United States v. DeCastris
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
798 F.2d 261 (1986)
DeCastris (defendant) worked full time for Zenith Electronics while secretly also working full time for the Chicago Police Department, even though Zenith barred employees from holding two full-time jobs. After Zenith found out and DeCastris left the police job on disability benefits, he collected those benefits for 27 months before the police department learned he was still working at Zenith. He was charged with mail fraud for submitting affidavits to disability officials that omitted his Zenith income. At trial, the prosecution introduced documents showing DeCastris had lied about his education and failed to disclose the police job, though the court excluded a document about a false residency claim; DeCastris was convicted and appealed, arguing the documents were improper character evidence under Rule 404(b).
Whether a trial court must weigh the risk of impermissible character use before admitting evidence of a defendant's prior bad acts offered to prove intent under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b).