction did not degrade Talley's testimony because both Talley and Sepeda testified as lay witnesses and gave their respective opinions.