Opinion ID: 626819
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Nature of the Testimony

Text: At the time of Scott's trial, Rule 404(b) of the Federal Rules of Evidence provided that Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident. . . . [4] The government's primary contention is that the detectives' testimony is not other act evidence within the meaning of Rule 404(b). While we agree that not all other acts are subject to Rule 404(b), the cases the government cites in support of the argument that the recognition testimony is not so subject are simply inapposite, standing as they do only for the unadvanced proposition that where other acts are direct evidence of or are otherwise inextricably intertwined with the charged act, then they may be admissible without being subject to Rule 404(b). See United States v. Quinones, 511 F.3d 289, 309 (2d Cir.2007); United States v. Baez, 349 F.3d 90, 94 (2d Cir.2003). The only colorable argument the government presents on this point arises from our holding in United States v. Lumpkin, 192 F.3d 280 (2d Cir.1999). In Lumpkin, we held that a police officer's testimony that he often saw [the defendant] in the area where the relevant drug transactions occurred was not other acts evidence subject to Rule 404(b). Id. at 287. We determined that the nature of the repeated observations did not qualify as evidence of a crime or bad act, because nothing in [the officer's] observations indicate[d] that [the defendant] [wa]s of bad character. Id. The government argues that the recognition testimony at issue here is analogous to that in Lumpkin, because the detectives did not testify that Scott was engaging in criminal or wrongful conduct. Id. The problem with such an argument is that Rule 404(b) is not limited to evidence of crimes or wrongs. By its very terms, Rule 404(b) addresses other crimes, wrongs, or acts.  (emphasis added). Nothing about these words implies that the other . . . acts to which Rule 404(b) refers must be bad. Indeed, to read the Rule as such violate[s] the cardinal principle of statutory interpretation that courts must `give effect, if possible, to every clause and word of a statute.' Triestman v. United States, 124 F.3d 361, 375 (2d Cir.1997) (quoting United States v. Menasche, 348 U.S. 528, 538-39, 75 S.Ct. 513, 99 L.Ed. 615 (1955)). While crimes, wrongs, or bad acts may be more likely than other kinds of acts to demonstrate criminal propensity and thus be inadmissible for that reason under Rule 404(b), the Rule itself is in no sense limited to such acts. Each of our sister Circuits to consider the issue has concluded that Rule 404(b) extends to non-criminal acts or wrongs, [5] and we now join them. The district court's determination that the testimony was admissible because the testimony would not lead jurors to conclude Scott had previously been arrested was thus in error. Even if the jury would not reach that conclusion based on the recognition testimony, unlike the testimony in Lumpkin, Geary and Moran's prior contacts with Scott would certainly bear adversely on the jury's judgment of his character. United States v. Cooper, 577 F.2d 1079, 1088 (6th Cir.1978). The difference between a police officer's mere observations of a defendant in an area and testimony that two different detectives had had occasion to speak to him up to five times and for up to twenty minutes (and on at least some different occasions) is substantial. That a police officer has merely seen a person, even repeatedly and even in a drug-prone location, may simply suggest that the person lives or works near the officer's daily patrol; in that sense, it is not evidence of any act at all. But that two detectives have not only seen but spoken on multiple, lengthy occasions to a defendant indicates to a jury that he is, at a minimum, the sort of person who warrants a level of police observation to which law-abiding citizens are unaccustomed. As defense counsel stated during his initial objection, a jury hearing this testimony would not believe that Scott was just saying hello and asking about the officer's family life. That is especially true since no such innocent explanation for Scott's significant contacts with the police could be offered. A jury hearing this testimony would conclude that Scott was a person with a propensity to engage in wrongful, criminal or otherwise unusual behavior that would attract the attention of the police, and not, as in Lumpkin, merely a person who had been seen by a police officer at some point in his life. This testimony falls well within Rule 404(b), which prohibits the introduction of evidence of extrinsic acts that might adversely reflect on the actor's character. Huddleston v. United States, 485 U.S. 681, 685, 108 S.Ct. 1496, 99 L.Ed.2d 771 (1988). The testimony here invites speculation about the defendant's propensity to come into frequent contact with police. Because this testimony might adversely reflect on the actor's character, the evidence must be evaluated under 404(b). To the extent the district court's decision rested on its determination that the testimony must relate to criminal conduct leading to arrest to fall under the Rule, it was in error.