Evidence – Collateral; Relevance 

Posted: 1:00 am Tue, March 16, 2010
By admin
Tags: Evidence

Where defendant, who was charged with theft by swindle, denied that she had been in any financial hardship or that she had been evicted in recent months; and the prosecutor then moved to admit evidence of three evictions; we conclude that the District Court did not plainly err in determining that the eviction evidence was not collateral and was admissible because the court found that the eviction inquiry related to motive and intent, and entering the eviction evidence took almost no court time or resources.

In addition, the court did not abuse its discretion by admitting this evidence without subjecting it to rule 404(b)’s Spreigl test because an eviction does not necessarily impugn or negatively reflect upon one’s character or credibility.

Affirmed.