Opinion ID: 212690
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Exclusion of Proposed Witness

Text: At trial, Crosgrove sought to have John Murphy, an expert on domestic insurance companies and captive offshore insurance companies, testify about the general framework of claims processing and the procedure that a claims adjuster or insurance company would follow in denying a claim on the basis of fraud, and provide some information on captive insurance companies. The trial court, however, determined that because Murphy had no knowledge of the file in Crosgrove's case or of claims processing specific to AREA/Noble/Midwest, Murphy's testimony most likely did not meet the relevancy threshold of Federal Rule of Evidence 401. The district court went on to state that even if the testimony would satisfy Rule 401, it should be excluded under Federal Rule of Evidence 403 because of the likelihood that it could confuse or mislead the jury. On appeal, Crosgrove argues that the trial court abused its discretion in excluding Murphy's testimony. Crosgrove contends that the testimony was clearly relevant because Murphy would have offered the jury an expert's understanding of how claims adjusters operate thereby neutralizing the government's case. Crosgrove also states that Murphy would have testified that insurance adjusters routinely use aliases, thereby minimizing the strength of the Government's evidence relating to Crosgrove's use of the John Thomas pseudonym. However, a review of the record has not revealed that Crosgrove's trial counsel stated that Murphy would testify as to the standard use of aliases in the field of claims adjustment, and Crosgrove's appellate counsel was unable to direct the panel to such a statement in the record. Therefore, to the extent the claim of error is based on the rationale that Murphy's exclusion precluded Crosgrove from presenting his defense as to the standard use of aliases, the claim fails, as no plain error occurred. As to the relevancy of the other subjects to which Murphy would testify, the primary testimony which Crosgrove's trial counsel claimed Murphy would provide that captive insurance companies can be legalwas elicited from other witnesses and conceded by the Government in closing arguments. Further, the case was not about whether AREA/Noble's operations could have been legal if the entities were honest with their members. Rather, the case turned on whether Crosgrove was aware that AREA/Noble did not operate in the manner described to members and whether he participated in efforts to misrepresent the companies' insurance structure. Because Murphy was not prepared to testify with any specificity as to AREA/Noble's structure, there is no basis for Crosgrove's claim that the district court abused its discretion in excluding Murphy's testimony.