Opinion ID: 3216831
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Admission of the Video

Text: At trial, Lieutenant Colonel Alvarez Ochoa of the Colombian National Police testified as an expert on Colombian cocaine laboratories and the organization of the FARC. Over Cuevas’s objection, the Government introduced a video of a police raid, in which Alvarez participated, on a cocaine laboratory unconnected to Cuevas. The video depicted a typical cocaine lab in the jungle, the recovery of seven tons of cocaine “base,” the demolition of the laboratory with explosives, and helicopters that provided armed air support. It is not clear from the testimony whether the video depicted any violent resistance from the operators of the laboratory, but Cuevas claims it did. Cuevas argues the video of a raid on a cocaine lab outside either defendant’s territory was irrelevant and highly prejudicial, and it should have been excluded under Federal Rule of Evidence 403. Rule 403 permits exclusion of otherwise admissible evidence if “its probative value is substantially outweighed by a danger of . . . unfair prejudice, confusing the issues, [or] misleading the jury.” We review a district court’s determination under Rule 403 “with great deference, reversing only for grave abuse of discretion.” United States v. Clarke, 24 F.3d 257, 265 (D.C. Cir. 1994). In this case, Cuevas has failed even to offer any account of how the video 46 caused him any prejudice, let alone sufficient prejudice to say the district court gravely abused its discretion.