Opinion ID: 394855
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Evidence of Custom and Practice

Text: 47 We turn finally to the defendants' challenge to the prosecution's evidence that the demand and acceptance of top money was a regular custom and practice of the New York City marshals. 12 The defendants contend that the admission of such evidence was error and was highly prejudicial to them. For the reasons that follow, we find no basis for reversal. 48 The government elicited testimony from no fewer than 13 witnesses all of the buyers, all of the auctioneers, and former marshal Ortiz that it was the custom and practice of marshals to demand, either directly or through their auctioneers, money on top. The rationale on which this evidence was offered and received is not wholly unobscured. When the prosecutor posed the first custom and practice questions early in the trial, the district court allowed the testimony as background, instructing the jury at that time that it does not bind any defendant. This is just background as to what happens if you believe his testimony in the cases where there are fraudulently conducted sales. (Tr. 241.) Despite mention of a different rationale shortly thereafter in the absence of the jury, 13 the court several days later in effect reiterated its first instruction during the custom and practice testimony of another buyer: this is not direct evidence against any defendant, except as the witness indicates that a particular accused participated in it. (Tr. 1094.) Toward the end of the government's presentation of this type of evidence, however, the court informed the jury as follows: I am admitting evidence on custom and practice because you may from the custom and practice and all the other evidence infer that the defendants engaged in the general custom and practice .... (Tr. 2060-61.) 49 Nevertheless, by the time the jury was to be charged at the close of the evidence and summations, the district court had revised its view of the proper role of the custom and practice evidence: it instructed the jury that custom and practice evidence could be used only for the limited purpose of assessing whether the government had proven the existence of a conspiracy as charged in Count I of the indictment. The court instructed the jury that neither the custom and practice testimony, nor the evidence of top money demands other than those specifically alleged in the indictment against the four defendants could be used to prove that the defendants committed any of the substantive crimes charged: 50 Now, there was evidence of sales that were not charged in the indictment. Evidence came before you on the custom and practice among marshals in conducting sales, just generally among what was called the business of selling judgment-debtor assets. The evidence of sales that were not charged in the indictment may only be used in determining whether the government established the existence of the conspiracy charged and for no other purpose. The evidence of custom and practice in the conduct of marshals' sales may be considered in determining whether the conspiracy charged was established. It is limited to such use and it may not be considered in determining whether the accused committed the other crimes charged in the indictment. 51 (Tr. 4847.) The substance of this instruction was repeated in response to the jury's request, shortly after it retired to deliberate, for clarification of what constitutes conspiracy. The clarification included the following: 52 You can take into consideration all the statements made by all the alleged conspirators to determine whether the government proved such a conspiracy. You can take into consideration proof of custom and practice, and as I said, that evidence is solely on the issue as to whether there was such a conspiracy. 53 (Tr. 4907.) 54 Defendants argue that the admission of the custom and practice evidence was barred by Fed.R.Evid. 404(b) because that evidence referred to other acts and was designed to show that the defendants acted similarly. We agree with the district court's final analysis that the custom and practice testimony was admissible for a limited purpose. Such testimony could properly be considered in determining whether or not the government had proven the existence of a broad conspiracy among marshals to demand top money, as alleged in the indictment, but it could not be considered in reaching a finding as to whether or not any of the defendants themselves demanded or received top money. The key to both conclusions is the scope of Rule 404(b). Rule 404(b) provides as follows: 55 Other crimes, wrongs, or acts. Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show that he acted in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident. 56 To the extent that the evidence related to acts other than those charged, it was admissible under the second sentence of Rule 404(b) to show a continuous plan. Insofar as the evidence, on the other hand, reflected a custom and practice that was part of the alleged conspiracy itself, it was not inadmissible under the first sentence of the Rule because the conduct did not represent other acts. See, e. g., United States v. Carroll, 510 F.2d 507, 509 (2d Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 426 U.S. 923, 96 S.Ct. 2633, 49 L.Ed.2d 378 (1976); 22 C. Wright & K. Graham, Federal Practice and Procedure § 5239 (1978): 57 In cases where the incident offered is part of the conspiracy alleged in the indictment, the evidence is admissible under Rule 404(b) because it is not an other crime. The evidence is offered as direct evidence of the fact in issue, not as circumstantial evidence requiring an inference as to the character of the accused. 58 Id. at 450 (footnote omitted). 