Opinion ID: 453326
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Severance and Antagonistic Defenses

Text: 63 Reservitz next asserts that the district court committed error when it failed to sever Reservitz's trial from Baker's because their defenses were antagonistic. The grant or denial of severance is clearly within the sound discretion of the trial court and its action on such a motion will be overturned only where there has been a clear abuse of such discretion. United States v. Davis, 623 F.2d 188, 194 (1st Cir.1980). The burden is upon appellant Reservitz to make a strong showing of prejudice in order to show that a denial of his severance motion constituted an abuse of discretion. United States v. Bautista, 731 F.2d 97 (1st Cir.1984); United States v. Arruda, 715 F.2d 671 (1st Cir.1983); United States v. Lochan, 674 F.2d 960, 967 (1st Cir.1982). Reservitz has made no such showing. 64 The fact that two defendants assert antagonistic defenses does not per se require severance even if the defendants are hostile or attempt to cast the blame on each other. United States v. Davis, supra, at 194, quoting United States v. Becker, 585 F.2d 703, 707 (4th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1080, 99 S.Ct. 862, 59 L.Ed.2d 50 (1979). To obtain severance on the grounds of conflicting defenses Reservitz has to demonstrate that the conflict is so prejudicial and the defenses are so irreconciliable that the jury will unjustifiably infer that this conflict alone demonstrates that both are guilty. United States v. Talavera, 668 F.2d 625, 630 (1st Cir.1982), cert. denied, Pena v. United States, 456 U.S. 978, 102 S.Ct. 2245, 72 L.Ed.2d 853 (1982); United States v. Luna, 585 F.2d 1, 5 (1st Cir.1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 852, 99 S.Ct. 160, 58 L.Ed.2d 157 (1978). 65 Reservitz contends that he was entitled to severance because the entrapment defense offered by Baker was antagonistic and mutually exclusive to his defense. 6 Other circuits have held that [a] co-defendant's reliance on entrapment does not of itself justify reversing a refusal to sever but rather the defenses must be antagonistic to the point of being mutually exclusive. United States v. Vadino, 680 F.2d 1329, 1335 (11th Cir.1982), 460 U.S. 1082, 103 S.Ct. 1771, 76 L.Ed.2d 344 (1983) (quoting, United States v. Salomon, 609 F.2d 1172, 1173 (5th Cir.1980) ), cert. denied, 460 U.S. 1082, 103 S.Ct. 1771, 76 L.Ed.2d 344 (1983). See, e.g., United States v. Mulherin, 710 F.2d 731 (11th Cir.1983), cert. denied, Hornsby v. United States, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 1305, 79 L.Ed.2d 703 (1984); United States v. Moschiano, 695 F.2d 236 (7th Cir.1982), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 110, 78 L.Ed.2d 111 (1983); United States v. Lentz, 624 F.2d 1280 (5th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 995, 101 S.Ct. 1696, 68 L.Ed.2d 194 (1981). 66 Reservitz's theory is that he was prejudiced by the admission into evidence of the recorded telephone conversations of the DEA agents with Baker during December 1982, presented by the government in order to disprove entrapment. Reservitz argues that the jury could have inferred that the telephone conversations of drug transactions was evidence that Baker had engaged in drug transactions in the past, and that Reservitz, who is alleged to have participated in a conspiracy with Baker to distribute drugs, might appear to the jurors to have been one of the associates mentioned by Baker in the conversations. In these circumstances we find that any prejudice to Reservitz resulting from the telephone conversations is purely speculative, 7 and [s]peculative allegations as to possible prejudice do not meet the burden of showing an abuse of discretion in denying a motion for severance. United States v. Becker, 585 F.2d 703, 707 (4th Cir.1978), cert. denied, 439 U.S. 1080, 99 S.Ct. 862, 59 L.Ed.2d 50 (1979). See, United States v. Bautista, supra, at 100. We believe that the jury was capable of following the trial court's instruction that they were to consider the evidence against each defendant separately. See, United States v. Bautista, supra, citing, United States v. Smolar, 557 F.2d 13, 21 (1st Cir.1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 971, 98 S.Ct. 523, 54 L.Ed.2d 461 (1977). Appropriate limiting instructions to the jury are an adequate safeguard against evidentiary spillover. United States v. Moschiano, supra. It is significant that the jury returned a verdict finding Reservitz guilty only on Count One, the conspiracy count, while finding Baker guilty on both counts, the conspiracy and distributing counts. Such a discriminating verdict has been found by the Seventh Circuit to be some indication that the jury was able to and did consider each defendant individually. United States v. Shelton, 669 F.2d 446, 461 (7th Cir.1982), cert. denied, Bledsoe v. U.S., 456 U.S. 934, 102 S.Ct. 1989, 72 L.Ed.2d 454 (1982); United States v. Papia, 560 F.2d 827, 837 (7th Cir.1977). 67 For all of the above reasons, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it denied Reservitz's motion for severance. 68 The other argument raised by Reservitz is that in order for Baker to prove his defense of entrapment, which allegedly was antagonistic to Reservitz's defense, Baker would take the stand and that once Reservitz knew Baker would take the stand, he had to do likewise; and, therefore, Reservitz's right under the Fifth Amendment not to be compelled to incriminate himself was infringed. To a similar Fifth Amendment argument, the Seventh Circuit ruled that the fact that co-defendant's defense was allegedly so antagonistic to defendant's that once defendant knew co-defendant would take the stand defendant had to do likewise, did not entitle the defendant to severance of trial from the trial of the co-defendant because of his Fifth Amendment right not to be compelled to incriminate himself. United States v. Shively, 715 F.2d 260 (7th Cir.1983), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 1001, 79 L.Ed.2d 233 (1984). 69