FILED

U.S. COURT OF APPEALS

ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

 MAY 18, 2011

JOHN LEY

CLERK

[PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

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No. 09-14915

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D. C. Docket No. 08-00010-CR-1-SPM-AK

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff-Appellee,

versus

DENNIS FRISKE,

a.k.a. Denny,

Defendant-Appellant.

________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Northern District of Florida

_________________________

(May 18, 2011)

Before MARTIN and BLACK, Circuit Judges, and RESTANI, Judge.

*

MARTIN, Circuit Judge:

 Honorable Jane A. Restani, Judge, United States Court of International Trade, sitting *

by designation.
Dennis Friske appeals his conviction for attempting to obstruct an official

proceeding, by attempting to dispose of and hide assets involved in a forfeiture

proceeding, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1512(c)(2) and 2. He argues that the

District Court erred in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal because the

government failed to introduce sufficient evidence to permit the jury to find that he

knew of the existence of the forfeiture proceeding. We agree. We therefore vacate

Friske’s conviction and sentence, reverse the District Court’s denial of Friske’s

motion for judgment of acquittal, and remand the case to the District Court for

entry of judgment of acquittal.

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I.

Friske was charged with attempting to obstruct a forfeiture proceeding

involving the property of William Erickson, who had been indicted for conspiracy

and drug charges relating to a marijuana grow operation. The government

introduced the following evidence at trial: On October 13, 2008, Erickson, who

was in jail at the time, placed a phone call to Friske, which was recorded. In that

conversation, Friske, who lived in Wisconsin, told Erickson he was coming to visit

Erickson in Florida that Wednesday, October 15, 2008. Erickson discussed with

 Because we vacate Friske’s conviction and remand to the District Court to enter a 1

judgment of acquittal, we need not address Friske’s other arguments challenging the District

Court’s denials of his motions to sever and the prosecutor’s closing argument.

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Friske a “little repair job” at Erickson’s home in Florida, which would require

Friske to wear gloves and get on his hands and knees under the pool decking at the

rear of the house. Erickson referred to “three things” near the pool pump. He told

Friske to visit him at the jail afterwards, and to do so as soon as possible “if

something screws up.”

Upon hearing the recording of the October 13, 2008 conversation, law

enforcement agents, believing that Friske was going to Erickson’s property to

recover money or drugs buried under the pool decking, obtained a search warrant.

When Friske did not arrive at the property as expected on October 15, 2008, the

agents executed the warrant. Buried under the pool deck, the agents found three

sealed pieces of PVC pipe containing United States currency. In total, the agents

recovered $375,000.00. Before they left, the agents smoothed out the ground in

the area where they dug up the pipes so it looked as it had when they arrived.

The next day, October 16, 2008, Friske explained to Erickson, in another

recorded phone conversation, that he did not go to Erickson’s property as planned

the day before, October 15, 2008, beause he had been delayed at the airport and

had problems with a credit card and rental car. But Friske stated that he was going

to the property that day and would arrive there in about an hour.

The agents returned to Erickson’s residence, and found that Friske was

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already there. They encountered him walking towards them on the entry road

about 200 yards inside the north gate of the property. Friske was wearing gloves

and holding a flashlight. He was wet, and had dirt on his chest and arms. The

agents identified themselves and asked Friske why he was there. He told them that

he had come to recover and move some items for a friend. He told the agents they

could look at the items he had retrieved and loaded into his van. He gave the

agents written and oral permission to search the vehicle. In a briefcase in the front

seat of the van, the agents found several letters from Erickson to Friske. The

letters included hand-drawn diagrams of the property, showing among other things

the location where the pipes were ultimately discovered. In one of the letters,

Erickson also asks Friske to do him a “a big favor,” by coming to Florida for a few

days to “find a couple of things [at Erickson’s house] to take back to [Wisconsin].”

He hastens to add that it would be “nothing illegal for [Friske],” just “important

paper work I have put away.”

While the search of the van was taking place, one of the agents told

Friske—falsely—that they had been watching him digging around the pool deck.

Friske became agitated and explained that he had been inspecting the pool deck

because there was wood rot that he was going to fix. The agent testified at trial

that he had viewed the condition of the pool deck the day before, when digging up

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the three PVC pipes, and had not observed any wood rot. When Friske tried to

point out the wood rot under the deck, the agent saw that two new holes had been

dug under the pool deck since the agents had smoothed over the surface the day

before. The agent told Friske that they had been listening to his conversations with

Erickson and knew that he had come down to pick up money that had been

concealed on the property. According to the agent, Friske responded: “Look, these

are my friends. I’m not going to cooperate against my friends.” After reviewing

Friske’s driver’s license and taking his finger prints, the agents allowed him to

leave.

