Opinion ID: 461235
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Good Faith Basis

Text: 47 On the ninth day of trial defendants Gilbreth and Snoddy put on three character witnesses who had business dealings with these two defendants. Two of the witnesses, Scott Ray and William Phipps, bank officers at the Bank of Lexington and the Southern Bank of Lauderdale County respectively, knew defendants Snoddy and Gilbreth because of certain loans taken out by them through each of the banks. 16 The third witness, Roger Pettus, was in the automobile business but also had overlapping business interests with defendants Snoddy and Gilbreth. One of defendant Gilbreth's businesses was the leasing of a customized bus to traveling music stars. 17 The purchase of one particular bus was financed by a purchase money loan from the Bank of Lexington. Scott Ray, an officer of the bank, knew that the bus served as collateral for the loan but he did not know any specifics about the bus. William Phipps and Roger Pettus knew that one of Gilbreth's businesses was the leasing of this bus to music stars but knew little else about it. 48 On cross-examination of Scott Ray, the prosecuting attorney asked the witness whether he knew if the bus was used to transport large quantities of cocaine. Defense counsel reacted by questioning the government's good faith basis for suggesting that fact to the jury. The government intimated that it had a basis in fact for asking the question and that it would provide it to the court. Defense counsel did not object when the government asked substantially the same question of Roger Pettus and William Phipps. 49 At a post-verdict bond hearing for the defendants, the government produced two pictures that had been seized by Alabama law enforcement officers at the home of defendant Snoddy's brother pursuant to a search warrant for marijuana unrelated to the charges made in this case. The pictures depicted several persons inside some kind of vehicle handling what appeared to be cocaine. The court did not rule on this issue at the bond hearing. 50 This issue was taken up again several months later at a hearing on defendants' motion for new trial. Defense counsel placed the U.S. Attorney on the stand to elicit testimony about her good faith basis for having asked questions about the transportation of cocaine on a bus owned by defendant Gilbreth. At this hearing it developed that the pictures the prosecuting attorney relied on as a good faith basis had apparently been taken before Gilbreth had ever owned the bus. It turned out that the pictures had not been taken inside a bus, rather they apparently had been taken inside a converted railway car located outside the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hilton in Chattanooga, Tennessee and rented out as lodging by the hotel. The U.S. Attorney also testified, however, that she had relied on hearsay statements by certain Alabama police officers familiar with the defendants to the effect that defendant Snoddy had transported cocaine on busses that were leased out to music celebrities. 51 We will not launch into a discourse on the practical and theoretical underpinnings of the law of evidence that allows a prosecuting attorney to probe a defense character witness's familiarity with the defendant by asking questions about purported prior bad acts of the defendant. We note only that the potential for abuse here, by wafting before the jury did you know? type questions that have no basis in fact but which can be fatal to the defendant, has led to the imposition of two safeguards that should be complied with before such questions may be asked in the presence of a jury. First, the alleged bad act must have a basis in fact and second, the incidents inquired about must be relevant to the character traits at issue in the trial. Michelson v. United States, 335 U.S. 469, 481 n. 18, 69 S.Ct. 213, 221, 93 L.Ed. 168 (1948); United States v. Crippen, 570 F.2d 535, 538-39 (5th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1069, 99 S.Ct. 837, 59 L.Ed.2d 34 (1979). That does not mean that the basis in fact must be proved as a fact before a good faith inquiry can be made. See United States v. Bright, 588 F.2d 504, 512 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 440 U.S. 972, 99 S.Ct. 1537, 59 L.Ed.2d 789 (1979) (government's proffer of a letter of reprimand for stipulation and its willingness to reopen the case in an attempt to prove fact of defendants' (an attorney) reprimand by a judge and the bar association demonstrated the necessary good faith factual basis for cross-examination of defense character witness, an attorney, regarding defendant's reprimand). 52 The government should have laid a foundation out of the presence of the jury before asking these questions, to give the judge an opportunity to rule on the propriety of asking them. Defense counsel attempts to make much of the fact that the prosecuting attorney erred in her evaluation of the pictures. Nonetheless, after hearing argument and evidence from both parties the district court found that the government had a good faith basis for asking the questions. 18 The court further found that even if the questions based on the photographs should not have been asked, there was sufficient independent evidence of guilt to support the jury verdict and the error, if any, did not have a substantial adverse impact on the jury's verdict. 19 United States v. Rodriguez, 524 F.2d 485, 487 (5th Cir.1975), cert. denied, 424 U.S. 972, 96 S.Ct. 1474, 47 L.Ed.2d 741 (1976). We see no reason to disturb this finding. 53