Fletcher

MEMORANDUM **

Petitioner-Appellant Brian Fletcher appeals the district court’s order denying his petition for writ of habeas corpus on the grounds that his court-appointed attorney, Gary Edwards, provided per se ineffective assistance of counsel by making derogatory remarks about Fletcher during pre-trial proceedings. We review- the district court’s denial of Fletcher’s petition de novo, Eslaminia v. White, 136 F.3d 1234, 1236 (9th Cir.1998), and we affirm.

Fletcher argues that prejudice should be presumed under United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648 , 104 S.Ct. 2039 , 80 L.Ed.2d 657 (1984), because he and Edwards experienced a complete breakdown of communication such that counsel was constructively denied. Fletcher’s relationship with *141 Edwards, however, never reached a point of complete breakdown. Id.; see also Frazer v. United States, 18 F.3d 778, 783-84 (9th Cir.1994); United States v. Mullen, 32 F.3d 891, 896-97 (4th Cir.1994); Tucker v. Day, 969 F.2d 155, 159 (5th Cir.1992). Even after Edwards’s derogatory comments, the California Court of Appeal noted that Edwards interviewed and called the witnesses that Fletcher suggested, and “[t]here is nothing either in [Edwards’s]…