Opinion ID: 773876
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: issues

Text: 5 An Arizona trial court ultimately dismissed the witness tampering charge against Kulas. Now Kulas argues, for the first time on appeal, that this state court decision precluded the district court from hearing testimony in his§§ 1983 suit about Flores' perception of the alleged witness tampering conversation. Even if Kulas had not waived this argument by failing to raise it at trial, see Broad v. Sealaska Corp., 85 F.3d 422, 430 (9th Cir. 1996), we conclude that it is without merit. The issues in the two proceedings were entirely different. The state court determined that there was insufficient evidence of witness tampering to submit the charge to a jury. On remand in this case, the district court considered whether Flores was a complaining witness and whether he perjured himself before the grand jury. Therefore, at least one of the prerequisites for issue preclusion under Arizona law is lacking because the issue was not actually litigated in the prior proceeding. Garcia v. General Motors Corp., 195 Ariz. 510, 514, 990 P.2d 1069, 1073 (App. 1999).