Court Opinion

ID: 9711484
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:32:56.68848+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:05.436651
License: Public Domain

RANDALL, Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. I would reverse Cichon’s conviction based on the admission of the Spreigl1 evidence. I believe the prejudicial effect of that evidence outweighed the probative value, if any, it had.
This case is another illustration of the indefinite standards surrounding the admission by Minnesota courts of so-called “Spreigl evidence” — allegations of prior misconduct against a defendant in a criminal prosecution. Cichon was on trial for criminal sexual conduct in the second degree for acts he was accused of committing in 1982-83. At trial, the state introduced Spreigl testimony from Cichon’s daughter, Linda. She testified that in 1967 or 1968 Cichon entered her bedroom and placed his hand on her breast and said, “Oh, I thought you were mom.” No contemporaneous record was ever made of that alleged event, Cichon was never investigated, much less prosecuted for that alleged contact, and a H-year-period elapsed between the incident for which he was on trial and the alleged incident with his daughter. By the time of trial, more than 20 years had passed since the alleged sexual contact between Cichon and his daughter. Nevertheless, the trial court allowed the state to introduce this evidence against Cichon in his prosecution for criminal sexual conduct with his granddaughter. The court admitted the evidence to show common scheme, intent, and absence of mistake. For all practical purposes, once this testimony was admitted a conviction was assured.
As a general rule, evidence of prior alleged misconduct “is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity therewith.” Minn.R.Evid. 404(b); see also State v. Doughman, 384 N.W.2d 450, 453 (Minn.1986). The reason for this general prohibition is that if evidence of prior misconduct is admitted to show that a defendant is a “bad person,” a jury may convict based on the defendant’s reputation alone. See United States v. Cook, 538 F.2d 1000, 1004 (3d.Cir.1976) (citations omitted); McCormick, Evidence, § 190 nn. 6-7 (3d. ed. 1984).
Prior misconduct or Spreigl evidence is, however,
admissible to prove the current accusation against a defendant when such evidence tends to establish a common scheme or plan embracing the commission of similar crimes “so related to each other that proof of one or more of such tends to establish the [current] accusation.”
Doughman, 384 N.W.2d at 453-54 (quoting State v. Sweeney, 180 Minn. 450, 455, 231 N.W. 225, 227 (1930)).2 Spreigl evidence must satisfy a three-part test to be admissible. See State v. Rainer, 411 N.W.2d 490, 497 (Minn.1987). There must be
clear and convincing evidence that the defendant participated in the crimes or bad acts, that the evidence is relevant *737and material to the state’s case, and that the probative value of the evidence outweighs any potential for prejudice.
Id. The length of time between prior alleged misconduct and the acts for which a defendant is on trial reduces the relevancy and lowers the probative value of Spreigl evidence. State v. Casady, 392 N.W.2d 629, 633 (Minn.App.1986), pet. for rev. denied (Minn. Sept. 24, 1986).
In this case, 14 years passed between the alleged contact with Linda and the acts giving rise to the criminal prosecution. This lengthy time period between incidents makes the relevancy of the evidence tenuous at best. See id. at 633 (finding five or six years between prior misconduct and conduct giving rise to criminal prosecution reduced relevancy of Spreigl evidence). The lengthy time lapse does not, however, reduce the potential for unfair prejudice to defendants in Cichon’s position. To guard against the danger of juries convicting criminal defendants of crimes based on the prejudicial effect of alleged prior misconduct, reasonable time limit safeguards, as we have for impeachment of past crimes, should be established for admission of Spreigl evidence.
In a parallel area, a 10-year general time limit is imposed on the use of prior convictions for impeachment purposes. Minn.E. Evid. 609(b).3 The assumption on which the 10-year limit is based is:
that after such an extended period of time the conviction has lost its probative value on the issue of credibility.
Advisory Committee Comment (1989).
Spreigl evidence is inherently less reliable than evidence of a prior conviction. Spreigl incidents can involve unsubstantiated, uncharged allegations of prior misconduct, and that misconduct can consist of conduct which would not even be a crime if charged! Spreigl incidents routinely are not investigated and documented contemporaneously with their occurrence, such as here. On the other hand, prior convictions, by definition, rest on certified court documents, are accompanied by verbatim transcripts and judge’s notes of the proceedings. Moreover, a conviction means that a judge with jurisdiction entered an official pronouncement on an official record that proof beyond a reasonable doubt of a crime had been found by a judge or a jury. Despite the virtual impossibility of doctoring, altering, or impeaching certified court records, we have imposed a general 10-year limit on the admissibility of prior convictions for impeachment purposes due to the staleness and the decreased value of such evidence after 10 years. Yet, we allow Spreigl evidence to haunt persons all their lives. If logic prevailed, evidence of properly certified past convictions would be allowed in for impeachment purposes ad infinitum, but we would limit to 10 years or less evidence of past misconduct by a Spreigl. Instead, we do it the reverse way with no justification.
Since we have deemed it necessary to establish a bright-line rule for the use of certified prior convictions to safeguard a .person’s right to a trial unfettered by unfair bias, it seems a certainty that a similar bright-line rule for Spreigl evidence would enhance the quality of justice.
It is not in dispute, even by those that offer Spreigl evidence, that a lengthy passage of time between the Spreigl incident and the subsequent criminal conduct weakens the probative (but not the prejudicial) value of the Spreigl evidence. See Casa-dy, 392 N.W.2d at 633.
In the majority opinion where the trial judge is quoted verbatim, the trial judge corroborates my observations about the *738troublesome aspect of the lapse of time. I suggest that if this trial judge had not found appellate cases allowing in Spreigl evidence over 10 years old, that on her own she would have found it more prejudicial than probative and felt justified in suppressing it. The time has come to curtail Spreigl evidence to contemporaneous incidents that are truly proven by clear and convincing evidence and that truly conform to the rationale for their limited use set out in Spreigl and Billstrom, 276 Minn. 174, 149 N.W.2d 281 (1967).
I dissent and would remand this case for trial without the Spreigl evidence at issue.

. State v. Spreigl, 272 Minn. 488, 139 N.W.2d 167 (1965).

. The evidence may also be admitted for the following purposes: “proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake.” Minn.R.Evid. 404(b).

. Rule 609(b) provides:
Evidence of a conviction under this rule is not admissible if a period of more than ten years has elapsed since the date of the conviction or of the release of the witness from the confinement imposed for that conviction, whichever is the later date, unless the court determines, in the interests of justice, that the probative value of the conviction supported by specific facts and circumstances substantially outweighs its prejudicial effect. However, evidence of a conviction more than 10 years old as calculated herein, is not admissible unless the proponent gives to the adverse party sufficient advance written notice of intent to use such evidence to provide the adverse party with a fair opportunity to contest the use of such evidence.