Bank Records and Net Worth Increases
1 Page4
[77-1
USTC ¶9165]
United States of America
, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Edward Cook, Defendant-Appellant
(CA-5),
U. S.
Court of Appeals. 5th Circuit, No. 76-3299, Summary Calendar *, 546 F2d 82,
1/27/77, Affirming District Court, 75&-1 USTC ¶9134
[Code Secs. 7201 and 7203--result unchanged under the '76 Tax Reform
Act]
Tax evasion: Appeal of conviction: Motion for new trial: Newly
discovered evidence.--The Court of Appeals dismissed taxpayer's
motion for a new trial since the taxpayer failed to demonstrate that the
newly discovered evidence was not merely cumulative but material and
such that a new trial would be likely to change the result by producing
an acquittal. Therefore, the taxpayer's conviction for tax evasion was
upheld.
Julius
Lucius Echeles, Carolyn Jaffe,
35 E. Wacker Dr.
,
Chicago
,
Ill.
60601
, for appellant. John L. Briggs, United States Attorney, Jacksonville,
Fla., Bernard S. Bailor, Scott P. Crampton, Assistant Attorney General,
Gilbert E. Andrews,
Rob
ert E. Lindsay, Murray S. Horwitz, Department of Justice, Washington, D.
C. 20530, for appellee.
Before
COLEMAN, GOLDBERG and GEE, Circuit Judges.
PER
CURIAM:
The
appellant, Edward Cook, was convicted by a jury of income tax evasion
for the years 1966 through 1970, in violation of 26 U. S. C. §7201. 1 Cook's
motion for a new trial or for judgment of acquittal was denied after a
hearing in November 1973, and he was sentenced on January 7, 1974. His
conviction was affirmed on appeal. United States v. Cook, 505 F.
2d 659, cert. denied, 421
U. S.
1000, 95
S. Ct.
2397, 44 L. Ed. 2d 667 (1975). On March 5, 1975, appellant moved for
reconsideration of the denial of his motion for a new trial. The court
below denied the motion for new trial after a full evidentiary hearing,
and Cook has filed this appeal. He argues that the discovery of new
evidence mandates that a new trial be held. We affirm.
Appellant
filed no tax return for the relevant years. The government sought to
show at trial that Cook's substantial expenditures from 1966 through
1970, when viewed against the fact that prior to this period Cook was
unemployed and earned no income, showed that appellant had unreported
income during the period. Cook's defense was that prior to 1966 he had
accumulated assets worth over $150,000, which constituted the source of
his expenditures during the 1966-1970 period.
A
defense witness, Howard Brodsky, testified that in 1964 he received
power of attorney from Cook to remove the contents of the latter's
safety deposit box in a local bank. Brodsky testified that he removed
several diamonds and about $30,000 in cash from the box. Two bank
employees testified at an April 1973 hearing on Cook's motion for new
trial that a search of the bank's records prior to trial had failed to
reveal a power of attorney or entry slip with Brodsky's name on it.
Brodsky was subsequently indicted for perjury. Brodsky requested that
another search be made. In September 1974, investigators discovered a
power of attorney and an entry slip indicating that Brodsky had entered
the box on February 12, 1964. The perjury indictment against Brodsky was
dismissed. Cook moved for a new trial on the basis of this evidence.
The
district court denied the motion, holding that the newly discovered
evidence was merely cumulative and its introduction at trial could not
likely have changed the result. This is correct. the critical element of
Cook's defense was not that Brodsky entered the safe deposit box, but
that he removed diamonds and $30,000 therefrom.
That
Brodsky entered the safe deposit box was not controverted at trial. That
Brodsky removed diamonds and $30,000 was an unsupported assertion the
jury could and did disbelieve. The newly discovered evidence, even
assuming its authenticity, 2 does not
establish the truth of Brodsky's latter assertion but merely
corroborates his former statement.
