Opinion ID: 685668
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Evidence of Mende's Prior Fraudulent Activities.

Text: 11 At a pretrial hearing, the government moved to allow introduction of evidence that one of Mende's co-defendants, Robert Turman, had been warned by a third party, Ed Bray, that Mende had been previously involved in a similar fraudulent scheme. At that point, the district court ruled that it would not allow this evidence, but invited the government to raise the issue again at trial. 12 Beginning with their opening statements and continuing throughout the course of the trial, Mende's co-defendants presented a lack of knowledge defense. Both denied any knowledge on their part that Mende's companies were fraudulent. Recognizing that Turman and Longo had placed their knowledge of Mende's fraudulent conduct at issue, the government renewed its motion. After entertaining arguments from counsel regarding the admissibility of Bray's statement, the district court then ruled that it would allow the jury to consider a portion of Bray's testimony. 2 This testimony was immediately followed by a limiting instruction. Mende argues that the district court abused its discretion in admitting Bray's testimony. 13 Federal Rules of Evidence Rule 403 allows the trial judge to exclude otherwise relevant evidence if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice. 3 Mende maintains that the district court erred in failing to exclude this evidence. He argues that Bray's statement was of little probative value and that it severely prejudiced his defense by informing the jury that he had formerly engaged in the same type of fraudulent conduct for which he was accused. Rule 403, however, is  'an extraordinary remedy to be used sparingly because it permits the trial court to exclude otherwise relevant evidence.'  United States v. Patterson, 819 F.2d 1495, 1505 (9th Cir.1987) (quoting United States v. Meester, 762 F.2d 867, 875 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 1024, 106 S.Ct. 579, 88 L.Ed.2d 562 (1985)). Under the terms of the rule, the danger of prejudice must not merely outweigh the probative value of the evidence, but substantially outweigh it. We review the district court's ruling under Rule 403 for abuse of discretion. United States v. Crespo de Llano, 838 F.2d 1006, 1018 (9th Cir.1987). 14 It is clear from the record that the district court carefully considered this issue, weighed the probative value against any potential prejudice to Mende, and determined that the probative value of the evidence outweighed any potential prejudice. Mende's co-defendants put their knowledge of Mende's fraudulent activities in issue, and Bray's statement was clearly probative of that question. Any resultant prejudice was minimized by the limiting instruction. Mende maintains that this type of limiting instruction could only aggravate the prejudice by focusing the prior conduct clearly on him. But we must presume that juries will follow the district court's limiting instructions. United States v. Baker, 10 F.3d 1374, 1388 (9th Cir.1993), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 330, 130 L.Ed.2d 289 (1994). Based on the record, we cannot conclude that the district court abused its discretion. 15