Opinion ID: 660188
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: exclusion of extrinsic evidence to impeach government witness

Text: 77 Markoff argues that the district court in the first trial erred by excluding testimony of his employee Kathy Daley on the basis of Fed.R.Evid. 608(b). Markoff Br. at 47. Markoff represented to the district court that Kathy Daley would testify that his billing secretary, Marie Maugeri, gave Daley false medical receipts so that Daley could submit a false insurance claim. Govt.App. 1017-23. In earlier testimony, Maugeri had denied falsifying her own insurance claims. Id. at 1021. The district court ruled that Daley's proposed testimony was barred by Rule 608(b) because it was extrinsic evidence which Markoff sought to introduce to impeach Maugeri's credibility. Id. at 1021-22. 78 Rule 608(b) provides that [s]pecific instances of the conduct of a witness, for the purpose of attacking or supporting the witness' credibility, other than conviction of crime ... may not be proved by extrinsic evidence. But as the government concedes, evidence barred by Rule 608(b) solely for impeachment can be admitted if it is otherwise relevant to a material issue. Govt.Br. at 65. For example, in United States v. Anderson, 859 F.2d 1171, 1178 (3d Cir.1988), we noted that extrinsic evidence may be introduced as evidence of a witness's bias or interest in the case. 19 Markoff sought to introduce Daley's testimony to rebut testimony indicating that Markoff was aware of the Law Firm-Markoff Enterprise and knowingly agreed to participate in the conduct of its affairs through a pattern of racketeering. Although Daley's testimony did not involve a fraud charged in the indictment, it may have been probative of Markoff's knowledge of the fraudulent billing practices of his employees. Thus, arguably the district court abused its discretion by using Rule 608(b) to exclude testimony that was relevant to a material issue in the case, Markoff's knowledge. 20 Nonetheless, we need not reach this issue because even if the district court erred in its decision, in the context of this case, the error on this minor point was harmless due to the compelling evidence supporting Markoff's RICO convictions. In this regard we observe that evidence that someone else also may have submitted a false insurance claim, if germane at all, would have had, at most, tangential significance at this trial in view of the volume of evidence implicating Markoff. 79