Opinion ID: 607860
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Testimony of the Social Worker

Text: 34 The district court excluded Barber's testimony, and it excluded her case notes on the ground they were not business records and thus were inadmissible hearsay. The business records exception to the hearsay rule allows for the admission of the following evidence for the purpose of proving the truth of its contents: 35 A memorandum, report, record, or data compilation ... of acts, events, conditions, opinions, or diagnoses, made at or near the time by, or from information transmitted by, a person with knowledge, if kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity. 36 Fed.R.Evid. 803(6). We review a district court's exclusion of hearsay for abuse of discretion. United States v. Torres, 901 F.2d 205, 234 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 906, 111 S.Ct. 273, 112 L.Ed.2d 229 (1990). 37 Barber's case notes were records kept by the Orange County Department of Social Services in the regular course of business. These case notes were taken in the normal course of business, as Barber was the social worker responsible for the case file concerning the Agrillo children. The notes were made close to the time of the events they recorded and were, in part, based on Barber's personal knowledge and observations. Thus, we find that Barber's records should have been admitted under the business records exception to the hearsay rule. See United States v. Ray, 930 F.2d 1368, 1370 (9th Cir.1990) (testimony of a welfare fraud investigator about the contents of a welfare file was admissible under Rule 803(6)), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 1124, 111 S.Ct. 1084, 112 L.Ed.2d 1189 (1991); see also United States v. King, 613 F.2d 670 (7th Cir.1980) (social security investigative reports held admissible under Rule 803(6)). 38 We also conclude that the district court should have admitted Barber's testimony about the use of fire in cult activities that took place on the premises during the Agrillos tenancy because her testimony would have been relevant. Evidence is relevant if it 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. As a general rule, [a]ll relevant evidence is admissible. Fed.R.Evid. 402. 39 Here, Barber was not permitted to testify regarding any personal knowledge she may have had bearing on the second-degree burns allegedly sustained by a woman who claimed to have been burned at the Agrillos' house. Such testimony would have been relevant because it had a tendency to make the existence of the Maleks' theory that the Agrillos were responsible for the fire more probable than it would have been had Barber not testified. Thus, because Barber's testimony was not prejudicial, cumulative, or misleading, see Fed.R.Evid. 403, the district court erred in excluding this relevant testimony. 40 We also find that the district court erred in preventing Barber from testifying about the photographs that Mrs. Agrillo took and sent to the Department of Social Services. Barber's testimony about Mrs. Agrillo's photographs and the photographs themselves would have contradicted the defendants' argument that the Agrillos could not have started the fire because the fire occurred five days after Sheriff Patricola confirmed the house was vacant. Barber's proffered testimony, combined with the photographs, also provided support for the Maleks' theory that the Agrillos may have started the fire accidentally during one of their cult activities. The proffered testimony and photographs directly implicated the issues of opportunity and causation as it related to the defendants' arson defense. 41