Opinion ID: 711207
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Warren Adams' Military Record

Text: 24 Shortly before trial the Government filed a motion in limine asking that the district court exclude evidence of Warren Adams' acts of heroism in Vietnam. Because the motion was filed just prior to trial, the issue was deferred until after opening statements. In the meantime, in their opening statements, both parties agreed to limit remarks regarding Adams' military service to the fact that he had served in the Army. 25 Nevertheless, in her opening, the prosecutor made the following remark: 26 Mr. Adams spent 20 years in the United States Army some 25 years ago. He retired from the United States Army some 25 years ago. But the leadership skills that he developed in the United States Army 25 years ago, he began using in his management company in order to manipulate really other people to commit fraud on the RTC with him. 27 Defendants did not object. Instead, counsel for Warren Adams noted in his opening statement: 28 Now, the Government, and I quote, just told you Adams spent 20 years in the Army. Skills he learned in the Army, he used to manipulate other people to commit a fraud on the RTC. Are those the skills people learn when they're serving the defense of this country? Do you learn skills to manipulate people to commit frauds or do you learn skills about being a manager, do you learn skills about leading people, do you learn skills about honesty, integrity, trustworthiness? What do you learn in the Army? 29 Do you learn that if you have a secret clearance, do you learn that what you do when you have documents that are very incriminating, like that were up there and you saw those documents were very incriminating, when you have a secret clearance to do certain confidential materials when you're in the service, you learn that you just rip them into four squares and throw them in a trash bag and throw them out in the trash? 30 Do you think by any concept of your imagination that a career service person would destroy documents the way they say they destroyed them? That he doesn't know better than that? He doesn't know how to conduct an operation better than that? 31 During closing arguments the prosecutor compounded the error by going further into the area of military service, an area that was in no way relevant to the trial. The prosecutor stated: 32 Now 25 years later, in a different season of his life. And by no means did I mean that the leadership skills that he used in the Army, that he learned in the Army, were not wonderful leadership skills that people learn in the military. My husband's a Navy pilot I would-- 33 Immediately following the remark about the prosecutor's husband, counsel for Warren Adams objected and moved for a mistrial. The district court sustained the objection, denied the motion, and instructed the jury to disregard the prosecutor's personal comments. 34 We find that the prosecutor's comments concerning the skills Warren Adams developed in the Army and her remark about her husband were improper. There was absolutely no reason why the United States Military needed to be interjected into this trial. The prejudice resulting from the improper comments, however, was minimal and the district court gave a curative instruction regarding the remark about the prosecutor's husband being a Navy pilot. See Thomas, 62 F.3d at 1343 (prejudicial remarks may be rendered harmless by a curative instruction). Therefore, viewed in context and against the entire record, there is simply not a reasonable probability that, but for the comments, the outcome would have been different.