Opinion ID: 575830
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Testimony of Alipio Diaz

Text: 28 Cota contends that the testimony of this witness, who did not even know her, should have been suppressed on grounds that its prejudicial effect monumentally outweighed its minimally probative value. Alipio Diaz was a confessed participant in the Hernandez' drug trafficking organization--an aspect of the scheme in which Cota was never involved. He was also arrested months before Cota got involved in the money laundering side of the conspiracy. But Diaz was in a position to know first-hand that the properties Cota sold were obtained with illegal drug money. Contrary to appellant's assertion, this aspect of the family's drug connections was an issue at her trial. Diaz also knew Leoncio Hernandez, and was able to testify about which members of the Hernandez family owned what properties. As the court held in United States v. Diaz, 878 F.2d 608, 614 n. 2 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 993, 110 S.Ct. 543, 107 L.Ed.2d 540 (1989), testimony about such peripheral matters is admissible, even if it falls outside the time frame alleged in an indictment, so long as it is relevant to an issue at trial. The court therefore neither acted arbitrarily nor irrationally when it admitted the testimony of Diaz, particularly since Judge Sifton gave the jury limiting instructions as to what inferences they could derive from hearing the witness.