Opinion ID: 369349
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Testimony of Clifford Fallen

Text: 99 The defendants find reversible error in the admission of the testimony of one Clifford Fallen over their timely objections. The substance of his testimony was that he had invested some $127,000 with the defendant Kaye. The money was supposed to go toward a coal venture, but Kaye's records indicated that at least some of the money, in the form of CD's, ended up in Martini Packing Company, one of Globe's subsidiaries. Fallen explained a series of meetings and transactions he had had with Kaye over the proposed coal venture, and he stated that he never recovered his investment. Kaye's transactions with Fallen were not the subject of criminal charges and were not otherwise part of the indictment. The court admitted the evidence for the limited purpose of showing Kaye's intent or his mode of operations generally. The court further instructed the jury that no statement attributed to Kaye could be used against Calandrella unless other evidence established the existence of a conspiracy between them. 100 The defendants do not deny that the testimony was relevant to show Kaye's business acumen and general method of operations. They claim, however, that the court abused its discretion in admitting the evidence because it was unfairly prejudicial to permit the jury to consider evidence from which they could have concluded that Kaye had defrauded Fallen. 101 We find no abuse of discretion in the District Court's refusal to exclude the evidence on the ground of unfair prejudice under Fed.R.Evid. 403. Defendant Kaye's basic defense was that he was not aware of the nature of the transactions involving Seven Oak and that he was in effect duped. The evidence tended to show Kaye's level of business sophistication in transactions involving his companies and thus it tended to contradict this claim. The evidence further contradicted the contention that Kaye was merely a consultant and that his son actually ran Globe and Martini Packing. 102 This case is thus unlike United States v. McFadyen-Snider, 552 F.2d 1178 (6th Cir. 1977), Cert. denied, 435 U.S. 995, 98 S.Ct. 1647, 56 L.Ed.2d 84 (1978), on which the defendants rely, where the disputed evidence had little or no relevance to the crimes charged or the defenses alleged. Id. at 1184. 103 Additionally, we do not believe that the evidence could have seriously prejudiced defendant Calandrella at all since it was shown that he had no dealings with Fallen. Moreover, the District Court specifically cautioned the jury concerning the use of the evidence against Calandrella. Thus we find no reversible error in the admission of Fallen's testimony.