ELR Citation: ELR 20851
No(s). s. 84-3075, -3079 (9th Cir. Aug 15, 1985)

In a Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) criminal action, the court holds that the jury should not have been instructed on the doctrine of deliberate avoidance or willful blindness because the government failed to introduce sufficient evidence that the defendants avoided learning whether the equipment they disposed of contained illegal concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). To be criminally culpable under TSCA, defendants must have had guilty knowledge that the equipment disposed of had unlawfully high concentrations of PCBs. The court notes that such knowledge can sometimes be inferred from evidence that a defendant was aware that the equipment probably contained unlawful PCB concentrations and deliberately avoided learning the truth. However, a jury may be instructed on deliberate avoidance only if a defendant denies knowledge and the government introduces proof of deliberate ignorance. The government's evidence that the defendants feared that they might be violating the law was insufficient to raise an inference of deliberate avoidance.

Counsel for Appellee
John A. Bryson
Land and Natural Resources Division
Department of Justice, Washington DC 20530
(202) 633-2740

Counsel for Appellant
Roger J. Magnuson, Luke Baer
Dorsey & Whitney
2200 First Bank Place East, Minneapolis MN 55402
(602) 340-2600

William J. Mauzy
Mauzy & Kelley
1740 First Bank Pl. E., Pillsbury Ctr., 200 S. Sixth St., Minneapolis MN 55402
(612) 340-9108

Before Norris and Thompson,^* JJ.