Is evidence of a person's character or trait of his or her character in a civil case admissible in the context of a criminal case?

Generally, "evidence of a person's character or a trait of his or her character," including such evidence in the form of "evidence of specific instances of his or her conduct," is inadmissible "when offered to prove his or her conduct on a specified occasion." (Evid. Code, 1101, subd. (a).) However, this rule does not prohibit the admission of "evidence that a person committed a crime, civil wrong, or other act when relevant to prove some fact (such as motive . . . ) other than his or her disposition to commit such an act." (Id., 1101, subd. (b).) "'[T]he probativeness of other-crimes evidence on the issue of motive does not necessarily depend on similarities between the charged and uncharged crimes, so long as the offenses have a direct logical nexus.'" (People v. Fayed (2020) 9 Cal.5th 147, 191.)

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