Court Opinion

ID: 9497400
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:50:48.784945+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:10.877463
License: Public Domain

SILVERMAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
In my view, the district court did not abuse its discretion in refusing to admit the state court judgment into evidence. The judgment does no more than establish that, as between Jin Sook Lee and Hawaiian Isles Enterprises, the money belonged to Hawaiian Isles Enterprises. This has no bearing on whether Boulware diverted corporate funds to his girlfriend for his own benefit without paying tax on the money. The judgment establishes only that she was not entitled to keep the cash. It does not prove, or even tend to prove, that he didn’t siphon off the money from the corporation, tax-free. Why would it? That was not at issue in the case.
District courts have wide latitude in ruling on the relevancy of evidence. United States v. Alvarez, 358 F.3d 1194, 1216 (9th Cir.2004). Implicit in any such ruling is an evaluation of probative value. 1 McCormick on Evidence § 185, at 637 (5th ed. 1999) (“There are two components to relevant evidence: materiality and probative value.”). Because the state court judgment against Lee sheds little if any light on whether Boulware committed tax evasion, I would hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion in ruling the Hawaiian judgment inadmissible. I would affirm the district court and, therefore, respectfully dissent.