By: Derek Hawkins//September 11, 2017//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: United States of America v. Aldo Brown
Case No.: 16-1603
Officials: FLAUM, ROVNER, and SYKES, Circuit Judges
Focus: Abuse of Discretion
The jury found Brown guilty. He challenges his conviction, arguing that the judge wrongly excluded his expert witness. We reject this argument and affirm. Expert testimony about police standards may appropriately assist the jury in resolving some excessive-force questions, but sometimes evidence of this type is unhelpful and thus irrelevant, particularly when no specialized knowledge is needed to determine whether the officer’s conduct was objectively unreasonable. The misconduct alleged here was easily within the grasp of a lay jury, so the judge did not abuse her discretion in excluding the expert.
Affirmed