btt
Concerning admitting evidence of ‘other crimes’ that had nothing to do with the original issue, I sat in on a friend’s sexual harassment case against her manager. The other side brought eight witnesses against my friend that she misused a government credit card. Over and over, her coworkers testified against her for putting personal expenses on her work-issued government credit card. (She had to travel from one side of the state to the other for work in two cities for this job and thus incurred extra food expenses and phone calls outside her approved limit. It was unwise on her part but she wasn’t stealing, she always paid it back and her bosses let her do it until they wanted to ‘get’ her or on some charge.) The trial turned my friend into the image of an untrustworthy thief instead of about her manager’s harassment. The jury was presented with an unfair image of her and voted against her case