Opinion ID: 3010078
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The ancient documents

Text: Stelmokas argues that the district court erred by admitting into evidence occupation documents obtained from Lithuanian archives and other sources as ancient documents pursuant to Fed. R. Evid. 803(16) which, as an exception to the hearsay rule, allows the admission of [s]tatements in a document in existence twenty years or more the authenticity of which is established. The challenged documents demonstrated Stelmokas's employment and activities during World War II. In particular, Stelmokas argues that these documents lack any assurance of trustworthiness. Br. at 22. Stelmokas focuses his objection on two groups of documents, principally those recovered from the records of the Lithuanian Schutzmannschaft that were located at Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital, and secondarily those recovered from German records found at other locations. While Stelmokas recognizes that Germans or Lithuanians purportedly wrote the Schutzmannschaft documents, he observes that the Vilnius documents were kept from public inspection by the Soviet Union until 1990. Though he also acknowledges that the government did not have to demonstrate a strict chain of custody for the documents to be admitted, in his view the documents cannot be treated as authentic because it is unclear how they were moved to the Vilnius archives. Thus, he argues that the documents were not found in a place where, if authentic, they would likely be as set forth in Fed. R. Evid. 901(b)(8). Stelmokas further argues that the documents are suspicious because the Germans destroyed many documents demonstrating their criminal conduct, but preserve[d] evidence of Lithuanian misconduct. Br. at 27. Furthermore, he regards the documents as questionable because they came from Soviet sources, and he claims that it was Soviet policy to discredit the Baltic states. Id. Finally, he argues, though with less particularly, that the government did not establish the chain of custody and authenticity of the second group of documents, i.e., those from German sources. We review the district court's ruling that admitted the evidence over a challenge to its authenticity under an abuse of discretion standard. See United States v. McGlory, 968 F.2d 309, 328 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 956, 113 S.Ct. 415 (1992). Federal Rule of Evidence 901(a) provides that the requirement of authentication . . . as a condition precedent to admissibility is satisfied by evidence sufficient to support a finding that the matter in question is what its proponent claims. Rule 901(a) is written, of course, in general terms, but is followed by Rule 901(b) which includes examples of methods by which to authenticate evidence. Rule 901(b)(8) provides that authentication of an ancient document may be supplied by a demonstration that a document is in such condition as to create no suspicion concerning its authenticity, was in a place where, if authentic, it likely would be, and has been in existence 20 years or more at the time it is offered. Ancient documents are admissible into evidence as an exception to the hearsay rule. See United States v. Goichman, 547 F.2d 778, 784 (3d Cir. 1976). We cannot say that the district court abused its discretion in admitting the documents in question. Initially, we observe that Stelmokas's argument in part is self-defeating because his contention that the Germans destroyed documents demonstrating their own criminal conduct, but preserved documents incriminating the Lithuanians, supports rather than undermines the district court's conclusions that the documents incriminating him were legitimate. Furthermore, the documents were certified by competent Lithuanian archival personnel. Hilberg, who has testified in many cases regarding eastern European Holocaust records and whose expertise cannot be doubted, testified that the documents he examined were authentic and that the documents found in Soviet possession are as reliable as documents from western countries. He said that he found the documents to be reliable and not to be forgeries. He also testified that one would expect to find documents relating to the Lithuanian Schutzmannschaft in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital. MacQueen testified that he personally searched archives in Lithuania and that the documents he found were authentic and reliable. In particular, he had found Schutzmannschaft records implicating Stelmokas in Vilnius, which is where they were likely to be found. Stelmokas simply has not produced any evidence or forwarded any reason to impeach the validity of the documents. See Sokaogon Chippewa Community v. Exxon Corp., 805 F. Supp. 680, 711 n.34 (E.D. Wis. 1992), aff'd, 2 F.3d 219 (7th Cir. 1993), cert. denied, 114 S.Ct. 1304 (1994). We also point out that German records demonstrate that while Stelmokas was in the Luftwaffe, he was hospitalized in Germany. We cannot conceive that any rational person would believe that someone set out to incriminate Stelmokas and planted fake documents in widely-scattered places for that purpose. If anyone created the documents to injure Stelmokas, the fabricator most peculiarly placed the bulk of the documents in a location where they were not accessible to the public and from which, in fact, they were not released for decades. There certainly is no evidence in the record that anyone hatched such a bizarre plot. Indeed, Stelmokas does not explain what motivation any person would have had to fabricate documents so as to attribute responsibility to him for the atrocities in Lithuania or how that could have been accomplished. Stelmokas was hardly a prominent figure in the war and it is difficult to conceive why someone would go to the lengths he suggests in order to frame him. Stelmokas's attack on the authenticity of the documents is not substantial.