Opinion ID: 691028
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Prior Convictions of Massey's Coworkers

Text: 46 Massey complains that the district court abused its discretion by allowing the prosecutor to question him on the stand about his employment in 1983 at a different loan brokerage company. During his tenure at the other brokerage, clients were defrauded in a fashion similar to the scheme in the present case--the brokerage obtained fees from clients but never secured loans for them. Some of Massey's coworkers were convicted of fraud as a result of this scheme. Massey was indicted for the fraud, but charges were later dropped. 47 At trial, the prosecutor cross-examined Massey regarding a resume of Massey's sent to clients that contained no references to the prior brokerage experience. The district court allowed the prosecution to inquire into the fact that Massey worked for the brokerage company, none of the customers received loan funds, and others in the prior brokerage were convicted of fraud. No mention was made of Massey's indictment. The government offered the evidence in order to show that Massey had knowledge about the type of loan scheme he was involved with at JRE and that it had potentially criminal consequences. The district court instructed the jury only to consider the evidence for those purposes. 48 Massey claims that this evidence was evidence of prior bad acts subject to Fed.R.Evid. 404(b), which renders inadmissible evidence of prior acts to prove the character of a person in order to show conformity therewith. 11 However, this evidence is admissible for a number of other purposes, such as to show motive, knowledge, intent, preparation, or absence of mistake. We review the district court's decision to admit Rule 404(b) evidence under an abuse of discretion standard. United States v. Record, 873 F.2d 1363, 1373 (10th Cir.1989). 49 Massey's sole challenge to the admission of the evidence is that the convictions had taken place five years before the charged conduct and were thus too remote in time. We have noted that the probative value of evidence of a prior illegal act depends upon the temporal proximity between the prior and charged acts. United States v. Easter, 981 F.2d 1549, 1554 (10th Cir.1992), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 2448, 124 L.Ed.2d 665 (1993). Nonetheless, [t]here is no absolute rule regarding the number of years that can separate offenses. Rather, the court applies a reasonableness standard and examines the facts and circumstances of each case. United States v. Cuch, 842 F.2d 1173, 1178 (10th Cir.1988) (quoting United States v. Franklin, 704 F.2d 1183, 1189 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 845, 104 S.Ct. 146, 78 L.Ed.2d 137 (1983) (allowing evidence of crime committed four years prior to charged act)). 50 Massey has not demonstrated that the prior convictions of his coworkers for fraud were so stale that their admission constituted an abuse of discretion. Massey and his codefendants were charged with conspiracy to commit, and committing, a complex financial crime that was extensive both in time and preparation. The knowledge required to set up such a scheme was specialized. In this context, the five-year gap between the prior acts and the present scheme was not so large that we can conclude that the district court abused its discretion by allowing the evidence. Indeed, the evidence was quite probative of Massey's knowledge of the type of fraudulent scheme charged in this case.