Court Opinion

ID: 9474452
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:57:27.255574+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:05.376445
License: Public Domain

*992GARTH, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I agree with the result reached by the majority in this matter. This case essentially turns on a matter of credibility between Officer Weber and Rockwell as to whether Rockwell actually possessed a gun at the time of his arrest. This being so, the conflicting testimony between Weber and Mayor Foster regarding the circumstances surrounding the dropping of the state weapons charges bears heavily on Weber’s overall credibility. In light of the central importance of Weber’s credibility to the determination of Rockwell’s guilt or innocence, I agree with the majority that the district court’s charge effectively removed critical evidence from the jury. That evidence, i.e., the conflicting stories of Weber and the Mayor, was essential in the jury’s performance of its ultimate function.
If the majority had reached that result without resorting to what I regard as an unnecessary and erroneous discussion of the collateral character of this evidence, I would have joined its opinion. The majority, however, did not do so, and it is at that point that I part company with its analysis. I do because of the effect that the majority opinion’s gratuitous discussion may have on Rockwell’s retrial.
In concluding that the district court’s charge improperly withheld the Weber-Foster credibility evidence from jury consideration, the majority went on to discuss the character of the evidence respecting the dropping of the state weapons charges. The majority opinion depicts the evidence as wholly collateral to the issue of whether Rockwell actually possessed a firearm. To be sure, in some aspects that evidence may be collateral to the substantive issue of firearm possession, but in critical aspects it is assuredly not.
I do not regard the credibility issue that surfaced between Officer Weber and May- or Foster as being in any way collateral to the issue of Rockwell’s guilt or innocence. If the jury believed Mayor Foster that he had made no request or suggestion that charges be dropped, then Weber's testimony would be thoroughly suspect. Under a charge of falsus in uno, falsus in omnibus, the jury would then have been entitled to disbelieve part or all of Weber’s testimony.
Thus, with respect to credibility, I do not understand how the “dropping of the state firearms charge” evidence could be regarded as collateral and therefore excludable from evidence. To the extent that the majority opinion is read as enabling the trial court to exclude such evidence at Rockwell’s new trial, I believe the majority opinion is in error. If such testimony is offered at retrial and excluded, and if Rockwell is convicted, it appears to me that we will once again be called upon to reverse Rockwell’s conviction.
I propose therefore that the majority’s opinion can only be understood as characterizing the conflict in the “dropping of the state firearms charge” testimony as being collateral to the substantive charges for which Rockwell was standing trial, and not as being collateral to the credibility of Weber. Therefore, this testimony cannot properly be excluded for credibility purposes at Rockwell’s retrial.
In addition, in my opinion, reversal is especially required here in light of the testimony which was inadvertently admitted during Officer Weber’s direct examination. That testimony had to do with a statement made by Rockwell which was made in violation of his Miranda rights. See Maj.Op. at 986, n. 3. During direct examination, Officer Weber alluded to the fact that Rockwell had stated after his arrest, but before being advised of his right to remain silent, that Rockwell did not have a permit for the gun allegedly found in his possession. Thus Weber’s testimony implied that Rockwell did in fact have a gun in his possession at that time. However, Rockwell’s statement was made before Officer Weber administered the Miranda warnings, and therefore the government had agreed prior to trial that it would not offer that statement during trial. Officer Weber’s inadvertent reference to Rockwell’s statement went not only to the substantive issue of *993possession, but also to bolster Weber’s version of the incident.
Thus, the improper admission of this evidence, when added to the judge’s charge which prevented the jury from considering the conflict in testimony between Weber and the Mayor, unfairly weighed the issue of credibility against Rockwell. Combined, these two errors, neither of which can be regarded as harmless, compel reversal for a new trial.