Evidence that would be prohibited character evidence if offered to show a person's conduct is not barred by the character evidence rule if it is offered to show some other matter such as another person's belief.

Cf. Santos v. Murdock, 243 F.3d 681, 683-684 (2d Cir. 2001) (holding, in plaintiff arrestee's action against defendant police officers for knowingly submitting an arrest warrant application containing false statements,....A prior inconsistent statement of a witness is admissible, not only to impeach the witness, but also as substantive evidence -- to prove the truth of the matter previously asserted by the witness -- only if the prior consistent statement was made in another proceeding.

Fed. R. Evid. 412(b)(1)(C) ((b) Exceptions. (1) In a criminal case, the following evidence is admissible, if otherwise admissible under these rules: ... (C) evidence the exclusion of which would violate the constitutional rights of the defendant.").There are constitutional limits on the use of a rape shield law to exclude evidence offered by the defense in a criminal trial to impeach an adverse witness.

Cf. United States v. Paccione, 949 F.2d 1183, 1201 (2d Cir. 1991) (upholding trial court's ruling which allowed character witnesses to testify to their opinions that accused was a forthright man of honesty whose integrity was beyond reproach ).When an exception to the character evidence prohibition makes evidence of a criminal defedant's character admissible, the testimony of a witness on direct examination about the defendant's character must take the form of reputation or opinion and it cannot consist of specific instances of the defendant's conduct.