United States v. Monteleone
United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
77 F.3d 1086 (8th Cir. 1996)
Salvatore Monteleone (defendant), charged with disposing of a firearm to a convicted felon after leaving a malfunctioning gun with his career-criminal half-brother to be fixed (who instead sold it to an undercover ATF agent), presented coworker Albert Lowe as a character witness testifying to his good reputation for truthfulness and lawfulness. Over Monteleone's objection, the prosecution then asked Lowe whether he knew Monteleone had lied under oath to a federal grand jury -- testimony protected by grand-jury secrecy rules and therefore not something Lowe could reasonably have known about from the community. The jury convicted Monteleone, and he appealed the prosecution's questioning about the perjury.
Whether the prosecution can introduce specific incidents of the defendant's conduct to impeach a character witness's credibility if the prosecution does not have a good-faith belief that the incidents are of the type likely to have become a matter of general knowledge or reputation in the community.