United States v. Carrie Musselman

Summary

The Seventh Circuit affirmed Carrie Musselman's convictions for healthcare fraud and wire fraud arising from fraudulent Medicare billing at her integrated medical practice. First, it held that the district court did not abuse its substantial discretion in denying a new trial based on the jury foreperson's pre-deliberation online research, because even assuming the Remmer presumption of prejudice applied, the government showed no reasonable possibility that the extraneous article affected the verdict. Second, it held that the evidence of psychological avoidance—numerous red flags Musselman ignored while consulting only financially interested sources—supported giving the willful-blindness ('ostrich') instruction, and the court deferred to the district court's careful exercise of discretion in a close case.