Flaherty

MEMORANDUM **

Defendant offered no foundational evidence to show that she believed, in good faith, that the assay reports were based on unadulterated cinder samples. Fed. R.Evid. 901(a). Without such evidence, the reports could not establish her good-faith belief that the cinders contained precious metals. Thus, the district court did not abuse its discretion by excluding the reports.

The district court’s failure to instruct the jury that the government had the burden to disprove defendant’s good faith was not plain error, because the jury was specifically instructed the government had to prove defendant’s specific intent to defraud. See United States v. Shipsey, 363 F.3d 962, 967-68 (9th Cir.2004). Because the jury was also told that a belief can be held in good faith even if “inaccurate, incorrect, or wrong,” it was not plain error to fail to further instruct that a belief can be held in good faith even if not objectively reasonable.

Nor was there an abuse of its discretion by ruling on defendant’s motion for a new trial without an evidentiary hearing, see United States v. Nace, 561 F.2d 763, 772 (9th Cir.1977), or by denying that motion on the ground, among others, that…