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Sweet v. Roy4/26/2002
e court denied the motion in limine, essentially for the reasons argued by plaintiff. Defendants renewed their objection to this evidence prior to trial and were granted a continuing objection to evidence of this sort by the trial court. They also renewed their arguments in their post-verdict motion for a new trial. The court rejected this ground for the motion holding that the evidence was admissible "to identify defendants as the perpetrators of the acts against plaintiff and to show a continuing plan and motive behind defendants' conduct towards plaintiff."
Defendants renew their claim that the admission of the evidence violated V.R.E. 404(b). They argue that this evidence was not (1) probative of identity because the acts are not so distinct as to be signature-like; (2) that the evidence was not probative to show motive because there is no connection between the conduct in the case at bar and the prior conduct; and (3) that the evidence is not probative of a continuing plan because the prior acts are too remote in time and too dissimilar. Defendants argue that because admission of the evidence was not justifiable under these exceptions to Rule 404's general prohibition against character evidence, the only reason the evidence was offered and admitted was to show the defendants' bad character and to prove they acted in conformity therewith, in violation of the rule. Finally, they argue that even if the evidence was admissible under Rule 404(b), it failed as a matter of law to pass the balancing test imposed by V.R.E. 403.
Rule 404(b) provides:
Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show that he acted in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident.
We begin by emphasizing that trial courts have wide discretion in ruling on the admissibility of evidence. Derosia v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 155 Vt. 178, 189, 583 A.2d 881, 887 (1990). Evidentiary rulings which lie in the discretion of the trial court will not be reversed absent a showing that the court abused its discretion by either totally withholding that discretion or by exercising it in a clearly untenable or unreasonable fashion. State v. Parker, 149 Vt. 393, 401, 545 A.2d 512, 517 (1988).
Plaintiff's primary ground for admission of the disputed evidence was to show a plan, a permissible ground specifically authorized by Rule 404(b). We have decided a number of Rule 404(b) plan cases, the first and most detailed of which is State v. Catsam, 148 Vt. 366, 534 A.2d 184 (1987), a child sexual assault criminal case. In Catsam, we affirmed the admission of evidence of defendant's prior sexual assaults on the victim, which occurred on six occasions over the two years prior to the charged incident. Our holding was:
Evidence that the defendant previously molested the victim, and threatened her with harm if she were to reveal the incident, gives rise to the legitimate inference that because of the manner in which the prior sexual acts were perpetrated, the prior acts and the charged crime were part of a concerted scheme or plan of molestation. Id. at 381, 534 A.2d at 194.
In announcing this holding, we acknowledged that "admitting evidence of prior sexual acts to prove a plan comes perilously close to the prohibited practice of admitting evidence of the defendant's character to prove he acted in conformity therewith in committing the crime charged." Id. Thus we emphasized,
n order to ensure the principled application of the rule, trial courts must find, at
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