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Case 1:20-cr-00330-PAE Document 393 Filed 10/29/21 Page5of10
At the same time, three of the government’s other witnesses
Re) 20° law enforcement officers. Because the government
frequently attempts to elicit expert opinion testimony from law enforcement officers without
disclosing them as experts under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 16 or qualifying them as
experts under Federal Rule of Evidence 702, and because law enforcement witnesses often offer
opinion testimony about the defendant’s mental state and vouch for the truthfulness or bolster the
credibility of alleged victims in contravention of Federal Rule of Evidence 704, this Court should
grant this motion in /imine.
ARGUMENT
Federal Rule of Evidence 702 governs expert opinion testimony at trial. It says:
A witness who is qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training,
or education may testify in the form of an opinion or otherwise if:
(a) the expert’s scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will help the
trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue;
(b) the testimony is based on sufficient facts or data;
(c) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods; and
(d) the expert has reliably applied the principles and methods to the facts of the
case.
Fed. R. Evid. 702.
If a law enforcement officer gives testimony that “depend|[s], in whole or in part, on his
specialized training and experience,” the testimony is expert opinion testimony subject to Rule
702 and not lay opinion testimony subject to Rule 701. United States v. Garcia, 413 F.3d 201,
216 (2d Cir. 2005) (“We hold that the foundation requirements of Rule 701 do not permit a law
enforcement agent to testify to an opinion . . . if the agent’s reasoning process depended, in
whole or in part, on his specialized training and experience.”).
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| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00005751.jpg |
| File Size | 659.8 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 94.0% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 1,883 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 17:02:57.052094 |