By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//March 20, 2014//
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Criminal
Evidence — character for truthfulness
In a prosecution for unlawfully structuring bank transactions, the district court erred in allowing cross-examination regarding allegedly false statements on tax returns.
“Two weeks before she was planning to close on the purchase of a new home in Indiana, appellant Yulia Abair learned that her bank in Russia would not wire the purchase price from her account. She managed to secure the money before the closing by withdrawing a few hundred dollars at a time from ATMs up to her maximum daily limit and depositing the cash at her bank in Indiana. She was charged with violating a federal criminal statute that prohibits structuring currency transactions in order to evade federal reporting requirements for transactions involving more than $10,000 in currency. 31 U.S.C. § 5324(a)(3). Abair was convicted in a jury trial. She also agreed to sell her new home and to forfeit the entire proceeds to the government. She argues on appeal that the trial court erroneously applied Federal Rule of Evidence 608(b) by allowing the prosecutor to cross-examine her at length about alleged false statements on a tax return and student financial aid applications. We find that the government lacked a good faith basis for believing that Abair lied on the tax and financial aid forms and therefore conclude that the district court erred by allowing the prosecutor to ask a series of accusatory and prejudicial questions about them under Rule 608(b). We cannot say that the error was harmless in a trial that hinged on Abair’s credibility. We reverse Abair’s conviction and remand for a new trial.”
Reversed and Remanded.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, DeGuilio, J., Hamilton, J.