In
order to compel the granting of a new trial because of newly discovered
evidence, the movant must show that the evidence is not merely
cumulative but material and such that a new trial would be likely to
change the result by producing an acquittal. United States v. Spivey,
508 F. 2d 1061, 1063 (5th Cir. 1975); United States v. Jacquillon,
469 F. 2d 380, 388 (5th Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 410
U. S.
938, 93
S. Ct.
1400, 35 L. Ed. 2d 604 (1973); United States v. 41, Cases, More or
Less, 420 F. 2d 1126 (5th Cir. 1970). The evidence Cook adduces is
cumulative and thus fails to meet this threshold requirement. See
United States
v. Riley, 544 F. 2d 237 (5th Cir. 1976). We therefore need not
consider whether Cook has satisfied a second requirement by showing that
he demonstrated due diligence in seeking to discover the evidence before
trial. United States v. Spivey, supra, 508 F. 2d at 1063; United
States v. Jacquillon, supra, 469 F. 2d at 388.
The
judgment of the district court is
AFFIRMED.
*
Rule 18, 5 Cir.; see Isbell Enterprises, Inc. v. Citizens Casualty
Co. of New York et al., 5 Cir. 1970, 431 F. 2d 409, Part I.
1
26
U. S.
C. §7201 provides:
Any
person who willfully attempts in any manner to evade or defeat any tax
imposed by this title or the payment thereof shall, in addition to other
penalties provided by law, be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction
thereof, shall be fined not more than $10,000, or imprisoned not more
than 5 years, or both, together with the costs of prosecution.
2
The record reveals that a laboratory analysis performed on the power of
attorney and entry slip suggested that the date of entry and safety
deposit box number had been overwritten by a pen with a different ink
than that used to affix the original numbers and date.
[75-1
USTC ¶9134]
U. S. A.
, Plaintiff-Appellee v. Edward Cook, Defendant-Appellant
(CA-5),
U. S. Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit, No. 74-1164, 505 F2d 659, 12/20/74,
Affirming unreported District Court decision
[Code Sec. 7201]
Tax evasion: Willful evasion: Sufficiency of evidence.--The trial
court's record contained substantial, although conflicting, evidence
from which the jury could conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the
testimony of an IRS agent, as to the taxpayer's net worth at the opening
of the tax period in question, was accurate. Similarly, a reasonably
mined jury could validly draw inferences from the government's
circumstantial evidence of credit purchases accompanied by large and
extensive cash dealings, far in excess of the taxpayer's apparent net
worth at the opening of the tax period in question, and inconsistent
statements by the taxpayer as to the source of his finances that, beyond
a reasonable doubt, the taxpayer was living on taxable income received
in the period in question upon which he willfully evaded taxation. from
the government's circumstantial sufficient to establish affirmative
evasion, the taxpayer's plea for reversal of his conviction, on the
grounds that the government's evidence was insufficient to overcome his
"cash hoard" defense and that the evidence failed to establish
willful evasion, must fail.
[Code Secs. 7201 and 7203]
Tax evasion: Appeal of conviction: Allegations of reversible error.--Assignments
of error raised for the first time on appeal connot be reviewed unless
the plain error threshold is met. Consequently, the taxpayer's claim
that it was plain error for the trial court to permit the prosecutor to
argue that the taxpayer was "lying," and that he was
"hiding" from both the I. R. S. and the jury, must fail. While
it was improper for the prosecutor to present the argument in the manner
that he did, to characterize the government's "hiding" comment
as an allusion to the taxpayer's refusal to testify requires an
inference which is too tenuous to support plain error reversal;
moreover, whatever prejudicial effect the "lying" comment may
have produced was substantially diminished both by the prosecutor's
disclaimer and by the efforts of taxpayer's counsel to turn the improper
argument against the government. Finally, it was not error for the trial
court to advise the jury with a lesser-included offense instruction that
the misdemeanor provisions of Code Sec. 7203, which involve a willful
omission of failing to file a return, are included in the broader felony
offense provisions of Code Sec. 7201, involving the willful commission
of an attempt to evade or defeat the tax.
