DocketNumber: CRIMINAL ACTION NO. 2:18cr419-MHT (WO)
Citation Numbers: 382 F. Supp. 3d 1278
Judges: Thompson
Filed Date: 4/17/2019
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/25/2022
A single indictment charges defendant Michael Brandon Smirnoff with using unreasonable force, in violation of
I. Background
Count One alleges that, in March 2016, as an officer with the Police Department for the City of Tallassee, Alabama, Smirnoff used unreasonable force while arresting a person identified as J.M., in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. Specifically, it states that, while J.M. was handcuffed and without legal justification, Smirnoff slammed him to the ground and used unreasonable force while placing him into a police vehicle, resulting in bodily injury to J.M. See Indictment (doc. no. 1) at 1-2. Smirnoff counters that, on the day of the incident, J.M. was illegally operating an all-terrain vehicle on city streets in Tallassee. See Motion to Sever (doc. no. 20) at 3. Another officer tried to stop J.M., but he refused, leading to an extended chase that culminated with his apprehension in a grassy field. A body camera captured J.M.'s arrest. The footage shows "Smirnoff placing his foot on the back of J.M.'s head. Two other officers are on top of J.M.'s torso and place J.M. in handcuffs."
*1281Count Two alleges that, in the prior year, July 2015, Smirnoff used unreasonable force while arresting a person identified as M.S., also in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. The indictment states that, without legal justification, Smirnoff tasered M.S. after he had been placed in handcuffs, resulting in bodily injury to M.S. See Indictment (doc. no. 1) at 2. Smirnoff counters that he and two other officers responded to a "disturbance" at the Huddle House in Tallassee. Motion to Sever (doc. no. 20) at 5. "Footage from ... Smirnoff's body camera clearly shows that when the officers arrived at the Huddle House, they stumbled into a chaotic situation."
While Smirnoff's motion does not specify how much of the July 2015 incident is on video, the government alleges that the footage captured the "conduct charged" in Count Two. Government Response (doc. no. 24) at 7. The government further asserts that the "video of Count Two shows that, immediately after tasing M.S., [Smirnoff] taunted him by saying 'you see the language I f--king speak? There's your f--king rights.' "
Smirnoff has moved to sever Count One (the alleged March 2016 slamming incident) from Count Two (the alleged July 2015 taser incident), and to try them separately.
II. Discussion
A. Joinder
Although Smirnoff does not raise the issue, the court first finds that joinder of the counts is proper under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 8(a). Rule 8(a) allows joinder when separate counts "are of the same or similar character, or are based on the same act or transaction, or are connected with or constitute parts of a common scheme or plan." Fed. R. Crim. P. 8(a). The rule "is construed broadly in favor of initial joinder," and the offenses "need only be similar in category, not in evidence." United States v. Hersh ,
B. Severance
Even where joinder is proper under Rule 8(a), Rule 14 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure permits severance if a single trial on all counts would be unduly prejudicial. The resolution of a *1282Rule 14 motion is "left to the discretion of the trial judge." United States v. Wolford ,
Courts have recognized several types of prejudice that may result from joined counts, including that: "(1) the defendant may become embarrassed or confounded in presenting separate defenses; (2) proof that defendant is guilty of one offense may be used to convict him of a second offense, even though such proof would be inadmissible in a separate trial for the second offense; and (3) a defendant may wish to testify in his own behalf on one of the offenses but not another, forcing him to choose the unwanted alternative of testifying as to both or testifying as to neither." United States v. Scivola ,
Where, as here, the basis of the alleged prejudice is that the defendant wishes to testify as to one count but not another, he must satisfy three requirements. Namely, he "must show" (1) that the charges are "distinct in time, place, and evidence"; (2) that he has "important" testimony to offer about one set of charges; and (3) a " 'strong need' not to testify on the other counts." Hersh ,
To determine whether Smirnoff satisfies these three requirements, the court must first address a threshold evidentiary question: whether under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b), the video--and other evidence--to prove Count One (the March 2016 incident) would be admissible in a separate trial to prove Count Two (the July 2015 incident), and vice versa? It is in part because the answer to this question is yes--the evidence is mutually admissible --that Smirnoff cannot meet the three requirements, and that his motion will accordingly be denied.
