Opinion ID: 2996020
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Jury Instruction on Chavin’s Signing of His Tax

Text: Return Chavin further argues on appeal that the instruction the district court gave about the effect of his signature on his 1992 tax return could likely have led the jury to believe that his signature alone overrode his “reliance on a tax professional” defense. Chavin offered an alternative instruction based on language from United States v. White, 879 F.2d 1509, 1511 (7th Cir. 1989). Ultimately, the district court rejected this instruction and instead used an instruction based on other language from the White opinion—language that was later cited with approval in United States v. Ellis, 50 F.3d 419, 425 (7th Cir. 1995). Both instructions Nos. 01-2302 & 01-3414 7 were accurate statements of the law and did not substantially differ from one another. In this situation, we review a district court’s decision on the precise wording of the instruction for abuse of discretion. Riemer v. Ill. Dep’t of Transp., 148 F.3d 800, 804 (7th Cir. 1998). The instruction given plainly stated that the determination of whether Chavin acted knowingly should be based on the “totality of the circumstances, including but not limited to the bare fact of the defendant’s signature on various documents.” (Tr. 2787) (emphasis added). We find that it was not an abuse of discretion for the district court to conclude that this language would not mislead the jury into thinking that Chavin’s signature alone defeated his “reliance on a tax professional” defense.