United States v. Jared C. Beckman
Opinion
Opinion
Hawkins, J.
ORDER
The Appellee United States’ Motion to Modify Opinion is granted in part. The Opinion filed May 21, 2002, and appearing at 291 F.3d 586 (9th Cir.2002), is revised per the Amended Opinion filed contemporaneously with this Order.
OPINION
Jared Beckman (“Beckman”) appeals his conviction after a jury trial for importation of marijuana, and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. We must decide whether the district court erroneously permitted the government to cross-examine Beckman with a prior arrest and conviction under the guise of attacking Beck-man’s credibility. We must also consider several other trial court rulings to which Beckman assigns error. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We affirm.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
A. Ty Gregg’s Version of the Facts
On August 6, 2000, Calexico port of entry immigration inspectors discovered 1541 pounds of marijuana in the trailer hitched to a truck driven by Beckman. The central issue at trial was knowledge: whether Beckman knew the marijuana was in the trailer, or whether he had been tricked into transporting the marijuana by the self-acknowledged leader of the smuggling ring and government cooperating…