Free Motion in Limine - District Court of Arizona - Arizona

1 Sharon S. Moyer No. 013341 [email protected] 2 Mark D. Dillon No. 014393 [email protected] 3 SACKS TIERNEY P.A. 4250 N. Drinkwater Blvd., 4th Floor 4 Scottsdale, AZ 85251-3693 Telephone: (480) 425-2600 5 Attorneys for Defendant 6 7 8 9 10 11 CONNIE PAPPAS,
P.A., ATTORNEYS 4250 NORTH DRINKWATER BOULEVARD FOURTH FLOOR SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA 85251-3693

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF ARIZONA

12 13 vs.

No. CV03 1449 PHX PGR Plaintiff, MOTION IN LIMINE RE: WITNESS MARY WILLIAMS

SACKS TIERNEY

14 J.S.B. HOLDINGS, INC., AN ARIZONA CORPORATION, DBA 15 R&D SPECIALTY/MANCO, 16 17 18 Defendant.

Defendant JSB Holdings, Inc. ("JSB") hereby moves the Court, in limine, for an

19 Order excluding from evidence any testimony from witness Mary Williams or about Mary 20 Williams regarding any sexual harassment she allegedly suffered while she worked at JSB. 21 Ms. Williams never filed a charge of discrimination, and there has been no finding by any 22 administrative agency or court that she did, in fact, suffer sexual harassment. If testimony 23 about Ms. Williams's alleged experience at JSB were raised at trial, the trial would be 24 diverted into a trial of two sexual harassment claims, rather than the claim of Plaintiff 25 alone. The Court has the power to prevent such a waste of time and undue prejudice under 26 Fed. R. Evid. 403. 27 Evidence of Ms. Williams's experience should be excluded under Fed. R. Evid. 402 28 for the additional reason that it is irrelevant. Plaintiff has never disclosed the supposed
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1 facts that underlie Ms. Williams's experience, nor has Plaintiff established any similarity 2 between Ms. Williams's experience and her own. Evidence of Ms. Williams's alleged 3 experience would constitute inadmissible character evidence under Fed. R. Evid. 404(a). 4 Plaintiff's purpose in presenting such evidence to the jury would undoubtedly be to 5 "demonstrate" that JSB has harassed others and that it is, therefore, more likely that JSB 6 has harassed her. This is precisely the type of character evidence that Rule 404 prohibits. 7 At a minimum, if Ms. Williams is allowed to testify, she should be subject to

8 examination outside the presence of the jury to determine whether her supposed experience 9 at JSB should be presented to the jury as probative of any issue in the present case. 10 11
P.A., ATTORNEYS 4250 NORTH DRINKWATER BOULEVARD FOURTH FLOOR SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA 85251-3693

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED this 23rd day of January, 2006. SACKS TIERNEY P.A.

12 13 14 15 16 17 CERTIFICATE OF COUNSEL By: s/ Mark D. Dillon Mark D. Dillon

SACKS TIERNEY

Undersigned counsel hereby certifies that he has personally consulted with opposing counsel and despite sincere effort has been unable to satisfactorily resolve the issues raised 18 in the above Motion in Limine. 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
599101.01

SACKS TIERNEY P.A.

By:

s/ Mark D. Dillon Mark D. Dillon

Case 2:03-cv-01449-PGR

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1 2

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I HEREBY CERTIFY that on January 23rd, 2006, I electronically transmitted the 3 attached document to the Clerk's Office using the CM/ECF System for filing and transmittal of a Notice of Electronic Filing to the following CM/ECF registrant: 4 Lynn M. Laney, Jr., Esq. LAW OFFICE OF LYNN M. LANEY, JR. 5 934 W. McDowell Road Phoenix, Arizona 85007-1730 6 Attorneys for Plaintiff 7 8 9 10 11
P.A., ATTORNEYS 4250 NORTH DRINKWATER BOULEVARD FOURTH FLOOR SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA 85251-3693

s/ Mark D. Dillon Mark D. Dillon

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
599101.01

SACKS TIERNEY

Case 2:03-cv-01449-PGR

Document 66 3 Filed 01/23/2006

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