Opinion ID: 543697
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: limitation of witnesses' testimony

Text: 21 Appellant also argues that the district court abused its discretion in limiting the testimony of several of McWhorter's witnesses. Appellant proffered the testimony of other police officers who allegedly were harassed and intimidated by Deutcsh in connection with the prisoner abuse incident and other unrelated incidents. 5 The district court excluded this testimony under Fed.R.Evid. 403, reasoning that the probative value of such testimony was outweighed by its ability to confuse and mislead the jury. On appeal, McWhorter argues that the evidence was admissible under Fed.R.Evid. 404(b) to show that his mistreatment was part of a policy, custom or practice of the City, in order to impose liability on the City. Alterntively, McWhorter argues this testimony was admissible as habit evidence under Fed.R.Evid. 406. 22 While the district court certainly was not liberal in its approach to admitting evidence of this type, we cannot say it abused its discretion in excluding this testimony. At issue in this case was McWhorter's history of employment under Deutcsh. The admission of testimony relating to other police officers' grievances against Deutcsh could have resulted in a series of mini-trials centering on the employment history of each officer. Moreover, even if the district court did err in excluding this evidence, this error was harmless in view of the jury's finding that McWhorter would have been discharged for violating the firearms policy even if he had not criticized Deutcsh. This evidence relating to Deutcsh's treatment of these employees does not rise to the level of habit evidence under Fed.R.Evid. 406. A habit ... is the person's regular practice of meeting a particular kind of situation with a specific type of conduct, such as the habit of going down a particular stairway two stairs at a time, or giving the hand signal for a left turn.... Loughan v. Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., 749 F.2d 1519, 1524 (11th Cir.1985) (quoting McCormick on Evidence Sec. 195 at 462-63). In this circuit,  'adequacy of sampling and uniformity of response' are controlling considerations in determining when certain behavior may become a habit. Loughan, 749 F.2d at 1529 (quoting Reyes v. Missouri Railroad Co., 589 F.2d 791 (5th Cir.1979)). We are not persuaded that the proffered testimony establishes that Deutcsh had a habit of harassing police officers in the department who exercised their First Amendment rights.