Opinion ID: 148835
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: B.H.'s Testimony

Text: Martínez argues that the district court should have admitted B.H.'s testimony as evidence of a similar act in a civil case concerning sexual assault under Fed. R.Evid. 415 [4] or at least in rebuttal under Rule 607. Martínez preserved only the second objection, and so we review her Rule 415 argument for plain error. Though Martínez asked the district court to admit B.H.'s testimony, she did not ever argue that this testimony was admissible under Rule 415, and so the court did not mention Rule 415 in its rulings. We conclude that there was, in any event, no error. Rule 415 is entitled Evidence of Similar Acts in Civil Cases Concerning Sexual Assault or Child Molestation. It provides, In a civil case ... predicated on a party's alleged commission of conduct constituting an offense or offenses of sexual assault ..., evidence of that party's commission of another offense or offenses of sexual assault is admissible and may be considered. Fed.R.Evid. 415(a). In turn, Rule 403's balancing test permits courts to exclude otherwise admissible, relevant evidence if, inter alia, its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury. Fed.R.Evid. 403. We start with a few basics. Rule 415, like its counterparts Rules 413 and 414, was enacted in 1994 as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, Pub.L. No. 103-322, § 320935, 108 Stat. 1805, 2135-37, and became effective in 1995, United States v. Larson, 112 F.3d 600, 604 (2d Cir.1997). The drafters' purpose was to supersede Rule 404(b)'s prohibition on evidence of like conduct showing propensity in sexual assault cases. See United States v. Meacham, 115 F.3d 1488, 1491-92 (10th Cir.1997); 2 J.B. Weinstein & M.A. Berger, Weinstein's Federal Evidence § 413.04[1], at 413-10 to -11 (J.M. McLaughlin ed., 2d ed.2010). After Rules 413-415 were enacted, the question arose whether evidence admissible under these rules was subject to Rule 403's balancing test for prejudicial, confusing, or misleading evidence. Weinstein & Berger, supra § 413.04[2], at 413-12. We agree with the conclusion, universal among the courts of appeals, that nothing in Rule 415 removes evidence admissible under that rule from Rule 403 scrutiny. See, e.g., Doe v. Smith, 470 F.3d 331, 346 (7th Cir.2006), abrogated on other grounds by T.E. v. Grindle, 599 F.3d 583 (7th Cir. 2010); Seeley v. Chase, 443 F.3d 1290, 1294-95 (10th Cir.2006); Blind-Doan v. Sanders, 291 F.3d 1079, 1082-83 (9th Cir. 2002); see also United States v. Guardia, 135 F.3d 1326, 1330 (10th Cir.1998) (collecting cases applying Rule 403 to Rules 413 and 414); Weinstein & Berger, supra § 415.04[2], at 415-12. The intent of the drafters was that evidence under Rule 415 be subject to Rule 403. See Larson, 112 F.3d at 604. Questions have also been raised about whether Rules 413-415 change how courts perform the Rule 403 balancing tests. See Weinstein & Berger, supra § 415.04[2], at 415-13 to -16 (describing circuit disagreement). That is primarily because evidence that Rules 413-415 make admissible-evidence of similar sexual assaults by the defendant-can well be the kind of inflammatory, unduly complex evidence courts often exclude under Rule 403. See Fed. R.Evid. 403; 23 Wright & Graham, Federal Practice and Procedure § 5416, at 544 (Supp.2009). Some appellate courts have imposed external, judicially crafted rules as to district judges' consideration of evidence under Rule 415. Two circuits have required district courts to apply Rule 403 with careful attention to both the significant probative value and the strong prejudicial qualities of this evidence. Seeley, 443 F.3d at 1295 (quoting Guardia, 135 F.3d at 1330) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Doe ex rel. Rudy-Glanzer v. Glanzer, 232 F.3d 1258, 1268 (9th Cir.2000). Others seemingly have instructed district courts to apply Rule 403 less stringently, at least in some cases, to avoid having Rule 403 swallow evidence Congress clearly intended to make admissible. E.g., Johnson v. Elk Lake Sch. Dist., 283 F.3d 138, 156 (3d Cir.2002); see also United States v. Seymour, 468 F.3d 378, 385 (6th Cir.2006); United States v. Gabe, 237 F.3d 954, 959-60 (8th Cir.2001); Larson, 112 F.3d at 604. Several circuits have adopted factors district courts can or should consider to evaluate the admissibility of evidence under Rules 415 and 403. E.g., Seeley, 443 F.3d at 1295; Johnson, 283 F.3d at 156; Glanzer, 232 F.3d