Opinion ID: 3001171
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Testimony Regarding Bailey’s Trespass Arrest

Text: Bailey argues that the district court erred in permitting Officer James Feehan to testify about Bailey’s trespassing arrest in May 2002. The district court admitted the testimony after first concluding both that it showed why Bailey would need Alexander to serve as a liaison in the Taft Homes and that the probative value outweighed any likely prejudice. On appeal, Bailey argues that the trespassing arrest is inadmissible as a prior bad act. Even if the evidence should not have been admitted, the error was harmless. The admission of prior bad acts into evidence is harmless if “we are convinced that the error did not influence the jury, or had but very slight effect, and can say with fair assurance . . . that the judgment was not substantially swayed by the error.” United States v. Dennis, 497 F.3d 765, 770 (7th Cir. 2007) (quoting United States v. Torres, 977 F.2d 321, 328 (7th Cir. 1992)). The admission of the trespassing arrest, if it was an inadmissible prior bad act, did not bump the jury from an Nos. 07-1182, 07-1190 & 07-1191 17 acquittal to a conviction. Evidence of the prior trespass played only a minimal role in the seven-day trial. With respect to his conviction for distribution, Bethel still testified that Bailey brought him two ounces of crack on August 29, 2002. This alone would establish distribution. As for the conspiracy, the government introduced Bailey’s phone records to show that he was in contact with Williams on August 29, 2002 to purchase crack. The phone records then show Williams calling Bailey, and Bethel’s testimony establishes that Bailey ultimately arrived with the drugs. The evidence of Bailey’s guilt is overwhelming, leaving no doubt that the jury would have reached the same decision with or without the trespassing arrest in evidence. See United States v. Torres, 977 F.2d 321, 328 (7th Cir. 1992) (“[A]ny error would be harmless because even without the . . . evidence the jury’s verdict would almost certainly have been the same.”). Nor was the trespass so damning as to have unduly prejudiced the defendant in the eyes of the jury. Therefore, the admission of Officer Feehan’s testimony regarding the trespass arrests does not entitle Bailey to any relief.