If you believe Robert Barnes, one of the attorneys for Wesley Snipes, the first week of Snipes’ trial went well. Mr. Barnes told the Ocala Star-Banner, “I think what they [jurors] saw was that Mr. Snipes openly, honestly engaged the IRS for years … and never received any meaningful response.” That’s one way of looking at the first week of the trial.
To this observer who is, though, looking at the trial from 3000 miles away, it doesn’t look like Mr. Snipes had a good week. First, Mr. Snipes went to trial in a locale which he has previously described as “racist,” Ocala, Florida. An attorney that Mr. Snipes supposedly dismissed showed up as one of his attorneys, too. Second, the prosecution has presented evidence showing that Mr. Snipes’ previous accountant, Kenneth Starr, told him that the idea that he didn’t have to pay income tax on his millions of dollars of income was laughable.
I don’t think things improved on Friday. According to Ocala.com, an ex-employee of Mr. Snipes’ film production company, Carmen Baker, had some collaborating evidence of Snipes’ behavior. Ms. Baker told the Court after hearing co-defendant Eddie Ray Kahn’s theory that Americans don’t have to pay taxes, “I was told by Mr. Snipes, Was I not paying attention? Did I not understand what I was just shown? I didn’t believe it. I thought it was bogus from the beginning.”
Ms. Baker made the wise decision (in my view) to consult another accountant. Mr. Snipes, though, had other ideas about the wisdom of that decision. Ms. Baker told the Court, “I got called into the office, and I was told that I was being a difficult employee and told that I should not have called an accountant. [Mr. Snipes] said, ‘If you’re not going to play along with the game plan, then you need to find employment elsewhere.'”
Mr. Snipes didn’t want her talking to the government even under subpoena. “He said if you do contact them you will have to pay the consequences,” Ms. Baker told the Court. Although Ms. Baker was under a non-disclosure/confidentiality agreement, a subpoena overrides such an agreement.
There was more evidence presented on Friday. Mr. Kahn’s company prepared ‘bills of exchange,’ and the government introduced several such bills sent to the IRS by Mr. Snipes. Though Mr. Snipes’ attorneys asked for a mistrial after several witnesses described such documents because this was evidence (in Mr. Snipes’ attorneys view) solely applicable against Mr. Snipes’ co-defendants, the mistrial was granted. Given that Mr. Snipes sent such documents to the IRS they appear to be yet another link in the chain.
At this point the only thing we know about the defense is that they plan on calling character witnesses such as Barbara Walters and Muhammad Ali. I think they’re going to need a lot more than that for Mr. Snipes to avoid spending significant time at ClubFed. The trial will resume on Tuesday in Ocala.
Tags: Snipes