John
L. Briggs, U. S. Attorney, Claude H. Tison, Asst. U. S. Attorney, Tampa,
Fla., Scott P. Crampton, Asst. Attorney General, Meyer Rothwacks, John
P. Burke, Murray S. Horwitz, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C. 20530,
for plaintiff-appellee. Julius Lucius Echeles,
Chicago
,
Ill.
, for defendant-appellant.
Before
COLEMAN, CLARK and RONEY, Circuit Judges.
[Opinion
of the Court]
CLARK,
Circuit Judge:
Edward
Cook appeals from his jury conviction on five counts of willfully
evading income taxes from 1966 through 1970 in violation of 26 U. S. C.
§7201. Through the diligent efforts of new counsel in this court, he
advances six grounds for reversal, the last four of which, since not
properly presented below, must constitute plain error to be reviewable
here. 1 First, he
contends that the government's evidence was insufficient to overcome his
"cash hoard" defense. Second, he argues that the evidence
failed to establish willful evasion. His third, fourth and fifth grounds
assign, individually and cumulatively, three instances of prosecutorial
conduct: unsupported attempts to impeach key defense witnesses during
cross examination, closing argument use of a court-excluded statement by
defendant, and closing argument statements that the defendant "was
lying" and failed to testify. His final plain error contention
relates to a lesser-included-offense instruction. We affirm.
Following
the expenditures method, the government sought to show that Cook, who
was unemployed, had an income of approximately 13,000 dollars from
nontaxable sources for the five years; had not filed returns for any of
the years; yet, had spent approximately 150,000 dollars. See United
States v. Penosi [72-1 USTC ¶9103], 452 F. 2d 217, 220 (5th Cir.
1971). Neither Cook's defense below nor the present appeal focuses on
these matters. Rather his defense was that prior to January 1, 1966, he
had accumulated cash and other assets of a value in excess of 150,000
dollars, which were the source of the funds spent. See e.g., United
States v. Newman [72-2 USTC ¶9719], 468 F. 2d 791, 794 (5th Cir.
1972).
[Sufficiency
of Evidence]
To
address the sufficiency question, we must record the evidence presented
at trial in some detail. The Government's proof established that Cook
had not filed income tax returns for any of the years in question and
that treasury agents had made an exhaustive search which failed to
discover any assets held by defendant prior to January 1, 1966, other
than two cars valued at 5,850 dollars. This conclusion was supported by
evidence that Cook had been infrequently employed prior to 1966 and
that, during the prosecution years, he had "financed" several
purchases. It was stipulated that the defendant was totally unemployed
and earned no income whatsoever from 1944-1948, 1951-1960 and 1964-1965,
and that he received no gifts or bequests nor inheritance from his
mother at her death in 1967. His former wife, Geraldine, whom he married
in February, 1961; separated from in 1962; reunited with in 1965 and
divorced in May 1966, testified, inter alia, that defendant did
not have a job in 1961 when they were married and that she did not know
if or when he got his first job after that. She had to work as a
secretary for a short time during the marriage. She had no knowledge
that defendant had a safety deposit box, or any jewelry, or a coin
collection. In addition, she testified that not only had they borrowed
money from the family when they were short of cash, but they had also
financed the purchase of a 1965 Oldsmobile. F. B. I. Special Agent
Guilfoile testified that he had known Cook's current wife, Joan, even
before 1966, but had never known her to be gainfully employed. By Cook's
own statement, his employment record prior to 1951 had been sporadic and
insubstantial. In fact, his only sustained employment was from 1962-1964
when he received a salary of 250 dollars per week as an employee of a
jewelry company. Also tending to negate the existence of pre-1966 assets
was the evidence that Cook had to obtain credit for several purchases
during the prosecution years. In 1967 he purchase a 59,500 dollar house
and assumed both a first and second mortgage. He also financed part of
the purchase price of a 12,566 dollar Donzi Boat and a new Oldsmobile
automobile.