Later that same day, October 16, 2008, Friske and Erickson spoke on the

phone three times. In those conversations, Friske explained that DEA agents had

been on Erickson’s property and “didn’t buy it” when Friske explained that he was

looking at pilings underneath the deck because he was fixing up the house and

securing the property for Erickson.

II.

Friske argues that the District Court erred in denying his motion for

judgment of acquittal because the evidence was insufficient to support his

conviction. “We review de novo a district court’s denial of judgment of acquittal

on sufficiency of evidence grounds.” United States v. Browne, 505 F.3d 1229,

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1253 (11th Cir. 2007). “In reviewing a sufficiency of the evidence challenge, we

consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the Government, drawing all

reasonable inferences and credibility choices in the Government’s favor.” Id. “A

jury’s verdict cannot be overturned if any reasonable construction of the evidence

would have allowed the jury to find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable

doubt.” United States v. Herrera, 931 F.2d 761, 762 (11th Cir. 1991). “The

evidence need not be inconsistent with every reasonable hypothesis except guilt,

and the jury is free to choose between or among the reasonable conclusions to be

drawn from the evidence presented at trial.” United States v. Poole, 878 F.2d

1389, 1391 (11th Cir. 1989). But “[w]hen the government relies on circumstantial

evidence, reasonable inferences, not mere speculation, must support the

conviction.” United States v. Mendez, 528 F.3d 811, 814 (11th Cir. 2008).

Friske was convicted of violating 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2), which provides

that “[w]hoever corruptly . . . obstructs, influences, or impedes any official

proceeding, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not

more than 20 years, or both.” To establish a violation of § 1512(c)(2), the

government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that:

(1) there was an official proceeding taking place, [in this case a

forfeiture proceeding]; (2) [Friske] engaged in conduct which

constituted a substantial step toward the commission of the crime of

obstruction of an official proceeding; (3) [Friske] acted corruptly, i.e.,

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with an improper purpose and to engage in conduct knowingly and

dishonestly with the specific intent to subvert, impede or obstruct the

[forfeiture proceeding]; and (4) the natural and probable effect of

[Friske’s] conduct would be the interference with the due

administration of justice.

United States v. Mintmire, 507 F.3d 1273, 1289 (11th Cir. 2007) (quotation marks

and alterations in original omitted).

Friske argues that the district court erred in denying his motion for judgment

of acquittal because the government did not offer evidence sufficient to support a

finding that he knew of the forfeiture proceeding. As an initial matter, we must

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decide whether the government was required to prove that Friske knew of the

forfeiture proceeding. In United States v. Aguilar, 515 U.S. 593, 115 S. Ct. 2357

(1995), the Supreme Court held that a similar statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1503, which

prohibits “corruptly or by threats of force, . . . influenc[ing], obstruct[ing], or

imped[ing], or endeavor[ing] to inflence, obstruct, or impede, the due

administration of justice,” contains “a ‘nexus’ requirement—that the act must

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have a relationship in time, causation, or logic with the judicial proceedings.” Id.

 Because we conclude that the government was required to introduce sufficient evidence 2

for the jury to find that Friske knew his actions were likely to affect a forfeiture proceeding, and

that it failed to do so, we do not address Friske’s argument that the evidence was also

insufficient to support the jury’s finding that there was a forfeiture proceeding taking place with

respect to Erickson’s property.

 We have previously observed that the elements of § 1503 are analogous to the elements 3

of § 1512(c)(2). See Mintmire, 507 F.3d at 1289.

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at 599, 115 S. Ct. at 2362. As our sister circuits have explained, “[t]he nexus

limitation is best understood as an articulation of the proof of wrongful intent that

will satisfy the mens rea requirement of ‘corruptly’ obstructing.” United States v.

Phillips, 583 F.3d 1261, 1264 (10th Cir. 2009) (quotation marks omitted); see also

United States v. Quattrone, 441 F.3d 153, 170 (2d Cir. 2006) (using same language

to describe nexus requirement as applied to § 1503). In Aguilar, the Supreme

Court stated that “if the defendant lacks knowledge that his actions are likely to

affect the judicial proceeding, he lacks the requisite intent to obstruct.” 515 U.S. at

599, 115 S. Ct. at 2362. In Arthur Anderson LLP v. United States, 544 U.S. 696,

125 S. Ct. 2129 (2005), the Supreme Court extended this requirement—that there

be “a ‘nexus’ between the obstructive act and the proceeding”—to another similar

statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(2), which prohibits, among other things, “knowingly

. . . corruptly persuad[ing] another person . . . with intent to . . . cause or induce any

person to . . . withhold testimony . . . or . . . document[s] . . . from an official

proceeding.” Id. at 708, 125 S. Ct. at 2137.

