Government Dismisses Remaining Castroneves Charge
What a weekend for Indy race car driver Helio Castroneves. As famed trial lawyer Roy Black posited here, the government dropped the lone remaining charge against Castroneves on Friday. Although the Order of dismissal did not state a reason for dropping the remaining charge, Mr. Black set out the reasons that he was going to present to the government as to why they should walk away from the last charge: “the government can't retry Helio on conspiracy because of collateral estoppel. If the jury found no tax deficiency on the substantive evasion counts, then there was no unlawful plan. An agreement to comply with the tax code is not a crime. Or, if the jury found no willfulness on the evasion counts, then there can be no willfulness on the conspiracy. Either way we win.”
Then on Sunday, Castroneves won the Indianapolis 500 for the third time! As the Miami Herald reports, the well publicized trial has given Castroneves a measure of perspective, but he still hopes for a fourth Indy title.
