Opinion ID: 3003404
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The District Court’s “Ostrich Instruction”

Text: Alvarez next attacks the district court’s “ostrich” or “conscious-avoidance” jury instruction. The so-called “ostrich instruction” informs the jury that a defendant may not bury her head in the sand to actively avoid the truth; the jury may therefore equate a defendant’s deliberate avoidance of knowledge with actual knowledge. United States v. Neville, 82 F.3d 750, 759 (7th Cir. 1996); United States v. Ramsey, 785 F.2d 184, 189 (7th Cir. 1986). “The purpose of the [ostrich] instruction ‘is to inform the jury that a person may not escape criminal liability by pleading ignorance if he knows or strongly suspects he is involved in criminal dealings but deliberately avoids learning more exact information about the nature or extent of those dealings.’ ” United States v. Craig, 178 F.3d 891, 896 12 Nos. 07-3964, 07-4060 & 08-1141 (7th Cir. 1999) (quoting United States v. Rodriguez, 929 F.2d 1224, 1227 (7th Cir. 1991)). Deliberate avoidance is not a lesser standard than actual knowledge; it is simply another way to prove such knowledge. United States v. Carani, 492 F.3d 867, 873 (7th Cir. 2007). Alvarez first challenges the form of the court’s instruction, claiming that it was not an accurate statement of the law. Second, she argues that there was no evidentiary basis for issuing the instruction to the jury. Neither argument prevails. 1. The court’s instruction was an accurate statement of the law. Alvarez first argues that the instruction was inaccurate because the court did not inform the jury that she must have been aware of a “high probability” that she was trafficking illegal drugs. Although Alvarez argued at trial that the evidence did not support giving the instruction, she did not object to its form, nor did she suggest alternative language. We therefore review for plain error.5 See United States v. Linwood, 142 F.3d 418, 422 5 Had Alvarez properly objected to the form of the court’s instruction, we would conduct de novo review. See United States v. Olofson, 563 F.3d 652, 656 (7th Cir. 2009) (“Whether jury instructions correctly state the law is a matter we review de novo.”). But the standard of review in this case is immaterial; we would uphold the court’s instruction under de novo review as well. Nos. 07-3964, 07-4060 & 08-1141 13 (7th Cir. 1998) (“[N]ot just any objection will save an issue for review—neither a general objection to the evidence nor a specific objection on a ground other than the one advanced on appeal is enough.”). Plain error review is “exceedingly deferential” and targets “particularly egregious errors.” Id. (quotations omitted). To warrant reversal, the error must affect the defendant’s substantial rights. United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 732 (1993). At the close of trial, the court gave the jury the following instruction: As to [Alvarez], you are instructed that actual knowledge and deliberate avoidance of knowledge are the same thing. Thus, . . . you may infer knowl- edge from a combination of suspicion and indif- ference to the truth. That is, if you find that [she] had a strong suspicion that things were not what they seemed or that someone had withheld some important facts, yet shut [her] eyes for fear of what [she] would learn, you may conclude that [she] acted knowingly or with knowledge, as these terms are used in these instructions. We find no error in the district court’s ostrich instruction, which parallels instruction 4.06 of our pattern jury instructions, as well as our seminal opinion authorizing precisely this language. See Ramsey, 785 F.2d at 190-91. We have repeatedly approved this instruction as an accurate statement of the law regarding the deliberate avoidance doctrine. See, e.g., Craig, 178 F.3d at 896; Neville, 82 F.3d at 760; United States v. Jackson, 33 F.3d 866, 874 (7th Cir. 1994); United States v. Paiz, 905 F.2d 1014, 1022 14 Nos. 07-3964, 07-4060 & 08-1141 (7th Cir. 1990), abrogated on other grounds by Gozlon-Peretz v. United States, 498 U.S. 395 (1991). Although Alvarez acknowledges our precedent, she asks us to stray from it, citing cases from the Second and Ninth Circuits suggesting that a proper instruction should inform the jury that the defendant must have been aware of a “high probability” of a fact’s existence and deliberately avoided