Opinion ID: 2763460
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Exclusion of “Reverse 404(b)” Evidence

Text: Battle claims the district court erred in excluding evidence of Hardy’s prior convictions and other bad acts, which he sought to introduce to suggest Hardy was in sole possession of the firearm. “We review a district court’s ruling excluding evidence for an abuse of discretion.” Clark v. Martinez, 295 F.3d 809, 812 (8th Cir. 2002). “Absent an abuse of discretion, this Court will not substitute its judgment for the judgment of the district court.” Id. Battle challenges the exclusion of this evidence as “reverse 404(b)” evidence. Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b) governs admission of evidence of previous crimes, wrongs, or other acts. Evidence of prior bad acts may not be introduced to prove a person’s character or propensity to commit a crime but may be admissible for another purpose, such as proving knowledge or intent. Fed. R. Evid. 404(b)(2). Rule 404(b) evidence is typically introduced by the -8- prosecution to help prove the defendant guilty of the charged crime. “Reverse 404(b)” is a term some courts have used to refer to evidence of prior bad acts by a third party, introduced by the defendant and offered to implicate the third party in the charged crime.2 Battle sought to introduce evidence of a number of prior convictions, dismissed charges, and facts and circumstances underlying these prior bad acts, extending back more than 15 years to include incidents that occurred when Hardy was a juvenile. The table of evidence Battle proffered included more than 20 charges between 1996 and 2012. The convictions included assault with a weapon, multiple counts of possession of controlled substances, burglary, theft, and a 2000 conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm. The dismissed charges and underlying facts included instances where Hardy ran from police or had a firearm when he was apprehended. While Battle acknowledged that this evidence “starts to sound like propensity,” he claimed he sought to introduce it for non-propensity purposes. He argued he would use the underlying facts from these charges to establish how Hardy’s long and adversarial relationship with law enforcement had developed into a modus operandi of carrying guns and running from police when confronted. He claimed this could lead the jury to believe Hardy was in sole possession of the firearm. He also argued the evidence would tend to prove Hardy’s knowledge that the firearm was in the car, intent to possess the weapon, and familiarity with handling and operating handguns. 2 See United States v. Myers, 589 F.3d 117, 123 (4th Cir. 2009); United States v. Montelongo, 420 F.3d 1169, 1174 (10th Cir. 2005); United States v. Seals, 419 F.3d 600, 606 (7th Cir. 2005); United States v. Lucas, 357 F.3d 599, 605 (6th Cir. 2004); United States v. Hamilton, 48 F.3d 149, 155 n. 8 (5th Cir. 1995); United States v. Spencer, 1 F.3d 742, 750 n.5 (9th Cir. 1992) (Reinhardt, J., dissenting); United States v. Stevens, 935 F.2d 1380, 1401-02 (3d Cir. 1991). -9- If the party introducing 404(b) evidence demonstrates a non-propensity purpose for the evidence, it is admissible if it is: “(1) relevant to a material issue; (2) similar in kind and close in time to the crime charged; (3) proven by a preponderance of the evidence; and (4) if the potential prejudice does not substantially outweigh its probative value.” United States v. Thomas, 398 F.3d 1058, 1062 (8th Cir. 2005). “The requirement to balance probative value and prejudice is found in Rule 403.” United States v. Cook, 454 F.3d 938, 941 (8th Cir. 2006). Under Rule 403, “[t]he court may exclude relevant evidence if its probative value is substantially outweighed by a danger of one or more of the following: unfair prejudice, confusing the issues, misleading the jury, undue delay, wasting time, or needlessly presenting cumulative evidence.” Fed. R. Evid. 403. We have not had occasion to rule on the admissibility of reverse 404(b) evidence. Battle suggests we should consider the usual 404(b) factors, but with less concern for prejudice because evidence offered against someone other than the defendant does not raise a risk of prejudicing the jury against the defendant. He notes the district court must still weigh other Rule 403 considerations, such as whether the evidence will mislead the jury or waste time. Assuming without deciding that Battle’s suggested method of analysis is correct, we find the district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding this evidence. Battle advanced two primary theories for the evidence’s non-propensity