Always Bet on Black: Snipes Dodges Felony Convictions

Wesley Snipes hired a brilliant lawyer after all. His lawyer convinced a jury not to convict Snipes on Tax Fraud charges. He is still guilty of not filing his taxes, and Snipes will file and pay all of his taxes and penalties.

From the NYTimes here via Drudge:

Snipes had become an unlikely public face for the tax denier movement, whose members maintain that Americans are not obligated to pay income taxes and that the government extracts taxes from its citizens illegally.

The jury found Mr. Snipes not guilty on two felony charges of fraud and conspiracy. He was also acquitted on three misdemeanor charges of failing to file tax returns or to pay taxes from 2002 to 2004. But the jury found him guilty of failing to file returns or pay taxes from 1999 through 2001.

Mr. Snipes’s two co-defendants — Eddie Ray Kahn, a promoter of tax denial, and Douglas Rosile, a former accountant — were convicted on the fraud and conspiracy charges.

Mr. Snipes will pay all of his income taxes plus penalties and interest, said Robert E. Barnes and Robert G. Bernhoft, who defended him.

No one likes to pay taxes, and clearing him of the fraud charges will only attract more kooks to the tax deniers’ cause. The judge should make part of his sentence a requirement to do public service announcements saying how much of a dumbass he was to believe the tax denier claims.