1. Mutual Admissibility Under Rule 404(b)
Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b)(1) prohibits as follows:
"Evidence of a crime, wrong, or other act is not admissible to prove a person's character in order to show that on a particular occasion the person acted in accordance with the character."
However, Rule 404(b)(2) then allows as follows:
"This evidence may be admissible for another purpose, such as proving motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, *1283plan, knowledge, identity, absence of mistake, or lack of accident.
Thus, evidence of a defendant's other bad conduct may be admissible for a purpose other than to prove the defendant's character.
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals "uses a three-part test for determining whether other bad acts are admissible under Rule 404(b) : 'First, the evidence must be relevant to an issue other than the defendant's character; Second, the act must be established by sufficient proof to permit a jury finding that the defendant committed the extrinsic act; Third, the probative value of the evidence must not be substantially outweighed by its undue prejudice, and the evidence must meet the other requirements of Rule 403.' " United States v. Horner ,
FIRST PART OF THREE-PART TEST--RELEVANCE: When, as here, the evidence of the extrinsic offense is offered to prove the defendant's intent, the "test for relevance is whether the extrinsic acts and the charged offense require the same type of intent and are close in time." United States v. Wyatt ,
SECOND PART--SUFFICIENCY OF EVIDENCE: The government need not prove beyond a reasonable doubt or even by clear and convincing evidence that Smirnoff committed the extrinsic offenses. See United States v. Mitchell ,
THIRD PART--PROBATIVE VALUE VERSUS UNDUE PREJUDICE: Federal Rule of Evidence 403 is the source of the third requirement. It provides, in part, that, "The court may exclude relevant evidence if its probative value is substantially outweighed by a danger of ... unfair prejudice." Fed. R. Evid. 403. Importantly, the rule says the court "may," not must, exclude the evidence. The court, therefore, has some discretion as to whether to allow or disallow the evidence, though that discretion must obviously be exercised reasonably.
In the Rule 404(b) context, when balancing probative value against the risk of unfair prejudice, the court should consider the circumstances of the extrinsic offense. See *1284United States v. Astling ,
Here, there is a substantial risk of the evidence causing unfair prejudice to Smirnoff, because the jury could treat the extrinsic offenses as impermissible character evidence. That is, a jury may improperly infer that the evidence of one incident of alleged excessive force makes it more likely that he is guilty of the other charged incident, because, in its view based on his character, he has a propensity to use excessive force when arresting people.
True, the court could mitigate this risk by instructing the jury not to draw a prohibited character or propensity inference from the evidence. See United States v. Walser ,
Consider the dissent in United States v. Beechum , the watershed case that established that the test for whether an extrinsic offense is relevant to proving intent in the charged offense for purposes of Rule 404(b) focuses on whether the two offenses "require[d] the same intent."
While these are serious concerns, it must be remembered that Rule 403, upon which Rule 404(b)'s probative-versus-prejudice inquiry is based, says the court "may" exclude, and by implication, "may" allow the extrinsic evidence. A balancing test is required. To say that, every time the two offenses at issue require the same statutorily required intent, the court must *1285allow the introduction of the extrinsic one would nullify the balancing test. The court must engage in a deeper 'factual' analysis, specific to the instances at issue, than just whether the two offenses involve the same intent. Or to put it another way, the court must, as best it can, make sure that it is not just allowing the introduction of character or propensity evidence and that there is really some basis that the evidence would be enlightening as to intent based on the specific facts presented.
It is true that the more similar the offenses, the more probative the extrinsic offense is as to intent. See Astling ,
What tips the scales here is that the two instances allegedly involved more than just arguably similar (or even dissimilar) conduct or acts. Here, there is allegedly evidence from which a factfinder could infer that Smirnoff expressly made known in his own words what his intent was at the time of both incidents. Namely, at to Count 2, the government contends that video footage shows that immediately after tasing the arrestee, Smirnoff stated, "There's your f--king rights." Government Response (doc. no. 24) at 5-6. As a result, Smirnoff's alleged statement of his view about an arrestee's rights would likely be admissible regardless of whether the statement occurred during an incident of misconduct or not. That is, his statement that he viewed the arrestee's rights as "f--king rights" would likely be probative in and of itself, regardless of whether it occurred during an extrinsic bad act.
