United States v. Lopez-Cotto

884 F.3d 1 (2018)

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United States v. Lopez-Cotto

United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
884 F.3d 1 (2018)

Darius Dehghan headshot
  • Written by Darius Dehghan, JD

Facts

Jose Pedro Lopez-Cotto (defendant) was a police officer who referred vehicle-towing requests to various towing companies. One of these companies was M & W Towing (M&W), which was owned by Wilson Calixto. Lopez-Cotto asked Calixto about a Suzuki vehicle that had been abandoned in M&W’s lot. Lopez-Cotto wanted to purchase the Suzuki from M&W at a significant discount. Further, Lopez-Cotto told Calixto that Lopez-Cotto did not refer towing requests to another company, Valley Towing, because it refused to give him a discount on an abandoned vehicle. After hearing about Lopez-Cotto’s conduct toward Valley Towing, Calixto accepted Lopez-Cotto’s offer for the Suzuki. Subsequently, Lopez-Cotto was indicted on bribery charges for his dealings with M&W. At the trial before the district court, the judge admitted evidence of Lopez-Cotto’s conduct toward Valley Towing. The jury convicted Lopez -Cotto of bribery. Lopez-Cotto appealed.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Lipez, J.)

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Casebooks

Evidence

Key Terms

  • PropensityAn innate inclination.
  • Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b)Provides that evidence of a crime, wrong, or other act is not admissible to prove a person's character to show that the person acted in accordance with that character on a particular occasion. However, depending on the facts of the case, this type of evidence may be admissible for another purpose, including proving motive, knowledge, intent, or lack of accident.
  • AdmissibilityWhether testimony, documents, media, or physical items offered by a party in support of the party's case may be admitted into evidence and presented to the jury. The court determines whether evidence is admissible. Inadmissible evidence may not be presented to and/or considered by the jury.
  • Other-Act EvidenceEvidence of a person's previous crimes, wrongs, or other acts. Other-act evidence may also be called other-crimes evidence or prior-bad-acts evidence.

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