Opinion ID: 2166698
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: jeff bluhm

Text: The State called Bluhm as a rebuttal witness. Bluhm testified about an incident when Faust drove up, hitting the curb with her vehicle; approached Shannon in a threatening manner as if she was on a mission; and called her a bitch. Faust's attorney objected to the testimony. The prosecution stated that the evidence was being used solely to rebut Faust's character for peacefulness. The court allowed the testimony for that purpose only and gave a limiting instruction. The court erred in allowing the testimony. The law is clear that the prosecution cannot prove specific instances of conduct through extrinsic evidence. Instead, the prosecution was limited to cross-examination of Faust's character witnesses about whether they had knowledge of instances in which Faust behaved in a nonpeaceful manner. The State contends that by presenting evidence of her own good character and by testifying about a specific instance of good character, Faust opened the door to proof of specific instances of conduct on rebuttal. We disagree. Under § 27-405, the State must limit its rebuttal of statements made by character witnesses to cross-examination and must accept the answers provided by the witnesses. Courts have repeatedly stated concerns about the inflammatory and prejudicial nature of testimony about specific acts of bad conduct, and § 27-405 is formulated to address those concerns. The State also argued to the trial court that Faust stated there was never any problem between her and Shannon and that the testimony was admissible to rebut that statement. But the record does not support the State's argument, and the court did not allow the evidence for that purpose. Further, an inquiry into specific instances of conduct on rebuttal is allowed only to rebut a defendant's denial of a specific occurrence. Here, the State chose to prove on rebuttal that the incident actually occurred, which is not allowed. Further compounding the error is that none of Faust's character witnesses were asked on cross-examination about the specific instance when Faust got out of her car and approached Shannon in a threatening manner. Yet Bluhm was asked about that incident on rebuttal. The evidence would not be admissible even if Faust's witnesses had denied knowledge of the acts on cross-examination, but that they were never asked makes the State's argument that the evidence was necessary for rebuttal irrelevant. Bluhm's testimony served to show only that Faust has a bad character trait for violence and acted in conformity with that character on April 25, 2000, which is inadmissible under § 27-404(1). Evidence of a criminal defendant's prior instances of conduct may not be admitted solely to show propensity. Here, the State presented the evidence solely to rebut Faust's character witnesses, which is not permitted under § 27-405(1). The jury was then instructed that it could consider the evidence for a purpose that is not allowed by § 27-405. Indeed, the instruction, when it informed the jury that the evidence could be used to determine if they believed Faust's character witnesses, allowed the jury to consider improper evidence of propensity to reach that determination. If the jury believed Faust had a propensity for violent behavior, they would likely not believe her character witnesses. This is specifically what §§ 27-404(1) and 27-405 prohibit. See Sanchez, supra . Accordingly, the trial court erred when it allowed Bluhm to testify about specific instances of Faust's conduct.