at 1268-69. And at least one has suggested that appellate courts should more carefully scrutinize district courts' decisions under Rules 413-415. See United States v. LeMay, 260 F.3d 1018, 1022 (9th Cir.2001). We reject these approaches and have no reason to adopt special rules constraining district courts' usual exercise of discretion under Rule 403 when considering evidence under Rule 415, see Doe, 470 F.3d at 346; see also, e.g., United States v. Dillon, 532 F.3d 379, 388-90 (5th Cir.2008); United States v. Julian, 427 F.3d 471, 485-87 (7th Cir.2005), which we will review under the ordinary abuse-of-discretion standard, see Dillon, 532 F.3d at 387. Of course district courts must apply Rule 403 with awareness that Rule 415 reflects a congressional judgment to remove the propensity bar to admissibility of certain evidence. Cf. United States v. Rogers, 587 F.3d 816, 822 (7th Cir.2009) (Congress has said that ... it is not improper to draw the inference that the defendant committed this sexual offense because he has the propensity to do so.). That awareness includes the fact that the Rule 403 analysis also applies. See Fed. R.Evid. 403; Weinstein & Berger, supra § 403.02[1][a], at 403-5. Nothing in the text of Rules 413-415 suggests these rules somehow change Rule 403. See Fed. R.Evid. 413-415 (making some propensity evidence merely admissible but not mentioning Rule 403 and indeed cautioning that these rules do not prevent consideration of evidence under any other rule). As to the ruling at issue, Martínez argues that the district court applied Rule 403 too stringently to B.H.'s testimony and should have accepted her testimony as evidence of a similar sexual assault under Rule 415. Though the court did not consider Rule 415 (because Martínez never argued this point), the court did accept that if there were two identical or similar instances of the same type of conduct, that evidence would be arguably relevant to show Dr. Cui's intent or absence of mistake or accident under Rule 404(b). But it ruled that there is a great danger of unfair prejudice or confusion here. The trial would be as much about [B.H.] as Ms. Martinez. The district court went on to explain why it was excluding this evidence under Rule 403's balancing test. The court noted it had the benefit of a highly developed evidentiary record in the DALA and Board of Registration proceedings, an unusual situation. Those proceedings revealed two reasons to exclude B.H.'s testimony as potentially unfairly prejudicial and, so, likely to confuse the issues or mislead the jury. First, there were significant medical distinctions in the two treatment situations that would have required extensive explanation. [5] Martínez was in an auto accident and whatever trauma she suffered, it was not in her vaginal or anal area. By contrast, B.H. had undergone surgery for Crohn's disease that basically removed her rectum and anus. Her intestine was rerouted to a colostomy bag, and she had been suffering from substantial leakage of fecal matter and ... fluid into her vagina. Dr. Cui had to perform a postoperative exam to ensure B.H.'s surgical incisions were not bleeding or infected. B.H., heavily sedated on morphine, claimed that she feltnot that she sawDr. Cui insert his finger in her vagina. Expert testimony established that she would have had a hard time differentiating what Dr. Cui was touching, and in any event a vaginal exam would have been appropriate. Second, B.H.'s testimony would have required a minitrial, indeed something in the nature of a maxitrial, to probe the complexity of B.H.'s condition, including expert testimony. The record fully supports the district court's evaluation of the underlying facts, which are in truth even more complicated than the recitation that the court gave. That, in turn, fully supports the court's judgment that Martínez's case could get lost in the details of the maxitrial, which would have been unduly prejudicial and likely to confuse the issues and mislead the jury. See Fed.R.Evid. 403. The exclusion of the rebuttal evidence from B.H. is even more easily resolved against Martínez. The district court had allowed Martínez's counsel to elicit from Cui, during cross-examination, that Cui had examined an unnamed patient's perineum without a chaperone. The court could conclude that further testimony from B.H. would require going into a great deal of background that, we have already explained, was collateral to the issues at trial and likely to confuse the jury.