Opinion ID: 165632
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Exclusion of Evidence of the Albuquerque Police Department's Standard Operating Procedures

Text: 33 Plaintiffs contend that evidence related to the APD SOPs was relevant and admissible as to their claims for excessive force and assault and battery, although the trial court twice excluded the evidence. 5 In granting Officer Sholtis's motion in limine for the exclusion of evidence of the SOPs, the trial court ruled that the SOPs were inadmissible because they were irrelevant to the federal claims and likely to cause jury confusion regarding the state claims. After Officer Sholtis's expert testified that his actions conformed to his training, Plaintiffs sought to introduce the evidence in rebuttal, but the court ruled the SOPs remained inadmissible due to the likelihood of jury confusion and Plaintiffs' waiver. We review a district court's exclusion of evidence under an abuse of discretion standard, Cartier v. Jackson, 59 F.3d 1046, 1048 (10th Cir.1995), reversing only if we have a firm and definite belief that the trial court made a clear error in judgment. Macsenti v. Becker, 237 F.3d 1223, 1236 (10th Cir.2001). 34 Our deferential review applies both to a trial court's threshold determination of relevance under Rule 401 and to its conclusion under Rule 403 that relevant evidence should nonetheless be excluded due to its tendency to cause jury confusion or unfair prejudice. See U.S. v. Tan, 254 F.3d 1204, 1211 (10th Cir.2001) (The district court has considerable discretion in performing the Rule 403 balancing test.) But it is not only our deferential standard of review that diminishes the likelihood of remand for a new trial based on a trial court's admission or exclusion of evidence; even if we were to find an error that amounted to an abuse of discretion, reversible error may be predicated only upon errors that affect a party's substantial rights. Fed.R.Evid. 103(a); Fed.R.Civ.P. 61. Remand for a new trial is a blunt instrument with which to address the many and multifarious evidentiary rulings made during any trial; a deferential standard of review coupled with the distinction between harmless and reversible error ensures that that instrument will be wielded only as necessary to protect litigants' rights to a fundamentally fair adjudication of their disputes. 35 Plaintiffs sought to introduce two types of evidence related to the SOPs. First, they wished to admit portions of the SOPs themselves into evidence and solicit their expert's opinion as to whether Officer Sholtis's actions conformed to the SOPs. Second, they proffered evidence of the APD's internal evaluation of and response to Officer Sholtis's conduct. We will deal with each type of evidence in turn. Plaintiffs maintain Officer Sholtis violated the SOP providing that [w]here force is warranted, officers should assess the incident in order to determine which technique or weapon will reasonably de-escalate the incident and bring it under control safely. Officers shall use only that force which is reasonable and necessary to effect lawful objectives. APD SOP § 2-52-2A. To the extent that the first half of the SOP requires an assessment of an officer's choice between various techniques for de-escalation, it is beyond the scope of the inquiry mandated by state and federal law, which require that an officer use reasonable, not optimal, force. See Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 396-97, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989) (The calculus of reasonableness must embody allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments — in circumstances that are tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving — about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation); Medina v. Cram, 252 F.3d 1124, 1133 (10th Cir.2001) ([T]he reasonableness standard does not require that officers use alternative less intrusive means.... [To rule otherwise] would be evaluating the officers' conduct from the 20/20 perspective of hindsight rather than from the perspective of an officer making split-second judgments on the scene.) (internal citations and quotations omitted); Mead v. O'Connor, 66 N.M. 170, 344 P.2d 478, 479-80 (N.M.1959) (Officers, within reasonable limits, are the judges of the force necessary to enable them to make arrests.... When acting in good faith, the courts will afford them the utmost protection, and they will recognize the fact that emergencies arise when the officer cannot be expected to exercise that cool and deliberate judgment which courts and juries exercise afterwards). 