Other
evidence established abundant facts about Cook's financial activities
and resources and numerous inconsistencies in his personal
representations about them. In August, 1969, for example, defendant told
F. M. Beirne, a local police officer, that he was still under
investigation by the Internal Revenue Service because of not filing an
income tax return. Beirne further quoted Cook as saying his standard
explanation for this was that his wife was wealthy and that since he had
never held a job or earned 600 dollars annually, he was not required to
file an income tax return. 2 The
statement is in direct conflict with Cook's credit card and loan
applications during the prosecution years in which he consistently
represented himself to have an income of 18,000 or 20,000 dollars per
year. The source of his income was variously shown as deriving from
self-employed, semi-retired, or retired activity in stocks, bonds and
investments, or the cosmetic business. Evidence of other business
activity by the defendant during the prosecution years included Cook's
ordering of locksmith's tools under the trade name Cook's Key and Hobby
Shop and his representation in 1967 that he was in the perfume business
or had something to do with a donut establishment.
Cook
made substantial outlays of cash in the covered period. Included were
the purchase of five cars, for which he paid out cash ranging in an
amount from 2065 to 3700 dollars; a 6200 dollar initial payment on the
Donzi Boat, and an 18,000 dollar cash payment for a lot. In at least two
of the prosecution years, Cook's total cash payments (28,601.65 and
22,261.21 dollars) were more than double the payments for purchases he
made by check.
Defendant's
proof included no documentation of his pre-1966 ownership of assets. He
did, however, produce three witnesses to support his claim that
substantial asset ownership accounted for his spendings in the tax
period. They were Howard Brodsky, a bondsman; Ronald Hanson, a business
friend; and Richard Chapman, a self-employed dealer in jewels. Brodsky's
contact with Cook was as a bail bondsman on an unrelated criminal
charge. In his testimony to the jury the relationship was merely
described as one requiring Cook to place collateral with Brodsky.
Brodsky testified that in 1963 and 1964 Cook had safety deposit boxes
containing a gold coin collection, diamonds (including a canary diamond
appraised for more than 75,000 dollars), cash, and other assets which in
total value exceeded 150,000 dollars. He further stated that he took
possession of these items and in 1966 and 1967 redelivered their
contents to Cook. Hanson testified he had known Cook in
Chicago
, that in December of 1965 he had borrowed 35,000 dollars in cash from
Cook to establish a wig business, and that in about February or March of
1966, when the projected venture did not materialize, he returned these
funds.
Cook
also presented testimony from Richard Chapman to the effect that Chapman
shared offices and a telephone with one Herman Gordon, who was a
wholesale diamond merchant. Chapman testified that in the summer of 1968
he witnessed a transaction in which Gordon paid Cook 85,000 dollars in
cash for a large canary diamond. Inferentially, this diamond was similar
to a diamond Brodsky testified he observed to be in Cook's safety
deposit box in 1963.
[Proof
Required]
It
is essential to affirmance to find that the jury was furnished adequate
proof of the defendant's net worth at the opening of the tax period in
question. United States v. Penosi, supra; Marcus v. United States
[70-1 USTC ¶9213], 422 F. 2d 752, 755 (5th Cir. 1970). In this case,
the inferences to be drawn from the evidence of little or no income
prior to 1966 and credit purchases after January 1, 1966 together with
the special agent's testimony that Cook's net worth on January 1, 1966,
the beginning of the prosecution years, was less than 6,000 dollars were
opposed by the testimony of Brodsky, Hanson and Chapman. The fact that a
conflict existed, however, is immaterial, because viewed in the light
most favorable to the government, Glasser v. United States, 315
U. S. 60, 62 S. Ct. 457, 86 L. Ed. 680 (1942), the record contained
substantial evidence from which the jury could conclude beyond a
reasonable doubt that the agent's testimony was accurate.
