Opinion ID: 780714
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Alleged False Accusations

Text: 51 Vincent's credibility was obviously a critical issue at trial, and the defense duly attacked it, not only by cross-examination but also by offering testimony from Shannon Pender, who had attended the Academy at the same time as Vincent. Pender testified that she knew and disliked Vincent, that before the incident at issue in this case she had discussed Vincent's reputation with a number of male and female fellow students, as well as with officers who were commanders and administrators of the Academy, and that Vincent had a reputation for untruthfulness. She also testified that Vincent had made various other accusations against fellow-midshipmen that had been proven false. Tr. at 723-37. 52 The defense had attempted to cross-examine Vincent with respect to the claim that she had made such false accusations, but the trial court did not permit questioning before the jury on this subject. Rather, the court permitted defense counsel to conduct a voir dire examination of Vincent outside the jury's presence. During that examination, defense counsel were allowed to direct Vincent's attention to certain named students or certain particular incidents, and to ask Vincent whether she had ever lie[d] about what happened in those instances or falsely accuse[d] the students involved. Tr. at 159-68. In each case, Vincent denied lying or making false accusations. Counsel were generally not permitted, however, to ask questions that explored in any detail what Vincent had told the authorities in these cases or what the results of any official inquiry had been. After hearing this testimony, Judge Mishler declined to permit cross-examination on this subject before the jury. Crowley attacks this decision as clearly wrong, Appellant's Br. at 49, and argues that the restriction on cross-examination denied him his right to confront his accuser, guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment. 53 Fed.R.Evid. 608(b) prohibits a party from presenting extrinsic evidence of [s]pecific instances of the conduct of a witness, for the purpose of attacking or supporting the witness' credibility, unless that conduct was the subject of a criminal conviction. The rule, however, permits the witness to be examined about such specific conduct, in the discretion of the court, if probative of truthfulness or untruthfulness. Fed.R.Evid. 608(b). Similarly, Fed.R.Evid. 404(b) allows the admission of testimony regarding prior bad acts of a witness, so long as such evidence is not offered in order to show action in conformity therewith. 7 54 As this Court has repeatedly emphasized, however, `[T]rial judges retain wide latitude insofar as the Confrontation Clause is concerned to impose reasonable limits on such cross-examination based on concerns about, among other things, harassment, prejudice, confusion of the issues, the witness' safety, or interrogation that is repetitive or only marginally relevant.' Delaware v. Van Arsdall, 475 U.S. 673, 679, 106 S.Ct. 1431, 89 L.Ed.2d 674 (1986). Only when this broad discretion is abused will we reverse a trial court's decision to restrict cross-examination. United States v. Maldonado-Rivera, 922 F.2d 934, 956 (2d Cir.1990). United States v. Rahman, 189 F.3d 88, 132 (2d Cir.1999); see also United States v. Flaharty, 295 F.3d 182, 190-91 (2d Cir.2002); United States v. Griffith, 284 F.3d 338, 351-52 (2d Cir. 2002). Further, under Rule 403, the district court may exclude even relevant evidence if it finds that the `probative value [of the testimony] is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence.' Fed.R.Evid. 403. Flaharty, 295 F.3d at 191. 55 Unlike the questions about prior violent crimes, which this Court held were properly precluded in Flaharty, id., the questions defendants proposed to ask, which related to alleged instances of false accusation, were certainly relevant to the witness's credibility. And defense counsel represented, and later demonstrated via Pender's testimony, that they had a good faith basis for their proposed questioning. Nevertheless, although we might have taken a different course in the position of the trial judge, we cannot hold that Judge Mishler abused his discretion in proceeding as he did. The voir dire examination established that Vincent would deny making false accusations or lying in connection with Academy investigations of other students. Since the defense would be precluded by Rule 608(b) from attempting to refute Vincent's testimony by offering extrinsic evidence concerning the incidents in question, the only evidence before the jury on the subject would have been Vincent's denial of falsehood. See United States v. Perrone, 936 F.2d 1403, 1412 (2d Cir.1991); see also 4 Jack B. Weinstein & Margaret A. Berger, Weinstein's Federal Evidence, § 608.22[1], at 608-46 to 608-48 (2d ed.2002). 56 Allowing cross-examination before the jury would thus have produced little of probative value. Certainly, the trial court was well within its discretion in not allowing any broader inquiry into the nature of what Vincent had told the authorities and what the results of their investigations (to the extent Vincent even knew of them) had been. Such broad-ranging inquiry would at best have produced confusing and distracting sideshows regarding the facts of controversies completely unrelated to the charges against Crowley at trial, and was properly precluded. It was thus also within the trial judge's broad discretion in regulating cross-examination to conclude that since the most that would be permitted was questioning about whether Vincent had lied, to which the defendants would get negative answers, the prejudicial impact of engendering speculation about the subject outweighed the minimal probative value of permitting the jury to evaluate Vincent's demeanor during the question and answer. 57 We are further bolstered in this view by the fact that Judge Mishler, like Judge Seybert and the state court judge before him, had conducted an in camera review of Vincent's Academy file, and found no evidence of any conclusion by Academy officials that Vincent had made false accusations. Govt. Br. at GA-3. Judge Seybert, after her review, found that the reports made by Vincent in the matters in question were never determined to be fallacious or wholly unsubstantiated. At most the conclusions reached [by Academy officials] were equivocal, thus the records would not support cross-examination pursuant to Rule 608(b). Tr. of June 23, 1999, Hr'g, at 10. The records thus support the independent conclusions of both Judge Seybert and Judge Mishler that permitting the defense to suggest that Vincent had lied to Academy officials would be more prejudicial than probative. 8