36 The second half of the SOP merely duplicates the reasonableness standard that governs claims of excessive force under state and federal law. Federal excessive force claims are governed by an objective standard: a use of force violates the Fourth Amendment if it is unreasonable under the circumstances a law enforcement officer confronts. See Graham, 490 U.S. at 388, 109 S.Ct. 1865. New Mexico law permits an officer to use such force as [is] reasonably necessary under all the circumstances to effect an arrest. Mead, 344 P.2d at 479. That the SOP duplicates the federal and state standards for excessive force makes it less likely that evidence of the SOPs would be relevant. Relevant evidence is that which has any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence. Fed.R.Evid. 401. The jury was already obliged to determine whether Officer Sholtis's conduct violated the requirement of state and federal law that he use only a reasonable degree of force in effecting Plaintiffs' arrest. That the SOP required precisely what the law required of him does not make it more or less likely that Officer Sholtis's use of force was reasonable; the SOP is therefore not relevant. 37 Beyond these general concerns with relevance, there are more particular reasons to find this evidence irrelevant as to Plaintiffs' federal claims. In the exclusionary rule context, the Supreme Court has rejected the use of local police regulations as a standard for evaluating constitutionality of police conduct, on the ground that such a basis of invalidation would not apply in jurisdictions that had a different practice. Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 815, 116 S.Ct. 1769, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 (1996). That logic would seem to apply equally to damage suits under § 1983. This Court has consistently held that the violation of police regulations is insufficient to ground a § 1983 action for excessive force. Marquez v. City of Albuquerque, 399 F.3d 1216 (10th Cir.2005); Medina, 252 F.3d at 1133 (10th Cir.2001); Romero v. Board of County Com'rs of County of Lake, State of Colo., 60 F.3d 702, 705 (10th Cir.1995); Wilson v. Meeks, 52 F.3d 1547, 1554 (10th Cir.1995). The plaintiffs in Romero argued that a police officer had contributed to the dangerous situation which led to his use of force, making him liable for the use of force his own actions helped make necessary. 60 F.3d at 704. The Romero plaintiffs supported their theory with evidence that the police officer's failure to handcuff the arrestee early in their encounter violated police regulations, and contended on appeal that this evidence should have precluded the trial court's grant of summary judgment. Id. We affirmed the trial court's ruling, holding that the police officer's failure to handcuff the arrestee was not relevant to the § 1983 inquiry and [did] not become relevant simply because such actions may be required by state law and police procedures. Id. That an arrest violated police department procedures does not make it more or less likely that the arrest implicates the Fourth Amendment, and evidence of the violation is therefore irrelevant. If Officer Sholtis violated the SOP governing the use of force in effecting arrest, that fact might well be pertinent to the Albuquerque Police Department's future decisions to promote, retain, or discipline him; it is not relevant to determining if Plaintiffs' arrest violated the reasonableness requirement of the Fourth Amendment. 38 Having determined that the SOPs themselves were not relevant to Plaintiffs' federal claims, the trial court determined that the SOPs might be relevant to Plaintiffs' state claims, but were nevertheless inadmissible. The trial court concluded that evidence of the SOPs could cause the jury to mistake violations of the SOPs for a constitutional violation. In excluding evidence because of its potential to create jury confusion, the trial judge weighs the probative value of the evidence against the likelihood that it will mislead the jury. Fed.R.Evid. 403. We review this balancing process for abuse of discretion, and accord considerable deference to a trial court's determination that evidence is likely to cause jury confusion. United States v. Guardia, 135 F.3d 1326, 1331-32 (10th Cir.1998). Given the minimal probative value of an SOP that merely duplicates the legal standard already under consideration, and the likelihood that the jury could confuse legal and administrative standards, we cannot find that the trial court abused its discretion in excluding the evidence with regard to Plaintiffs' state claims. 39 Although plaintiffs frequently wish to use administrative standards, like the Albuquerque SOPs, to support constitutional damages claims, this could disserve the objective of protecting civil liberties. Modern police departments are able — and often willing — to use administrative measures such as reprimands, salary adjustments, and promotions to encourage a high standard of public service, in excess of the federal constitutional minima. If courts treated these administrative standards as evidence of constitutional violations in damages actions under § 1983, this would create a disincentive to adopt progressive standards. Thus, we decline Plaintiffs' invitation here to use the Albuquerque Police Department's operating procedures as evidence of the constitutional standard. 