Moreover, an additional factor in favor of admissibility is that it appears that Smirnoff's intent will be "a critical issue at trial."
In sum, the government satisfies the three-part test for determining whether the extrinsic offenses are admissible under Rule 404(b).
2. Ramifications of Rule 404(b) Admissibility
The Eleventh Circuit has held that the "[u]nfair prejudice" needed to justify a severance "does not result when two offenses are joined if evidence admissible to prove each offense is also admissible to prove the other offense." United States v. Gabay ,
*1286The first alternative is that, regardless of whether Smirnoff meets the three requirements for defendants who seek a severance based on the desire to testify about one count but not another, his severance motion automatically fails, because the mutual admissibility of evidence means that unfair prejudice "does not result" from a single trial.
The second alternative is that here the mutual admissibility of evidence is a factor to consider when analyzing whether the three requirements are met that may undermine--but does not automatically preclude--the existence of sufficient prejudice. As to the first requirement, the mutual admissibility of evidence undermines a defendant's contention that counts are "distinct in ... evidence." Hersh ,
Ultimately, this court need not resolve which alternative reading of the Gabay rule applies. Because Smirnoff cannot meet the three requirements--in part due to the mutual admissibility of evidence--his motion must be denied, regardless whether the mutual admissibility of evidence automatically precludes a severance.
3. First Requirement: Distinct Time, Place, and Evidence
Smirnoff cannot meet his burden of showing that the charges are "distinct in time, place, and evidence ," given that there is significant overlapping evidence to prove each count. Hersh ,
*1287The first type of overlapping evidence that the government anticipates introducing on different counts is that of the Tallassee Police Department's use of force polices and training, as well as testimony from law enforcement officers about the Tallassee Police Department's practices for using and documenting force. See Government Response (doc. no. 24) at 7. According to the government, this evidence will tend to prove that Smirnoff "willfully" violated the arrestees' rights.
Even though Smirnoff's failure to satisfy the first requirement is fatal to his motion, the court will also explain why he fails to satisfy the second and third requirements.
4. Second and Third Requirements: "Important" Testimony About One Count, "Strong Need" Not to Testify About Another
The court's Rule 404(b) finding as to the mutual admissibility of evidence means that separate trials would not shield Smirnoff from his asserted quandary of having "important" testimony about Count Two (the alleged July 2015 taser incident), and a "strong need" not to testify about Count One (the alleged March 2016 slamming incident). Imagine being in Smirnoff's shoes at the Count One trial once the government introduces the evidence of the Count Two tasing incident. At that point, he would presumably want to give the same "important" testimony to explain his alleged Count Two conduct as he claims to want to give at the trial for Count Two. And he would still presumably want to remain silent about Count One. Accordingly, "he would be placed in the same dilemma with separate trials as he would with a joint trial." Siegler ,
The mutual admissibility of evidence here distinguishes this case from United States v. Sampson , an opinion cited by Smirnoff in which the Second Circuit Court of Appeals held that a severance was warranted based on the defendant's wish to testify about one count but not another.
In sum, Smirnoff cannot satisfy the three requirements defendants must meet when seeking a severance based on their wish to testify about one count but not another. The court's Rule 404(b) finding that evidence to prove Count Two (the alleged July 2015 taser incident) would be admissible to prove Count One (the alleged March 2016 slamming incident) seriously undermined his ability to meet these requirements.
*1288* * *
Accordingly, it is ORDERED that defendant Michael Brandon Smirnoff's motion to sever (doc. no. 20) is denied.
The indictment also charges Smirnoff with a third count, for falsifying a police report for the July 2015 arrest, in violation of
Joinder under Rule 8(a) is also proper as to Count Three because the alleged "coverup attempt[ ] bear[s] a logical relationship to the underlying" crime alleged in Count Two. United States v. Davis ,
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals has adopted as precedent all decisions of the former Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rendered prior to October 1, 1981. See Bonner v. Prichard ,
The government's briefing on the 404(b) issue asserts that because Smirnoff's conduct is captured on video, the trial is unlikely to involve factual disputes about his actions. See Government Response (doc. no. 24) at 7. Instead, the government represents that its evidence will focus on demonstrating that Smirnoff had the required intent to commit the charged offenses. See