Opinion ID: 752178
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Prior-Act Evidence Admitted Under Fed.R.Evid. 404(b)

Text: 30 Margie asks for reversal of her convictions because the district court admitted evidence that in 1993, when she returned from a trip to Europe, she concealed from customs inspectors a purchase of jewelry subject to duty. 7 The district court concluded that the evidence was admissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b) because it showed Margie's propensity to conceal facts and was thus relevant to Margie's intent. (R.19-462 at 28.) This court reviews the district court's evidentiary rulings for abuse of discretion. United States v. Diaz-Lizaraza, 981 F.2d 1216, 1224 (11th Cir.1993). Admitting the evidence was an abuse of discretion, but the error is not reversible. 31 Rule 404(b) provides that evidence of offenses other than those charged is admissible only for purposes other than showing character. The Rule has been construed to require a three-part test for admissibility of such other offenses evidence. First, the evidence must be relevant to an issue other than the defendant's character. Second, there must be sufficient proof that the defendant committed the extrinsic act. Third, the evidence must survive the balancing test prescribed by Federal Rule of Evidence 403. United States v. Miller, 959 F.2d 1535, 1538 (11th Cir.1992) (en banc); United States v. Utter, 97 F.3d 509, 513 (11th Cir.1996). The proponent of the evidence can satisfy the first prong by showing that the evidence is probative of the defendant's motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, or absence of mistake or accident, if any of these are in dispute. Fed.R.Evid. 404(b); see United States v. Diaz-Lizaraza, 981 F.2d 1216, 1224 (11th Cir.1993). 32 The issue here turns on the first prong; the evidence is ample to satisfy the second prong, and we need not reach the third prong. The Government contends that the first prong is satisfied because the customs incident is relevant to Margie's intent. Margie was charged with violating 18 U.S.C. § 1001, and its intent element requires the Government to prove that Margie wrote the false information on the manifests knowing it was false and intending to make the false statement. See Arthur Pew Const. Co. v. Lipscomb, 965 F.2d 1559, 1576 (11th Cir.1992); United States v. Lange, 528 F.2d 1280, 1288 (5th Cir.1976). According to the Government, the misrepresentation to customs is relevant to this required knowledge and intent because it shows Margie's willingness to engage in intentional deception of government agents ... for personal financial gain. (Gov't Br. at 37.) Restated, the Government's asserted relevant inference is that we can gather from the customs incident that Margie is disposed to lie to the government; therefore, being a liar, she must have intended to lie on the passenger manifests. This inference is precisely the one that Rule 404(b) prohibits: it makes an element of the crime (intent to lie) more probable because of the defendant's character (liar). Cf. United States v. Utter, 97 F.3d 509, 513-14 (11th Cir.1996). 33 Furthermore, the differences between Margie's falsification of the customs declaration and the falsification of the passenger manifests are simply too great to make the customs incident relevant to Margie's intent in any other way. Cf. United States v. Young, 39 F.3d 1561, 1573 (11th Cir.1994) (evidence of moonshining is not relevant to intent to distribute marijuana because the acts are not sufficiently similar). The key dispute at trial relating to intent was whether Margie knew enough about Aetna's reporting requirements, or even about the meaning of the passenger manifests themselves, to know if what she was writing was false. The customs incident makes Margie's knowledge about the passenger manifests neither more nor less likely. The concealment of the jewelry was unrelated to the Medicare fraud scheme, so it does not imply that Margie participated in Jack's scheme and is therefore more likely to have willfully lied about her destination and travel purposes. The customs declaration form was different from the passenger manifests, and Margie's interpretation of the customs form accordingly casts no light on her understanding of the passenger manifest. This failure of relevance to any issue other than Margie's character makes the admission of the customs incident evidence an abuse of discretion. 34 The error does not, however, compel reversal because we conclude that it had no substantial influence on the jury's guilty verdict on the two § 1001 counts. Cf. Young, 39 F.3d at 1573 (11th Cir.1994) (refusing to reverse a judgment for improper admission of 404(b) testimony, because evidence did not prejudice the defendant's substantial rights). There was overwhelming evidence that Margie intentionally falsified the passenger manifests. The manifests themselves were in evidence, and First American's general counsel, who was on the flight, testified that contrary to the manifest representations Margie did not travel on those flights to San Antonio for business purposes. The organizer of the high school reunion the Millses attended testified to their presence, and a videotape of the reunion showing them was introduced in evidence. Margie's counsel did not cross-examine these witnesses and offered no contradictory evidence. There was copious evidence, moreover, about Margie's other personal use of First American's planes, including testimony that Margie had herself directed ghosting of passengers. Furthermore, the passenger manifest that she falsified listed each of several passengers on the plane with a separate entry, making it implausible that she would have misunderstood the from and to lines to refer to the plane's destination and not to hers. 8 Finally, the jury's not-guilty verdict on most of the falsification counts against Margie implies that the jury's consideration was not tainted by evidence of the customs incident, or any inference from the incident that Margie was a liar. 35