Opinion ID: 793659
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Events Subsequent to December 2000

Text: 130 Quattrone argues that because the district court allowed the government to introduce his false exculpatory statement of January 2003 to Lynch, Quattrone should have been allowed to introduce evidence of events occurring during the two-year interim between December 2000 and January 2003 that explain how Quattrone could be mistaken when he told Lynch in 2003 that he was not aware of the grand jury investigation in late 2000. Specifically, Quattrone sought to offer evidence that he was not reprimanded by his employer, had been promoted to its executive board, had not been called as a witness or interviewed in connection with the grand jury or SEC investigations, and that the investigations ended without criminal charges being filed against CSFB or its employees. See Appellant Br. 85-90; Reply Br. 43. The government counters that Quattrone succeeded in introducing evidence supporting his contention that he was mistaken and asserts that the remaining evidence was properly excluded under Rule 403. 34 Appellee Br. 103. Quattrone points out that the district court excluded the evidence only on relevance grounds. Reply Br. 43 (citing J.A. 142, 430-31, 499 (Tr. 783-85, 1918-24, 2191-92)). 131 Although appellate review of evidentiary determinations is extremely deferential, see e.g., United States v. Malpeso, 115 F.3d 155, 162 (2d Cir.1997), the district court incorrectly concluded that the evidence proffered by Quattrone was not relevant to a fact of consequence in the case. The threshold relevance inquiry requires only that evidence have some tendency to make a fact of consequence more or less probable than it would be without the evidence. FED. R. EVID. 401. In determining the relevance of circumstantial evidence, it will often be useful to consider the chain of inferences arising from proffered evidence. Under this test, so long as a chain of inferences leads the trier of fact to conclude that the proffered submission affects the mix of material information, the evidence cannot be excluded at the threshold relevance inquiry. See United States v. Ravich, 421 F.2d 1196, 1204 n. 10 (2d Cir.1970) (Friendly, J.) (rejecting common law inference upon inference test and noting that drawn out inferential chains do not defeat relevance but subject challenged evidence to Rule 403 considerations). 132 Here, we conclude that the evidence did have a tendency to make more or less probable the fact that Quattrone was simply mistaken when he misspoke to Lynch. The government's theory of the misstatement was that it was an intentionally false exculpatory statement and was therefore relevant to show Quattrone's guilt. The evidence Quattrone offered related to the question of whether it would be reasonable for Quattrone to forget about the investigation over the two-plus years after December 2000. The inferences to be drawn from the evidence would run as follows: after the Endorsement Email, Quattrone received no indication that the investigations were important; he could have concluded that the investigations were unimportant; unimportant events are sometimes forgotten; Quattrone forgot about the investigations; Quattrone therefore had an innocent reason for the misrepresentation; when Quattrone made the misrepresentation, he was merely mistaken, not lying. Of course, this line of reasoning is attenuated and open to attack due to reliance on inductive reasoning. See MUELLER & KIRKPATRICK, supra, § 83, at 409-411 & nn. 47-48. But that is a question generally to be addressed by the Rule 403 balancing test. And while that balancing test need not always be explicitly set out by the trial judge, the record makes clear that the trial judge excluded the evidence solely at the threshold relevance determination. See J.A. 141-42; 430-31; 499 (Tr. 783-85; 1918-24; 2191-92). Accordingly, it was error to exclude this evidence as irrelevant. 133 Although the error may have been harmless — Quattrone was able to introduce his testimony and corroborative testimony from Dollard that Quattrone innocently forgot about the investigations because he was ill and had been wrongly informed by Dollard — the matter may once again be before the district court on retrial. 35 Accordingly, there is no need for us to adjudicate the question. We note the court's error here only to caution the district court to consider the prejudicial offset of this evidence against its probative value before making a decision to accept or reject the evidence. 134