Similarly
a reasonably minded jury could validly draw inferences from the
government's circumstantial evidence of credit purchases accompanied by
large and extensive dealings in cash, and inconsistent statements as to
the sources of his finances that, beyond a reasonable doubt, Cook was
living on taxable income received in the subject period upon which he
willfully evaded taxation rather than on a cash hoard accumulated
previously.
United States
v. Nazien, 504 F. 2d 394 (5th Cir. 1974);
United States
v. Warner, 441 F. 2d 821, 830 (5th Cir. 1971);
United States
v. McGlamory, 441 F. 2d 130, 135 (5th Cir. 1971). These
permissible inferences would be sufficient to establish affirmative
evasion. Spies v. United States [43-1 USTC ¶9243], 317
U. S.
492, 499, 63 S. Ct. 364, 87 L. Ed. 418 (1943). See also United States
v. Newman [72-2 USTC ¶9719], 468 F. 2d 791, 794 (5th Cir. 1972).
[Prosecutorial
Conduct]
Cook's
remaining assignments of error are raised for the first time in this
court. They were not even brought before the trial court in his post
trial motions. To permit review, the plain error threshold must be
crossed. See, e.g.,
United States
v. Smith, 502 F. 2d 512, 519 (5th Cir. 1974). Acknowledging this to
be the standard, Cook urges it was plain error for the prosecution to
imply, in its cross examination of defense witnesses Howard Brodsky and
Richard Chapman, that it possessed impeaching information without
thereafter offering supporting evidence when the questions were answered
adversely. 3 Cf.
United States v. Constant, 501 F. 2d 1284 (5th Cir. 1974). Since
failure to introduce rebuttal on these points is more likely to have
aided than harmed defendant, and since his counsel capitalized on the
lack of such rebuttal in closing arguments, we refuse to try the issue
for the first time in this court under the plain error rule.
Cook's
criticisms of the closing arguments urge that the prosecutor
impermissibly utilized a statement which had been made by Cook to an IRS
agent, but which had been ruled inadmissible by the court. Assuming this
was error at all, the problem for treating it as plain error is that the
very same statement had been admitted in evidence through Officer
Beirne. 4 If objection
had been timely made and the court's ruling had been made retroactively
applicable to the IRS agent's testimony, the problem could have been
clarified without prejudice. This is precisely the kind of matter that
cannot qualify as plain error.
Cook
further contends that the court committed plain error when it allowed
the prosecutor to argue:
"Today
I want to tell you, this case is not difficult to decide. It is an
extremely large amount of evidence coming in here which shows that the
defendant, No. 1 spent the money, made many admissions as to taxable
income. Only to the Internal Revenue Service and to you does he need
hide because he has a technical income, because he had a cash hoard.
It is evidence on the record that such a cash hoard did not exist. He
was lying and purposely and willfully evading the income tax."
(Emphasis is added)
The
questions to and answers by the witness Chapman were:
Q.
Are you telling me as an expert in the diamond business that all diamond
merchants deal exclusively in cash?
A.
I didn't say . . . exclusively . . . I say primarily.
*
* *
Q.
But you are not prepared to state whether this is the custom throughout
the diamond trade?
A.
I would say that it is . . . on a wholesale level between diamond
brokers.
The
government asserts that the "hide" allusion in this statement
was intended to point out the contrast between Cook's admissions on
loans and credit applications of income around 20,000 dollars a year and
his later assertion that he didn't earn 600 dollars a year. They also
urge that the comment was meant to question the existence of defendant's
asserted cash hoard. The use of the phrase "he was lying",
while confessedly ill advised and inappropriate, is said to have been
based on a permissible belief inferred from the evidence. See, e.g.,
United States
v. Greenberg, 268 F. 2d 120, 123-124 (2nd Cir. 1959).
