Opinion ID: 715778
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Rodgers' Other Claims of Error

Text: 66 In addition to his argument that the RICO conspiracy charge was erroneous under Olano, Rodgers claims that the jury charge was flawed in a number of other ways. These claims are without merit. Rodgers argues, inter alia, that he was prejudiced by the district court's failure to give a multiple conspiracy charge. To benefit from such a charge, a defendant must show that there was evidence of separate networks operating independently of each other and that he suffered substantial prejudice resulting from the failure to give the requested charge. United States v. Maldonado-Rivera, 922 F.2d 934, 962-63 (2d Cir.1990) (internal quotations omitted), cert. denied, 501 U.S. 1211, 111 S.Ct. 2811, 115 L.Ed.2d 984 (1991). There was no evidence of separate networks here. 67 Rodgers also claims that the jury charge on the RICO offense did not make clear to the jury that the two racketeering acts with which he was charged had to be interrelated and had to pose a threat of continued racketeering activity in order to satisfy RICO's pattern requirement. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961(5), 1962(c). We disagree. The jury charge was clear on these points, and complied with our holding in United States v. Indelicato, 865 F.2d 1370, 1381 (2d Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 811, 110 S.Ct. 56, 107 L.Ed.2d 24 (1989). See also H.J. Inc. v. Northwestern Bell Tel. Co., 492 U.S. 229, 109 S.Ct. 2893, 106 L.Ed.2d 195 (1989). 68 Rodgers argues, furthermore, that he was prejudiced by the district court's refusal to charge the jury as to one of his defense theories--that he was not a drug dealer at all but only an end user with a voracious appetite for cocaine. It is true that a criminal defendant is entitled to instructions relating to his theory of defense, for which there is some foundation in the proof, no matter how tenuous that defense may appear to the trial court. United States v. Dove, 916 F.2d 41, 47 (2d Cir.1990). Given the almost complete absence of any evidentiary foundation for such an instruction here, however, we find it difficult to fault the district court for refusing to give it. In any event, the failure to instruct the jury in this manner was not prejudicial to Rodgers given the paucity of the evidence in support of this defense theory--and the government's overwhelming proof to the contrary that Rodgers was a major drug dealer. See id. at 45 (defendant must show that the instructions, taken as a whole, were prejudicial). 11