United States v. Haines, No. 17-10059 (9th Cir. 2019)
Annotate this Case
The Ninth Circuit affirmed defendant's convictions for conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of a minor, sex trafficking of a minor, conspiracy to transport a minor to engage in prostitution, and transporting a minor to engage in prostitution. The panel held that the district court did not err by excluding testimony regarding one of the victim's prior prostitution activities. In this case, defendant cited no case holding that a defense such as the one he sought to present here triggers the exception in Federal Rule of Evidence 42. The panel saw no reason to depart from the persuasive authorities that held to the contrary.
However, the panel held that the applicability of Rule 412 should not depend on the alleged victim's desire to testify. The panel held that, even if the district court misapplied Rule 412, any error would be harmless. Finally, the panel considered defendant's additional arguments that the government opened the door to testimony about the victim's activities and held that they lacked merit.
Court Description: Criminal Law The panel affirmed the district court’s judgment in a case in which the defendant was convicted of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of a minor, sex trafficking of a minor, conspiracy to transport a minor to engage in prostitution, and transporting a minor to engage in prostitution. At trial, the defendant sought to question minor J.C. about her prior prostitution activities (which apparently did not involve a pimp), arguing that this evidence was relevant to, among other things, whether he recruited or encouraged her to engage in prostitution on this occasion. The panel held that the district court did not err by excluding the testimony under Fed. R. Evid. 412, the “rape shield” rule. The panel rejected the defendant’s contention that evidence of J.C.’s prior prostitution activities should have been admitted under the exception in Rule 412(b)(1)(C) for “evidence whose exclusion would violate [his] constitutional rights”—here, his due process right to present a complete defense and his Sixth Amendment right to confront witnesses. The panel saw no reason to depart from persuasive authorities holding that a defense such as the one the defendant sought to present—that he had no intent to, and did not, pimp out J.C.—triggers the exception. The panel also held that the applicability of Rule 412 should not depend on the alleged victim’s desire to testify. The panel concluded that even if the district court misapplied Rule 412, any error would be
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.