A commenter noted that an Appeals Court has reversed the convictions of Gerard Marchelletta Jr., Gerard Marchelletta, Sr., and Theresa Kottwitz. For those who don’t remember, I reported on the Marchellettas when they were convicted and sentenced for tax fraud in a case that featured strip clubs, personal expenses, and the Bahamas.
The commenter is mostly correct. The Appeals Court made two rulings. In the first, the Court upheld their convictions for defrauding the IRS, reversed an aiding and abetting charge for all three (with an order that the District Court–the trial court–enter a judgment of Acquittal), and remanded for a new trial on the other counts. The remand for the retrial was based on the denial of the defendants’ having a jury instruction noting that they relied on their accountant for suspect tax returns.
In the second ruling, the Court also remanded and ordered a retrial for all three defendants for defrauding the IRS. The Court felt that, “Even if it was not the only and not the most likely explanation of events leading to the guilty verdicts on Count One, an evidentiary basis existed for conviction under Count One that could have involved Defendants, in fact, relying on the advice of their accountant.”
The defendants will probably be retried on these counts, and I’ll report on the retrial when it occurs in 2011.
