Wesley Snipes better enjoy his Memorial Day weekend. If he doesn’t win his appeal, it may be the last holiday weekend that he enjoys for a few years.
Snipes was scheduled to report to federal prison on June 3 but was granted a reprieve. Nonetheless, Snipes will eventually have to surrender to federal prison authorities to serve his three year prison sentence assuming that it is not overturned on appeal. Snipes’ attorneys plan to argue to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the trial judge erred during Snipes’ trial earlier in the year.
Snipes was granted bail during his appeal, with Judge Hodges ruling, remarkably, that Snipes wasn’t a flight risk. Prosecutors argued that Snipes’ appeal did not have merit and that Snipes has demonstrated he could flee. US Attorney Robert O’Neill cited evidence that Snipes told the probation office after his arrest he had less than $10,000 in liquid assets, but then produced a $5 million payment for back taxes at his sentencing. “His apparent lack of candor about his assets, combined with trial evidence that he has transferred millions of dollars offshore, show some risk of flight,” O’Neill wrote.
Judge Hodges didn’t bite. He granted Snipes bail meaning that Snipes would be free while he awaits his appeal.
Stay tuned!
I’m so over Snipes and his whining already.
Snipes’ attorney claims that he can’t get a fair trial in Ocala due to racism. His attorney has filed a motion to have the trial moved to New York because he claims “the government chose the most racially discriminatory venue available, with the best possibility of an all-white Southern jury.” The motion goes on to claim “substantial pockets of prejudice persist in Ocala. The Ocala area…is a hotbed of Klan activity.” Attached to the motion was a survey that Snipes hired the University of North Florida to do which Snipes’ attorney claims proves there’s a greater level of racism in Ocala than in New York City. This is not the first time that Snipes has claimed racial bias with respect to his trial.
Last month, Snipes’ attorney filed a motion to postpone his trial reportedly because of a fear that Snipes’ former attorney Daniel Meachum would not be physically fit for the trial. Additionally, Snipes also felt that trial attorney William R. Martin was ill-prepared for the case.
Here’s a thought for Mr. Snipes: pay your taxes and you wouldn’t have to sit around dreaming of reasons to complain about prosecution.
A judge has refused Wesley Snipes’ request to postpone his upcoming tax evasion trial.
Snipes’ lawyer, Robert G. Bernhoft, reportedly filed the motion because of a fear that Snipes’ former attorney Daniel Meachum would not be physically fit for the trial. Additionally, Snipes also felt that trial attorney William R. Martin was ill-prepared for the case.
But Senior Judge Terrell Hodges isn’t buying the act. He ruled that: “This series of events would lead any reasonable person to suspect that the defendant’s dismissal of able counsel is nothing more than a ploy designed to force a continuance of the trial. In any event, it will not have that effect.”
