Snipes Verdict
Friday February 1, 2008 was a good day for actor Wesley Snipes, who was acquitted of the felony charge of conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service, and convicted of three misdemeanor counts. Snipes, who on one occasion sent a 600 page diatribe to the IRS, had changed attorneys a mere 90 days prior to trial terminating the services of high profile counsel Billy Martin, and hiring the less well known, Robert G. Bernhoft of Milwaukee.
Interestingly, Bernhoft’s trial strategy of fronting the inanity of Snipes’ personal beliefs regarding his tax protester status, worked with the jury rejecting the felony conspiracy charge, but convicting him of only three misdemeanor counts.
It will be interesting to watch Snipes’ sentencing to see if the felony/misdemeanor distinction is a pyhricc victory as all relevant conduct will be attributable to Snipes. It is this writer’s guess that Snipes will still be facing a sentence at the upper end of the maximum sentence he can potentially receive – 3 years.
