Opinion ID: 609734
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Paul Callahan

Text: 76 Callahan was originally joined in the indictment as a co-conspirator, but pleaded guilty prior to trial and was a principal government witness at trial. Defendants sought to impeach Callahan's credibility during cross-examination with evidence that he had engaged in a wide of variety of criminal acts throughout his life. The jury learned from the evidence that Callahan had worked as a safecracker, that he was convicted for a dozen specific acts of safecracking, that he was a bookmaker, a bank robber, a burglar, a drug dealer, and a perjurer, and that he spent much of his adult life--more than sixteen years--in prison. But the court excluded evidence relating to Callahan's participation in disposing of the bodies of two homicide victims in the 1960's, and to another incident in 1970 in which Callahan provided a silencer to another individual who later used the silencer in a shooting. Innamorati, Thompson, Grady, DeMarco Sr., and DeMarco Jr. argue that this ruling improperly limited their right of cross-examination and their Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses against them. 77 The trial judge apparently concluded that the references to the homicides and silencer, events 20 to 30 years in the past, were of limited importance in impeaching Callahan and created a risk of prejudice that outweighed any benefit from the evidence. The use of such ancient evidence merely to show bad character for veracity is doubtful, cf. Fed.R.Evid. 609(b) (10-year-old felonies presumptively excluded), and in this case the excluded evidence was weak and largely cumulative so far as it cast an unflattering light on Callahan's character for veracity. Judgments of this kind are very much within the trial court's discretion. See United States v. Garcia-Rosa, 876 F.2d 209, 237 (1st Cir.1989), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 1030, 110 S.Ct. 742, 107 L.Ed.2d 760, vacated on other grounds, 498 U.S. 954, 111 S.Ct. 377, 112 L.Ed.2d 391 (1990). We see no abuse in excluding the evidence for this use. 78 There is a somewhat more substantial use that might have been made of the evidence, namely, to suggest that Callahan could still be prosecuted for involvement in homicides, giving the government some hold over him. But there was no indication when the questions were sought to be asked in this case that the applicable statute of limitations still permitted prosecution or, even if it did, that federal authorities controlled the decision as to future prosecution. It is not even clear that the prior bad acts were offered to show that Callahan was subject to government pressure or that this objective was squarely presented to the district judge. 79 In sum, we do not think that cross examination of Callahan was unreasonably restricted. Similarly, since a reasonable opportunity to test Callahan's veracity and motives was offered, no Confrontation Clause issue is presented. Once the defendant has been afforded a reasonable opportunity for such an inquiry, the trial judge retains broad discretion in determining the scope or extent of cross examination. Garcia-Rosa, 876 F.2d at 237.