59 Since the acts were part of the conspiracy, evidence of their occurrence was admissible to prove the conspiracy, regardless of whether they were performed by the defendants or by other coconspirators. See, e. g., United States v. Araujo, 539 F.2d 287, 289 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 983, 97 S.Ct. 498, 50 L.Ed.2d 593 (1976); United States v. Papadakis, 510 F.2d 287, 294-95 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 421 U.S. 950, 95 S.Ct. 1682, 44 L.Ed.2d 104 (1975); United States v. Costello, 352 F.2d 848, 854 (2d Cir. 1965), rev'd on other grounds, 390 U.S. 39, 88 S.Ct. 697, 19 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); United States v. Bates, 600 F.2d 505 (5th Cir. 1979); United States v. Vega-Limon, 548 F.2d 1390 (9th Cir. 1977); 22 C. Wright & K. Graham, supra, § 5239, at 451. In Papadakis, for example, we approved the receipt of evidence, to prove the existence of the conspiracy, that on several occasions not charged in the indictment the defendant and others conducted themselves in a manner similar to that charged. And in Costello, we stated that 60 the acts of others not involving the defendant directly may come in against him merely to show the existence of a conspiracy, with which he is to be linked by quite separate proof. 61 352 F.2d at 854. Even acts prior to the first act alleged in the indictment may be proven to show the continuing nature of the conspiracy. Id. 62 We see no error in the district court's receipt of evidence as to some of the conspiratorial acts in a somewhat generalized form. For example, rather than detailing each of the top money demands they had made or witnessed as auctioneers and/or buyers over the years, the witnesses generally testified as to how many marshals' auctions they had attended in those capacities, and estimated in what percentage of those cases top money had been demanded. It was within the district court's discretion, after assuring itself that such evidence was based on personal knowledge, see Fed.R.Evid. 403, 602; see United States v. Brown, 548 F.2d 1194, 1198 n.13 (5th Cir. 1977), to permit the testimony to be given in that form. Likewise we find no error in the court's permitting these experienced witnesses 14 to draw expert inferences as to the existence of a custom and practice among marshals to demand top money. Their opinions were properly admitted under Fed.R.Evid. 702 15 to assist the jury in determining whether there was a broad-scale agreement among marshals to demand top money. 63 While we conclude that the custom and practice evidence was admissible for the purposes we have discussed, we agree with the defendants that Rule 404(b) barred its use to prove that the individual defendants acted in conformity with the custom and practice. The district court ultimately agreed with this view, as evidenced in his final and supplemental charges to the jury. But, as noted earlier, during the testimony of one buyer, the court had instructed the jury that it was permitted to infer from the custom and practice evidence that the defendants individually had engaged in the custom and practice. To the extent that the custom and practice evidence consisted of testimony as to a defendant's other acts, the interim instruction which made no mention of plan, or knowledge, or any other use of the evidence permissible under the second sentence of Rule 404(b), but instead expressly permitted the inference that the defendant had acted as charged in the indictment was contrary to the prohibition of the first sentence of Rule 404(b). This use of the other act evidence would require an inference that the other act showed the defendant's propensity to perform acts of that type, and a further inference, from that propensity, that the defendant therefore performed the act charged. See 22 C. Wright & K. Graham, supra, § 5239, at 460-61. Such a chain of inferences, even if the person who performed the other acts is the person whose conduct is in issue, is logically so weak that the relevance of the factual evidence will nearly always be outweighed by the probable prejudice resulting from its admission. The logical weakness is the reason for the general prohibition of Rule 404(b): 64 The basic reason for the inadmissibility of evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is that such evidence is irrelevant to prove the conduct in question. As Wigmore says, it has long been accepted in our law ... (t)hat 'the doing of one act is in itself no evidence that the same or a like act was again done by the same person' .... The reason for this is that our knowledge of the causes of human conduct is too weak to provide any major premise that will support the desired inference.... 65 The only explanatory model for human conduct expressly recognized by the law of evidence is the concept of character. But our confidence in this construct is so weak that its explicit use is only authorized under special circumstances. 66 22 C. Wright & K. Graham, supra, § 5239, at 436 (footnotes omitted). 67 Moreover, to the extent that the chain of reasoning requires an inference that the individual defendants committed certain acts based on evidence that other acts were performed by other persons, it is even more tenuous. In giving the interim instruction permitting such an inference, the court apparently relied on Fed.R.Evid. 406, which provides as follows: 68 Evidence of the habit of a person or of the routine practice of an organization, whether corroborated or not and regardless of the presence of eyewitnesses, is relevant to prove that the conduct of the person or organization on a particular occasion was in conformity with the habit or routine practice. 