40 The trial court's exclusion of the SOPs was particularly appropriate because Plaintiffs wished to admit not only evidence of the SOPs themselves, but also evidence demonstrating that the APD found that Officer Sholtis violated the SOPs and attempted to discipline him for it. Explaining the import of these convoluted proceedings to the jury would have been a confusing, and ultimately needless, task. The Albuquerque Chief of Police followed the recommendation of an internal affairs investigator to discipline Officer Sholtis both for making an impermissible off-duty arrest and for use of excessive force. An ad hoc committee subsequently reversed this decision. Additional testimony would have been necessary to help the jury understand the significance of these determinations and the procedures used to arrive at these contradictory results. This additional testimony explaining the procedures used at each step in the APD's investigation and decision-making would have led the jury ever further from the questions they were required to answer, and embroiled them in the dispute over whether Officer Sholtis's actions did or did not violate the SOPs. At the end of this time-consuming detour through a tangential and tendentious issue, the jury would have arrived at the conclusion that the APD itself seems to have been unable to resolve satisfactorily the question whether Plaintiffs' arrest violated the APD SOPs. The rules of evidence and our prior law caution against detours as extended and fruitless as this one would almost certainly have been. See Fed.R.Evid.611(a)(2); U.S. v. McVeigh, 153 F.3d 1166, 1191 (10th Cir.1998) (upholding exclusion of evidence with the potential to sidetrack the jury into consideration of factual disputes only tangentially related to the facts at issue in the current case.); U.S. v. Guardia, 135 F.3d 1326, 1332 (10th Cir.1998) (explaining that exclusion of evidence of unrelated incidents would have transform[ed] the trial of two incidents into the trial of six incidents ... mak[ing] it difficult for the jury to separate the evidence of the uncharged conduct from the charged conduct). 41 The similarity of the SOP addressing excessive force to the objective standard employed by state and federal law would render jury confusion even more likely, tempting the jury to conclude that if experienced police officers interpreted Officer Sholtis's actions as a violation of SOPs employing the same standards as the law, then Officer Sholtis must also have violated legal requirements. When, as here, the proffered evidence adds nothing but the substantial likelihood of jury confusion, the trial judge's exclusion of it cannot be an abuse of discretion. 42 Our conclusion that the trial court correctly excluded evidence of the SOPs on Officer Sholtis's motion in limine is not the end of the matter. Plaintiffs argue that, having succeeded in excluding evidence of the SOPs, Officer Sholtis opened the door to rebuttal evidence regarding the SOPs during direct examination of his expert witness. Officer Sholtis's expert testified repeatedly that Officer Sholtis's behavior throughout his encounter with Plaintiffs conformed to his training: 43 Q. Have you formed an opinion as to whether the use of force in the arrest of Ms. Tanberg and Ms. Ortega was reasonable, proper, and consistent with police procedures in the training of Officer Sholtis? 44 A. Well, yes. And I believe that it was — that his actions were reasonable and appropriate based on Ms. Ortega's behavior at the scene and her attack. 45 Q. Okay. Did you form an opinion as to whether the use of force in the arrest of Ms. Tanberg was reasonable, proper, and consistent with Officer Sholtis' training and proper police practices? 46 A. Well, I found that, even though it was very quick, and I know that there was not a lot of time elapsed, the fact is that the decision to not cooperate was Mrs. Tanberg's decision.... And because of her behavior at the scene, I believe that the actions of Officer Sholtis was [sic] reasonable, appropriate, and followed his training. 47 Aplt.App. 726-27. 