purpose: (1) modus operandi and (2) knowledge and intent. The district court considered each of Hardy’s prior convictions and found that neither theory demonstrated how the evidence was relevant to any material issue at trial. Battle’s motion and appeal focus on admitting this evidence to show Hardy’s modus operandi of carrying guns and running from police. The generic nature of this theory is insufficient to prove modus operandi. See United States v. Carroll, 207 F.3d 465, 468 (8th Cir. 2000). A viable modus operandi theory must show a pattern of behavior that is “sufficiently idiosyncratic” to make the acts “clearly distinctive” from other instances of the same criminal behavior. Id. Absent this distinctiveness, “evidence -10- of the prior crime is ‘nothing more than the character evidence that Rule 404(b) prohibits.’” Id. (quoting United States v. Smith, 103 F.3d 600, 603 (7th Cir. 1996)). A history of running from police when confronted, sometimes while carrying a weapon, does not meet this high bar. And the district court noted that even if this could establish a modus operandi, it would not be relevant to proving or disproving Battle’s knowing possession of the firearm. On knowledge and intent, the court found the bulk of the convictions and underlying facts and circumstances were also irrelevant to any issue at trial. It noted that Hardy’s felon-in-possession conviction may have been admissible if he had testified he had never owned a handgun or was not familiar with handling or operating firearms, but it was otherwise not clearly relevant because his knowledge and familiarity with handguns was not at issue. As the government agreed that Hardy knew the gun was in the car and intended to jointly possess it with Battle, the court was correct in determining that evidence of Hardy’s past possession of weapons was not relevant to the issue of Battle’s knowing possession of this firearm. See United States v. Turner, 583 F.3d 1062, 1066 (8th Cir. 2009) (prior bad act evidence regarding knowledge and intent is relevant and admissible when state of mind is at issue); United States v. Strong, 415 F.3d 902, 905 (8th Cir. 2005) (a party’s knowledge and intent are material issues where he asserts he was merely present and did not know about the firearm). The court then considered the risk of distraction and waste of time arising from the presentation of this evidence and decided it substantially outweighed any minimal probative value the evidence may have offered. See Fed. R. Evid. 403. We give great deference to the district court’s Rule 403 determinations. United States v. Halk, 634 F.3d 482, 488 (8th Cir. 2011). Battle sought admission of a package of 404(b) evidence, which he indicated he would have introduced by eliciting testimony from Hardy on detailed fact patterns surrounding a variety of convictions and dismissed charges and then “refresh[ing] his recollection” with police reports where needed. -11- The court noted this raised evidentiary concerns, as Battle did not point to other evidence he could introduce, and use of police reports to prove the facts underlying an arrest can present difficult hearsay and reliability issues. See Cook, 454 F.3d at 942; United States v. Bell, 785 F.2d 640, 644 (8th Cir. 1986). The court stated this would be a “considerable undertaking” and that it would not “retry or try Mr. Hardy for each of these offenses in the middle of trial” because it would “prolong the trial unnecessarily, and wouldn’t lead to any evidence that would be particularly relevant to the issue of whether Mr. Battle knowingly possessed a firearm on the day in question.” Even granting that admission of this evidence would not pose the same risk of prejudice to defendant’s character as regular 404(b) evidence, the court still had discretion to exclude it based on its Rule 403 weighing. See Clark v. Martinez, 295 F.3d 809, 814 (8th Cir. 2002) (evidence that would otherwise be admissible under Rule 404(b) still has to meet the requirements of Rule 403). As Battle focused on introducing the entire package of 404(b) evidence, the court did not abuse its discretion in examining the evidence as a whole and determining that any minimal probative value it may have possessed was outweighed by the risk of distraction in conducting mini trials on the detailed facts underlying the long string of offenses Battle sought to introduce. See Cook, 454 F.3d at 941-42. In these circumstances, we find the district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding this evidence and “‘focusing the trial on the offense at issue.’” Id. at 942 (quoting United States v. Perkins, 937 F.2d 1397, 1401 (9th Cir. 1991)).