U.S. v. Rucker

In prosecution on wire fraud charge stemming from scheme in which defendant and others submitted false loan application documents to bank in order to obtain inflated loan on sale of real estate, Dist. Ct. did not abuse its discretion in denying defendant’s request to impeach govt. witness with 2000 conviction on charge of theft concerning program receiving federal funds, where record showed that said witness had already admitted to pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud in instant indictment, as well as to nine counts of wire fraud in separate federal case that occurred within ten years of instant offense. Witness’ 2000 conviction was “stale” and had only minimal probative value, when compared to witness’ more recent convictions that were disclosed to jury. Moreover, testimony of said witness did not play crucial role in defendant’s conviction, where other evidence corroborated witness’ version of events that portrayed defendant as playing active role in instant mortgage fraud scheme.