48 Plaintiffs argue that having admitted this testimony the trial court was obliged to allow Plaintiffs to test the bases of the expert's opinion that Officer Sholtis's behavior conformed to his training through cross-examination regarding the SOPs. 49 The trial court initially agreed, distinguishing between its earlier exclusion of such evidence and admission of the evidence at trial once Officer Sholtis opened the door. At the beginning of a lunch break for which the jury had been excused, Plaintiffs' counsel, at the court's prompting, attempted to frame a series of questions to be asked on cross-examination after lunch. Plaintiffs' counsel was apparently distracted by the frequent interruptions of Officer Sholtis's counsel, and eventually asked if he could return to his office and prepare written questions for submission to the court. The trial court agreed, observing that such a process would be much easier than doing this. Aplt.App. 766. Trial was scheduled to resume at 1:00; at noon the court instructed Plaintiffs' counsel to present written questions to the court at 12:30. The court gave no indication that prejudice would attach to late submission of the questions. 50 At 1:08, when the transcript resumes, the trial court reversed its earlier ruling and excluded evidence of the SOPs: 51 I told Counsel to be back with the precise questions ... by 12:30. The Court came on the bench at 12:31 or 2, and nobody was here until around 12:40 for sure. So as far as I am concerned, it's waived.... Anyway, more than that, on reflection I am not sure it's the test for excessive force, what a reasonable officer would to [sic] under the circumstances, and I am not sure that this wouldn't be confusing to the jury anyway.... I am going to rule that the questions were waived by being late and that they are 403 confusing. 52 Aplt.App. 767. When Plaintiffs' counsel, in an effort to persuade the court to reconsider, stressed the frequency with which Officer Sholtis's expert had testified that Officer Sholtis acted in accordance with his training, the court indicated that at that time I had agreed with you ... but 12:30 is 12:30. Id. 53 When a party opens the door to a topic, the admission of rebuttal evidence on that topic becomes permissible. See U.S. v. Burch, 153 F.3d 1140, 1144 (10th Cir.1998). Permissible does not mean mandatory, however; the decision to admit or exclude rebuttal testimony remains within the trial court's sound discretion. Id. 54 We do not believe the trial court abused its discretion. While admission of the SOPS may have been relevant to the issue of Officer Sholtis's training, 6 with the proper foundation, a close examination of the SOPs casts doubt on whether they could be properly characterized as rebuttal evidence. Rebuttal evidence is evidence which attempts to disprove or contradict the evidence to which it is contrasted. Black's Law Dictionary 579 (7th ed.1999). Rebuttal evidence is not any evidence an aggrieved litigant may wish to admit in response to a topic introduced by his opponent; whether or not rebuttal evidence is admissible depends on whether the initial proof might affect the case and whether the rebuttal evidence fairly meets the initial proof. Christopher B. Mueller & Larid C. Kirkpatrick, 1 Federal Evidence § 12 n.2 (2d ed.2004). See also United States v. Stitt, 250 F.3d 878, 897 (4th Cir.2001) ([W]hen otherwise inadmissible, rebuttal evidence must be reasonably tailored to the evidence it seeks to refute.... [T]here must be a nexus between the purported rebuttal evidence and the evidence that the purported rebuttal evidence seeks to rebut.) 55 The language of the SOPs is sufficiently general and sufficiently similar to the federal standard for excessive force — the SOPs call for officers to use only that force which is reasonable and necessary to effect lawful objectives,APD SOP § 2-52-2A — that admission of this evidence would have added nothing to the evidence Plaintiffs were allowed to adduce. 56 But again, it is not just the SOPs themselves Plaintiffs wished to admit, but also the opinions of others, Officer Sholtis's superiors among them, that Officer Sholtis's activities did not conform to his training. While evidence of the APD's efforts to evaluate Officer Sholtis's conduct and discipline him for it had the potential to undermine the opinion that Officer Sholtis's actions conformed to his training, it also presented significant danger of jury confusion. For the reasons we have already given in relation to the trial court's initial exclusion of this evidence, we conclude that it was not an abuse of discretion for the trial judge to exclude the proffered rebuttal evidence on the basis of jury confusion. 57 Because we have determined that the trial court did not err in excluding evidence of SOPs, we need not reach the trial judge's alternative justification for excluding the evidence, that ten minutes' lateness constituted waiver. Without deciding the question, however, we do note that the trial court's right to exercise reasonable control over the mode and order of... presenting evidence ... so as to ... avoid needless consumption of time, Fed.R.Evid. 611(a), is to be exercised reasonably and with a view to the overarching requirement that the rules of evidence are to be construed not only so as to eliminate delay, but also so as to secure fairness, see Fed.R.Evid. 102. 58