The federal hearsay exception for past recollection recorded applies only if the witness who made or adopted the memorandum or record did so when his or her recollection of the recorded matter was fresh.

Connelly v. Hyundai Motor Corp., 351 F.3d 535, 537 (1st Cir. 2003) (An action arising from the wrongful death of a minor child. The court held that the evidence of the driver's prior tickets for not using his seat belt was precluded under Fed. R. Evid. 404(b) as it merely suggested that he likely failed...The prohibition against circumstantial use of character -- the use of character or disposition to show conduct on a particular occasion -- applies in trials of civil actions.

United States v. Meacham, 115 F.3d 1488, 1492 (10th Cir. 1997) (upholding trial court's admission of witness's testimony about accused's prior act of molesting two of his stepdaughters where the court, "in ruling on the admissibility of this evidence, focused on the intent and weighed the prejudicial...A trial court can exclude evidence of another instance or instances of child molestation in a criminal trial for child molestation or child sex abuse if the trial court finds that the harm or potential harm of such evidence of another instance or instances of child molestation or sex abuse substantially outweighs the probative value of the evidence. A trial court has this power even if the evidence of another instance or instances of child molestation or child sex abuse is made presumptively admissible by a rule such as Federal Rule of Evidence 414.

Cf. United States v. Shryock, 342 F.3d 948, 981 (9th Cir. 2003) (upholding trial court's exclusion of Hernandez's statement [that he shot the victims in self-defense] as not against his penal interest because the statement....A statement qualifies as a statement against interest for purposes of the hearsay exception for statements against interest only if the statement, at the time the declarant made it, was so contrary to the declarant's interest that a reasonable person in the declarant's position would not have made if the declarant had believed the statement to be untrue.