Opinion ID: 2369035
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Admissibility of Two Posts to the NAMGLA Website and the Children's Toys

Text: Christie next contends that the District Court should have excluded as irrelevant and unfairly prejudicial the subject matter of the two posts that Christie admitted putting on the NAMGLA website (i.e., the post concerning a nine-year-old in a grocery store and the post concerning arousal while changing a baby's diaper) and likewise should have excluded the evidence of the children's toys in his house. Although Christie objected at trial to introduction of the subject matter of the NAMGLA posts as irrelevant and unfairly prejudicial, he objected to the statement concerning the toys only as unfairly prejudicial. Accordingly, we review his challenge to the relevance of the testimony about the toys for plain error. The NAMGLA posts were certainly relevant to the charged child-pornography offenses. The posts were submitted under Christie's screen name of franklee and indicated that Christie visited the NAMGLA site with the purpose of exchanging child pornography. Despite that obvious relevance, Christie contends that the posts were unduly prejudicial because they painted him as a sexual predator actively engaged in looking for children[.] (Appellant's Op. Br. at 35.) That Christie's own posts may bear that interpretation does not make them irrelevant or unfairly prejudicial. The potential impact of information about the NAMGLA posts was no doubt prejudicial, but the District Court was well within the bounds of its discretion in concluding that the danger of unfair prejudice did not substantially outweigh the probative value of the evidence. Furthermore, the government did not introduce the posts themselves, instead eliciting only testimony concerning the subjects of the posts. There was no abuse of discretion in the District Court's decision to admit that testimony. See Starnes, 583 F.3d at 215 ([U]nfair prejudice does not simply mean damage to the opponent's cause. If it did, most relevant evidence would be deemed [unfairly] prejudicial.... [T]he fact that probative evidence helps one side prove its case obviously is not grounds for excluding it under Rule 403. (quotations omitted and alterations in original)). As to the toys, Christie asserts that [n]othing about the fact that he had children's toys in his house made it more likely that he possessed, received or advertised images of child pornography than it would have been without the evidence, and that the evidence was extremely prejudicial because it created the impression that he was a sexual predator even though he was not charged with sexual abuse of a minor. (Appellant's Op. Br. at 34-35.) The government responds that testimony concerning the toys was relevant because it corroborated Christie's confession to Bennett. The government's reasoning is that, since Christie was truthful about his profession as a bus driver, and mentioned being a bus driver while explaining the toys, he must have been telling the truth when he admitted to posting his fantasies to the NAMGLA website. Further, the government asserts that the testimony was not unduly prejudicial since the government never actually argued that Christie was a pedophile. Here we are in agreement with Christie, and the government's painfully strained reasoning serves as its own refutation. On this record, there does not appear to be any legitimate basis for claiming that the toys were relevant. While the truthfulness of Christie's acknowledgment that he was a bus driver may have some tendency, albeit weak, to suggest that he was truthful in his entire discussion with Bennett, that point could have been made without any mention of the toys at all. Bus driving, not toy possession, is the supposed tie to truthfulness. However, even if one assumes the toys had some relevance, the danger of unfair prejudice clearly and substantially outweighed it. The implication of the testimony is just what Christie contends: that, as a bus driver with access to children, he used the toys in attempt to make contact with children and, given his aberrant interests, to molest them. But, as Christie notes, he was charged with possession of child pornography, not child molestation. Accordingly, the evidence concerning the toys was substantially more likely to have an unfair prejudicial effect than to benefit the jury in determining Christie's guilt on the crimes charged. The District Court therefore erred in admitting Bennett's testimony on that issue. As unduly prejudicial as that evidence may have been in this context, we nevertheless conclude that the error was harmless given the truly overwhelming quantity of legitimate evidence against Christie, including his admissions to Bennett, his moderator status and activities on the NAMGLA site, his handwritten notebooks documenting and rating various child-pornography related websites, and the thousands and thousands of images of child pornography in his possession. See United States v. Dispoz-O-Plastics, Inc., 172 F.3d 275, 286 (3d Cir.1999) (explaining that an error is harmless when the court is convinced that the defendant was not prejudiced by it, and noting that [t]he factors to be examined [in making that determination include] ... the scope of the comments and their relationship to the proceeding, ... and the strength of the evidence against [the] defendant[].); see also United States v. Vazquez, 271 F.3d 93, 100 (3d Cir.2001) (noting the similarity of harmless error standard and inquiry, under plain error standard, as to whether an error affected a defendant's substantial rights). Christie himself acknowledges that [t]he government had ... an extraordinary amount of relevant, admissible, and indisputably disturbing evidence, which it displayed and described multiple times. (Appellant's Op. Br. at 44.) The testimony concerning the toys was brief, spanning only fifteen lines in the transcript of an eight day trial, and the toys were not mentioned in the government's closing. Accordingly, it is `highly probable that the error did not contribute to the judgment.' See United States v. Vosburgh, 602 F.3d 512, 540 (3d Cir.2010) (quoting Dispoz-O-Plastics, Inc., 172 F.3d at 286); see also United States v. Anderskow, 88 F.3d 245, 251 (3d Cir.1996) (holding that evidentiary error was harmless when government did not rely on testimony in summation and when evidence against defendant was overwhelming).