Court Opinion

ID: 9445503
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 21:31:08.379432+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:30:17.906942
License: Public Domain

WOODBURY, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
It seems to me that proof of position on a municipal police force, where everyone knows opportunities for graft exist, is as much proof of a likely source of unreported income as is proof of ownership of a business capable of producing income. Cf. Holland v. United States, 1954, 348 U.S. 121, 75 S.Ct. 127, 99 L.Ed. 150. And this is especially true where there is evidence, which I think admissible, indicating that a position on the police force had been a bountiful source of unreported income in the form of graft in prior years.
The admissions made by the appellant’s attorney were, I think, clearly within the scope of his authority to speak for the appellant. I cannot recognize the legitimacy of such a “special authority” as that contended by the appellant, whereby the authority for the admission depends on facts subsequent to the utterance, i.e. if the admission works out to the advantage of the principal it was authorized, but if ultimately disadvantage results, there was no authority. And the fact that the admissions constituted evidence of the commission of a crime other than the one for which the appellant was on trial does not necessarily render the admissions inadmissible. Relevancy is the test of admissibility of this kind1 of evidence. That is to say, the degree of probative force as weighed against the possibility of undue prejudice determines admissibility. Irrelevant testimony of the commission of some crime other than the one with which a defendant is charged is so highly prejudicial that it is not admissible for that reason.1 But otherwise relevant testimony is not rendered inadmissible only because of its tendency to show the commission of another crime. Green v. United States, 1 Cir., 1949, 176 F.2d 541, 543. Whether the prejudicial tendency *906of relevant evidence of the commission of some other crime outweighs its probative value in the case on trial is a matter committed to the discretion of the trial court. Here the evidence of prior graft as a police officer is so logically relevant to prove a continuing source of unreported income that I think the court not only did not abuse its discretion in admitting the evidence but was quite right in doing so. It seems to me that proof of substantial increases in net worth during the prosecution years, coupled with evidence of a thorough but fruitless search for a non-taxable source for those increases, served the dual purpose of providing adequate corroboration for the admissions of graft-taking during pre-prosecution years and in addition warrants the inference that the appellant continued to take graft during the years covered by the indictment. The fact that the appellant’s assignments as a police officer during the prosecution years were different from his previous assignments does not indicate that he did not take graft during the indictment years. I think there can be little doubt that opportunities for graft exist whatever a police officer’s assignments or rank may be. Indeed, with higher rank the opportunities probably would increase. I would affirm on the general line of reasoning followed by Judge Hincks in United States v. Ford, 2 Cir., 1956, 237 F.2d 57.

. Evidence of the commission of another unrelated crime can not be admitted merely to prove the defendant a “bad man,” and therefore more likely to have committed the crime alleged than a “good man” with a clean record. AVhile such evidence may in some situations be of some remote relevance, the probability of undue prejudice to the defendant therefrom so far outweighs its probative force with respect to the particular crime alleged that it is universally excluded.