In
the abstract, the argument is clearly objectionable.
.
. . [P]rosecutors should exercise utmost restraing and caution in
fashioning arguments which may tend to support the suggestion of a
comment on the failure of a defendant to testify. Additionally,
expressions of personal opinion as to the credibility of witnesses for
the prosecution should be avoided. "It is as much his [the
prosecutor] duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce
a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring
about a just one".
United
States v. Rhoden, 453 F. 2d 598, 600 (5th Cir. 1972) quoting
Berger v.
United States
, 295
U. S.
78, 88, 55 S. Ct. 629, 79 L. Ed. 1314, 1321 (1935).
However,
to establish the "hide" comment as an allusion to the
defendant's refusal to testify requires an inference which is altogether
too tenuous to support plain error reversal. We note that the opening
words of this sentence couple the revenue service with the trial court
jury in speaking of those from whom Cook need "hide." Since
the revenue service performs an extra judicial function of
investigation, its mention tends to disassociate the tenor of the
remarks from the hiding of courtroom testimony. It is entirely plausible
to construe the thought intended to be conveyed as a challenge to the
jury to use Cook's own prior representations that he had income as a
basis for rejecting the defense assertion that his large spendings came
from a prior accumulation and that he had no income over 600 dollars for
any of the years. This is what the trial was mainly about. The failure
of defense counsel to object helps to confirm that the argument was
sufficiently ambiguous to deny it classification as an error which
plainly deprived defendant of any substantial right.
Whatever
prejudicial effect might have obtained from the "lying"
comment, was diminished both by an express disclaimer by the prosecution
and by defense counsel's use of the prosecutor's argumentary
indiscretions in an attempt to turn the "lying" remark against
the prosecution. 5 At the
beginning of this closing argument, the prosecutor stated:
I
want my discussion to be based on the evidence you have heard in this
court-room. As I said at the outset, what lawyers say is not evidence,
no matter how important we think it is, it is not evidence and it is not
properly considered by you in arriving at the verdict. It is to aid you.
If your recollection of the evidence differs from what I said, follow
your recollection. You are the people who are to evaluate the evidence.
While
the comment was altogether improper and an objection would surely have
brought corrective action, we must weigh the degree to which the
prosecutor's argument may have affected a substantial right belonging to
the defendant. We conclude that the prejudicial effect was slight, while
the evidence of guilt was substantial. See
United States
v. Rodriques, 503 F. 2d 1370 (5th Cir. 1974);
United States
v. Rhoden, 453 F. 2d 598 (5th Cir. 1972). "Without putting
our imprimature on every remark made by the prosecutor, we perceive no
plain error which should be noticed in the absence of objection. . .
."
United States
v. Jenkins, 442 F. 2d 429, 435 (5th Cir. 1971);
United States
v. Scaglione, 446 F. 2d 182, 188 (5th Cir. 1971).
[July
Instruction]
Finally,
appellant argues that misdemeanors under Section 7203 (failure to file)
are not lesser included crimes under Section 7201 (willful evasion) and,
thus, that the giving of a lesser-included-crime instruction was
erroneous. The failure to bring the error complained of here to the
attention of the trial court would bar its assignment as error under
Fed. R. Crim. P. 30, unless it fell under Rule 52(b). But the
instruction here involved was not error at all. The misdemeanor
provisions of Section 7203 ininvolve a willful omission of
failing to file a return. The felony provisions of Section 7201 includes
the broader offense of willful commission of an attempt to evade
or defeat the tax. Sansone v. United States [65-1 USTC ¶9307],
380
U. S.
343, 351, 85 S. Ct. 1004, 1010, 13 L. Ed. 2d 882 (1965); Spies v.
United States [43-1 USTC ¶9243], 317
U. S.
492, 63 S. Ct. 364, 87 L. Ed. 418 (1943).