69 We do not believe that this Rule authorized the interim instruction. We begin by noting that the challenged evidence concerned the custom and practice of marshals as a group rather than the habits of individual defendants. While various witnesses testified that one or more of the defendants had, on specific occasions, demanded and been paid top money, none testified that it was the habit of such defendant to do so. Thus, the interim instruction permitted the jury to infer conduct of an individual on the basis of the custom of an organization. It may be that the ambiguous structure of Rule 406 which does not link the conduct of a person expressly with proof as to the habit of that person, nor the conduct of an organization expressly with proof as to the routine practice of that organization, see 23 C. Wright & K. Graham, Federal Practice and Procedure § 5273, at 42 (1980) was intended to make admissible the evidence of the practice of the organization to prove the conduct of any of its members. As a matter of policy, however, we cannot countenance that application of the Rule here, see 23 C. Wright & K. Graham, supra, § 5275, at 56, since it would defy the principle of the individuality of guilt to hold that a defendant's mere membership in an organization practicing a particular type of crime could be used to show that the defendant himself committed such a crime. We conclude that the district court's interim instruction, which allowed the jury to use the custom and practice evidence to infer that the defendants demanded top money, was incorrect. 70 The conclusion that there was error, however, does not end the inquiry, for the Judicial Code instructs us that an incorrect ruling does not require the reversal of a judgment if the error was harmless: 71 On the hearing of any appeal or writ of certiorari in any case, the court shall give judgment after an examination of the record without regard to errors or defects which do not affect the substantial rights of the parties. 72 28 U.S.C. § 2111 (1976). The leading criminal case construing the predecessor of § 2111 is Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946), and its standards remain authoritative under the present provision. United States v. Frank, 494 F.2d 145, 161 n.19 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 828, 95 S.Ct. 48, 42 L.Ed.2d 52 (1974). In Kotteakos, the Supreme Court pointed out that in evaluating whether an error was harmless an appellate court is not to determine guilt or innocence, nor to speculate upon probable reconviction. 328 U.S. at 763, 66 S.Ct. at 1247. Rather, it is to determine, in relation to all else that happened, 73 what effect the error had or reasonably may be taken to have had upon the jury's decision. The crucial thing is the impact of the thing done wrong on the minds of other men, not on one's own, in the total setting. 74 Id. at 764, 66 S.Ct. at 1247. 75 If, when all is said and done, the conviction is sure that the error did not influence the jury, or had but very slight effect, the verdict and the judgment should stand, except perhaps where the departure is from a constitutional norm or a specific command of Congress.... But if one cannot say, with fair assurance, after pondering all that happened without stripping the erroneous action from the whole, that the judgment was not substantially swayed by the error, it is impossible to conclude that substantial rights were not affected. The inquiry cannot be merely whether there was enough to support the result, apart from the phase affected by the error. It is rather, even so, whether the error itself had substantial influence. If so, or if one is left in grave doubt, the conviction cannot stand. 76 Id. at 764-65, 66 S.Ct. at 1247-1248 (footnote and citations omitted). 77 After a review of the record as a whole we are convinced, for several reasons, that the district court's erroneous interim instruction did not influence the jury in the slightest. First, the court's final charge gave the jury the correct instruction and gave it in clear, concise, and unambiguous terms: the jury could consider custom and practice only in determining whether the existence of a conspiracy had been proved, not in considering any other alleged crime. Second, the jury did not appear to hark back to the interim instruction, which had been given more than two weeks before the final charge; it never requested reiteration of that earlier instruction; and when it asked for clarification of the court's final charge on conspiracy, it neither singled out the custom and practice portion for particular review, nor appeared to question the court's repeated admonition as to the limited role of that evidence. 78 Most importantly, contrary to defendants' contention that the fate of the individual defendants at bar was sealed by the receipt of the custom and practice evidence, it is clear that the jury did not indiscriminately find the defendants guilty. As to Angelilli, it found four of the ten alleged extortionate transactions not proved and found all five of the alleged mail fraud transactions not proved. As to Butler, it found two of the eight alleged extortionate transactions not proved. And as to Ribotsky, it found one of the four alleged extortionate transactions not proved. The jury's concentration on individual transactions was evident not only from its ultimate conclusions, but also from the nature of its numerous requests for taped and documentary evidence and for the rereading of certain testimony during its deliberations. In every instance the request related to evidence of specific auctions held or attended by one of the defendants. In no instance did the jury make any request that appeared to be concerned with custom and practice evidence. 79 Finally, we note that in only one rereading of testimony requested by the jury was there any mention of the custom and practice of demanding top money. This evidence related to a transaction in which the buyer testified that he had paid top money but that he could not recall whether he had handed the money to Butler or to his auctioneer. When asked why he had paid top money, he answered, Practice and custom I think was the word used here just a few minutes ago. On this single occasion, then, some custom and practice testimony was reread to the jury. This, however, was one of the transactions that the jury found not proved. 80 In all the circumstances we are left with the certain conviction that the erroneous instruction had no effect, and that the custom and practice evidence was not misused.