learning of it. See United States v. Feroz, 848 F.2d 359, 360 (2d Cir. 1988) (per curiam); United States v. Valle-Valdez, 554 F.2d 911, 913-14 (9th Cir. 1977). We decline to mandate such language in an ostrich instruction and find no error by the district court. Perhaps the words “high probability” would further clarify the concept, but the court’s instruction here required the jury to find that Alvarez had a “strong suspicion” of wrongdoing and “indifference to the truth,” which, by definition, means ignoring something that one knows or strongly suspects to be true. Alvarez has provided no reason to overturn our precedent approving the use of the district court’s version of the ostrich instruction, which accurately informed the jury of the law. 2. The evidence supported issuing the “ostrich instruction.” Alvarez also asserts that the evidence at trial did not warrant issuing the ostrich instruction. We review this issue for an abuse of discretion and view all evidence in the light most favorable to the government. United States v. Carrillo, 435 F.3d 767, 780 (7th Cir. 2006); Craig, 178 F.3d at 896. Nos. 07-3964, 07-4060 & 08-1141 15 An ostrich instruction is appropriate where (1) a defendant claims to lack guilty knowledge, i.e., knowledge of her conduct’s illegality, and (2) the government presents evidence from which a jury could conclude that the defendant deliberately avoided the truth. Carrillo, 435 F.3d at 780; see also United States v. Inglese, 282 F.3d 528, 537 (7th Cir. 2002). It is undisputed that Alvarez claimed to lack guilty knowledge, so the issue is whether the government presented sufficient evidence that she remained deliberately ignorant. Evidence indicating deliberate indifference may consist of “ ‘overt, physical acts as well as . . . purely psychological avoidance, a cutting off of one’s normal curiosity by an effort of will.’ ” Inglese, 282 F.3d at 537 (quoting Craig, 178 F.3d at 896). The instruction is warranted if the evidence permits an inference that Alvarez must have forced her suspicions aside and deliberately avoided confirming that she was engaged in criminal activity. See Carani, 492 F.3d at 873. On the other hand, we do not infer knowledge from mere negligence; the defendant’s avoidance must be active. See United States v. Giovannetti, 919 F.2d 1223, 1228 (7th Cir. 1990). The instruction is therefore inappropriate if the evidence permits only a “binary choice,” i.e., one between actual knowledge or none at all. Id. (citing United States v. Bigelow, 914 F.2d 966, 971 (7th Cir. 1990)). We have upheld the use of the ostrich instruction many times where “a defendant transported under suspicious circumstances packages containing drugs and then claimed ignorance of the packages’ contents.” 16 Nos. 07-3964, 07-4060 & 08-1141 United States v. Wilson, 134 F.3d 855, 868-69 (7th Cir. 1998) (collecting cases). We have also held that a scenario in which a defendant admits her association with a group but, despite circumstantial evidence to the contrary, denies knowledge of its illegal activity is “a paradigm case for use of the ‘ostrich’ instruction.” Paiz, 905 F.2d at 1022. As discussed above, the record is replete with evidence from which the jury could have concluded that Alvarez remained deliberately ignorant that she was involved in drug trafficking. Most notable are the circumstances surrounding Alvarez’s last trip to Chicago. Even accepting Alvarez’s version of the events, which we need not do, she willingly drove to a gas station in Chicago, left her keys in the ignition, and watched a man drive away with her car. When he returned thirty minutes later, Alvarez, uncertain of where he went or what he did, obeyed Baltista’s instructions and drove the car and a stranger (Enano) back to Indianapolis. She dropped Enano off at an unknown apartment, where he removed a package from her trunk. We cannot think of many circumstances that would sound more suspicious than these; the government’s version of events was even more incriminating. If the jury did not believe that Alvarez actually knew that she transported drug money and controlled substances, it could have inferred from the testimony at trial that she must have consciously and deliberately avoided learning that fact. That is enough to support the instruction, and the district court did not abuse its discretion by issuing it. Nos. 07-3964, 07-4060 & 08-1141 17