See
,
United States
v. Bishop [73-1 USTC ¶9459], 412
U. S.
346, 93
S. Ct.
2008, 36 L. Ed. 2d 941 (1973). Cf.
United States
v. Bowness, 504 F. 2d 391 (5th Cir. 1974).
We
have carefully considered appellant's auxiliary arguments and find them
equally without merit.
Affirmed.
1
Fed. R. Crim. P. 52(b) provides: "Plain errors or defects affecting
substantial rights may be noticed although they were not brought to the
attention of the court." See C. Wright, Federal Practice and
Procedure §856.
2
An agent of the Internal Revenue Service testified that Cook made
essentially the same statement to him. Subsequent to the admission of
this evidence, the Court ruled that the failure to give Cook
admin
istratively required warnings, Int. Rev. Manual §9384.2, rendered this
testimony excludable. The record reveals that at this point counsel for
Cook made the deliberate strategic choice to leave this testimony in the
record rather than having it highlighted by a specific direction from
the Judge that the jury should disregard it.
3
The witness Brodsky answered these questions in the negative:
"Q.
Isn't it a fact, sir, you told them (F. B. I. Agents) those coins were
submitted to you by Martin Katz and were owned by Martin Katz?
*
* *
Q.
Isn't it a fact you also later told them you returned the gold coins not
to Clarence, but John Cook?
Q.
Isn't it a fact you told the F. B. I. agent it was returned to Clarence
Cook?
*
* *
Q.
Didn't you tell the F. B. I. that the 27 carat diamond was owned by
Martin Katz?
4
See note 2, supra, and accompanying text.
5
Defense counsel argued that it constituted "unfair tactics" to
"try to create prejudice in the minds of the jury by inflection,
innuendos, insinuation" and that the prosecution was attempting to
"inflame people" by "twist[ing] the truth". Then he
came to the point:
Now,
I resent it. I personally resent it calling my client a liar.
Now
he is an American citizen and he is entitled to every kind of a
courtesy; every kind of a right and privilege that you or I should be
entitled to in this Court of Law. Why is he a liar? Because he tried to
prove in a particular time, in 1963, he had a valuable diamond and he
had a gold coin collection. And you call him a liar? Well, let us see.
Now, who is lying here?
I
don't call anybody a liar, but I say who is making the mistake? Who is
making the false innuendo?
[56-2
USTC ¶9956]
United States of America
, Plaintiff-Respondent v. Raymond A. O'Connor, Defendant-Appellant
(CA-2),
U. S. Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit, Docket No. 23763, 237 F2d 466,
10/1/56, Reversing and new trial ordered of an unreported District Court
decision
[1939 Code Sec. 145(b)--substantially unchanged in 1954 Code Sec. 7201]
Crimes: Willful failure to pay tax: Instructions to jury.--The
conviction of taxpayer, a certified public accountant, on an indictment
charging him with willfully attempting to evade and defeat his income
taxes by filing returns understating the amount of his taxable income,
was not sustained. With reference to alleged errors raised by taxpayer,
the court held as follows: (1) the trial court's charge to the jury was
insufficient where it failed to include a summary of the net worth
method, the assumptions on which it rests, and the inferences available
both for and against the accused; (2) the summary net worth charts used
by the government and introduced in evidence were reasonably accurate;
(3) the trial court did not err in excluding certain documentary
evidence offered by taxpayer where the documents were alleged copies or
summaries of originals which had been lost or destroyed by taxpayer or
others; and (4) taxpayer improperly contended that the indictment should
have been dismissed because it was based entirely on hearsay evidence.
The case was remanded for a new trial.
[1939 Code Sec. 3631--similar in 1954 Code Sec. 7605(b)]
Examination of books and witnesses: Time and place: Failure to object
to examination as waiver.--The court held taxpayer waived any
objection by consenting to a re-examination of his books, even assuming
the evidence obtained was inadmissible in a tax prosecution because of
the Commissioner's failur