United States v. Julio Rosado, Andres Rosado, Ricardo Romero, Steven Guerra, and Maria Cueto

JON O. NEWMAN, Circuit Judge:

This appeal illustrates the hazards of permitting defendants in a criminal case to present evidence beyond what is relevant to disputing the elements of the offense charged or to establishing a lawful defense. Because the trial judge, in an effort to be solicitous of defense contentions, permitted evidence on issues inappropriate for jury consideration, we are now faced on appeal with the defendants’ argument, among others, that their convictions should be reversed because of evidence introduced by the prosecution to rebut their own inadmissible evidence. The…