Unpublished Disposition, 912 F.2d 471 (9th Cir. 1990)

MEMORANDUM^* 

These are interlocutory appeals by the United States pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3731 (1988) seeking to overturn two refusals by the district court to permit an expert witness offered by the government to respond to certain questions framed by the government first in one form and then in another. We affirm the district court.

In United States v. Christophe, 833 F.2d 1296, 1300 (9th Cir. 1987), we said, "A trial court has broad discretion to admit or exclude expert testimony and is reversed only for manifest error." Within those generous limits we find no abuse of discretion in the district court's refusals involved in these appeals.

It is not necessary to detail the litigation that generated these appeals. Suffice it to say that the appellants were indicted for tax fraud after they attempted to deduct expenses, fees, and depreciation in connection with certain real estate transactions between corporate sellers of real estate that the government asserts were "shells" and partnerships of which taxpayers' were partners. The government believes that the questions it sought to ask its expert, which the district court disallowed, would assist the jury in understanding the substance, or the lack thereof, of the land transactions.

The district court believed that answers to the questions it disallowed would prejudice the appellants. We cannot say that it was wrong. Even without these questions and the responses thereto, the government will still be able to show the jury the nature and economic consequences, if any, of the transactions involved in this case.

AFFIRMED.