Opinion ID: 3026413
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Hawkins’s Jury Instructions Challenge

Text: Hawkins also challenges the jury instructions regarding his conviction for aiding and abetting wire fraud, arguing that the District Court failed to explain to the jury that it was required to find Hawkins’s culpable participation in the specific scheme charged in the indictment. Because Hawkins did not raise this challenge until after the close of trial, we review for plain error. Fed. R. Crim. P. 30(d). Under the plain error standard, we will reverse the District Court only upon finding “(1) an error; (2) that is plain; and (3) that affected substantial rights.” United States v. Dobson, 419 F.3d 231, 236 (3d Cir. 2005). Here, we find no error. Hawkins argues that the jury instructions failed to conform to Dobson’s requirement that the defendant culpably participate in the illicit enterprise charged in the indictment. Id. at 237. In Dobson, the defendant, Dobson, was charged with mail fraud (among other things). Id. at 234. Dobson had worked as a salesperson for Universal Liquidators (UL), which claimed to be in the business of locating and reselling surplus merchandise. Id. Dobson’s role was to convince individuals to pay approximately $5,000 to UL for access to this merchandise, which the individuals could then sell to the public at a profit. Id. However, UL was a hoax – it was not actually able to connect individuals with deeply discounted merchandise. Id. Further, Dobson, while marketing this “opportunity,” made misrepresentations of her own, such as claiming that by selling merchandise acquired through UL she had made enough money to purchase a horse ranch. Id. at 235. We found that the District Court had committed plain error because its jury instructions failed to “require[] a 66 determination of whether Dobson knowingly participated in UL’s broader scheme to defraud.” Id. at 238. The instructions merely called upon the jury to determine “whether the defendant knowingly devised or participated in a scheme to defraud.” Id. (emphasis added). We explained that the “case present[ed] two layers of potential fraud or misrepresentation that do not necessarily interconnect: (1) Dobson’s dubious sales presentations; and (2) the fraudulent UL scheme charged in the Indictment.” Id. While only the second kind of fraud was charged in the indictment, the jury instructions permitted the jury to convict upon finding either kind. Id. Accordingly, we held that the instructions had “omitted the prosecution’s obligation to show that Dobson knowingly devised or participated in the broader UL scheme as charged in the Indictment.” Id. At bottom, Dobson simply ensures that the jury instructions require the jury to find that the defendant culpably participated in the particular “illicit enterprise” that was charged in the indictment. Id. at 237. We have no doubt that the jury instructions in this case did so. The indictment charged Hawkins with aiding and abetting honest services wire fraud. Accordingly, the relevant scheme was the “scheme to defraud the City of Philadelphia and its citizens of the right to defendant COREY KEMP’s honest services.” (App. at 581.) The District Court defined honest services fraud extensively, and then referred the jurors to the verdict sheet, which, as relevant here, charged Hawkins with aiding and abetting honest services wire fraud. The Court explained that: [O]nly a public official owes a duty of honest services to the people he serves. Thus, of the defendants in this case, only Kemp is a public official. Each of the other defendants, who are private citizens, by himself or herself may not commit a substantive offense of honest services fraud as charged in the indictment. However, you may nevertheless find one or more of the other defendants guilty of honest services fraud, if you find beyond a reasonable doubt that such a defendant aided and abetted; that is, assisted a public official who was committing this 67 crime to commit this crime. (App. at 9652.) The District Court went on to instruct the jury that: Before a defendant may be held responsible for aiding and abetting others in the commission of a crime, it is necessary that the government prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant knowingly and deliberately associated himself or herself in some way with the crime charged and participated in it with the intent to commit the crime. In order to be found guilty of aiding and abetting the commission of a crime, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant: First, knew that the crime charged was to be committed or was being committed. Second, knowingly did some act for the purpose of aiding the commission of that crime. And third, acted with the intention of causing the crime charged to be committed. (App. at 9653.) These instructions contained the direct link between Hawkins’s actions and the specific scheme that was charged in the indictment – the scheme to deprive the public of Kemp’s honest services – that was lacking in Dobson. The instructions left no danger that Hawkins would be convicted for aiding and abetting some other scheme. Accordingly, we conclude that the instructions are consistent with Dobson’s teaching, and we reject Hawkins’s argument.