We now join our sister circuits in concluding that § 1512(c)(2) also contains

a nexus requirement as articulated in Aguilar. See Phillips, 583 F.3d at 1264;

United States v. Reich, 479 F.3d 179, 186 (2d Cir. 2007); see also United States v.

Carson, 560 F.3d 566, 584 (6th Cir. 2009) (assuming arguendo that Aguilar nexus

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requirement applies to § 1512(c)(2)). Aguilar relied on the principle that “a

4

person lacking knowledge of a pending proceeding necessarily lack[s] the evil

intent to obstruct.” 515 U.S. at 599, 115 S. Ct. at 2362 (discussing Pettibone v.

United States, 148 U.S. 197, 207, 13 S. Ct. 542, 546–47 (1893)). That principle

applies equally to § 1512(c)(2), because without knowledge of the forfeiture

proceeding, Friske could not know that his actions were likely to affect it. We

recognize that § 1512(f)(1) provides that “[f]or the purposes of [§ 1512] . . . an

official proceeding need not be pending or about to be instituted at the time of the

offense.” But, as the Supreme Court observed in Arthur Anderson, “[i]t is . . . one

thing to say that a proceeding need not be pending or about to be instituted at the

time of the offense, and quite another to say a proceeding need not even be

foreseen.” 544 U.S. at 707–08, 125 S. Ct. at 2137 (quotation marks omitted).

Thus, in this case, the government was required to prove that Friske knew of, or at

least foresaw, the forfeiture proceeding.

5

 We are aware of no circuit that has rejected Aguilar’s nexus requirement in the context 4

of § 1512(c)(2), see Phillips, 583 F.3d at 1264, and the government has not offered any argument

against applying the nexus requirement to § 1512(c)(2). Instead, the government urges us to

assume without deciding that the nexus requirement applies, but to find it satisfied in this case. 

But as explained below, we conclude that the nexus requirement was not satisifed here. 

 We emphasize that it is not necessary to prove that the defendant knew that a 5

proceeding was pending, nor is it always sufficient to prove that the defendant “may have

foreseen an official proceeding at some time in the future.” United States v. Frankhauser, 80

F.3d 641, 652 (1st Cir. 1996) (analyzing the the analagous mens rea requirement for

§ 1512(b)(2)(B)). Consistent with Aguilar’s nexus requirement, the government must prove that

the defendant knew of or foresaw an official proceeding, and knew that his actions were likely to

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In support of his motion for judgment of acquittal before the District Court,

Friske conceded that “there [was] plenty of evidence [from which] the jury can

conclude that he went under the deck to retrieve three items for Mr. Erickson,” but

insisted that “there [was] not one scintilla of evidence that he knew he was

obtaining something that was subject to forfeiture.” We agree. Although Friske

was certainly acting suspiciously in his attempts to recover the three sealed PVC

pipes from under the pool deck, more is required to prove a violation of

§ 1512(c)(2). Specifically, the government had to prove beyond a reasonable

doubt that Friske knew that the natural and probable result of his actions would be

the obstruction of Erickson’s forfeiture proceeding. We are unable to find any

evidence in the record that Friske knew of or foresaw the forfeiture proceeding.

The only way the jury could conclude that Friske knew his actions were likely to

affect a forfeiture proceeding, in the absence of any evidence that he was aware

that a forfeiture proceeding was pending or foreseeable, would be through

speculation. But speculation is not enough to sustain a conviction based on

circumstantial evidence. See Mendez, 528 F.3d at 814.

Because the government offered no evidence that Friske knew that his

actions were likely to affect a forfeiture proceeding, we conclude that a reasonable

affect it. 

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jury could not find, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Friske had the requisite intent

to obstruct. See Aguilar, 515 U.S. at 599, 115 S. Ct. at 2362 (“[I]f the defendant

lacks knowledge that his actions are likely to affect the judicial proceeding, he

lacks the requisite intent to obstruct.”). Thus, the evidence was insufficient to

support Friske’s conviction under § 1512(c)(2), and the District Court therefore

erred in denying Friske’s motion for judgment of acquittal.

For all of these reasons, we vacate Friske’s conviction, reverse the District

Court’s denial of his motion for judgment of acquittal, and remand the case to the

District Court to enter a judgment of acquittal.

VACATED, REVERSED and REMANDED.

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