Posted on 01/08/2004 5:56:20 AM PST by sinkspur
FORT WORTH - After deliberating for more than 13 hours over two days, a federal jury Wednesday convicted Bedford businessman and tax protester Richard Simkanin on 29 counts of violating U.S. income tax laws.
The jury of six men and six women delivered its verdict shortly after 8 p.m. They remained deadlocked on two counts within the indictment, leading U.S. District Judge John McBryde to declare a mistrial on those charges.
Simkanin stood silently with his hands behind his back, showing no emotion, as a court clerk read the 29 guilty verdicts. Some supporters in the courtroom dabbed their eyes; others glared at the judge.
Simkanin, 59, is scheduled to be sentenced April 30, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Jarvis said. He can get up to five years on each of the 25 felony counts and up to a year on each of the four misdemeanor charges.
"Justice was served, and we're pleased that the jury understood that no one is above the law," Jarvis said.
Arch McColl, the Dallas lawyer representing Simkanin, said his client was denied a fair trial because McBryde did not allow him to present key evidence on whether Social Security, Medicare and income taxes are voluntary.
McColl said he expects to win on appeal, but he added that it is time for Americans to pay attention to what happened in court.
"I'm terribly disappointed," McColl said. "It was not a fair trial in accordance with the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution that includes the fundamental right to present evidence on your own behalf."
Robert Schulz, founder of We the People Foundation for Constitutional Education, a group that questions the validity of the nation's tax laws, told Simkanin's supporters that the defendant was prepared for the worst.
"His spirits are fine. His faith is strong," Schulz said.
This is the second time Simkanin has gone on trial. In November, McBryde declared a mistrial when jurors who deliberated for eight hours said that they were deadlocked and could not reach a unanimous verdict.
Simkanin is almost considered to be a political prisoner by groups that question the validity of the nation's tax laws. They contend that most Americans are not required to pay income taxes.
They are particularly hostile toward the Internal Revenue Service, an agency that, they say, is not an official government entity.
Simkanin's supporters came from around the country. They held a vigil at the courthouse, at one time praying in the hallway. They often gave him a thumbs-up gesture as he entered the courtroom. Once, Simkanin got a standing ovation.
During the trial, Simkanin testified that he didn't withhold employees' taxes for Medicare and Social Security benefits because his research did not produce a law showing that participation in the programs was mandatory.
But Simkanin backed away from some of his anti-government comments, saying they were a mistake. He once wrote to the U.S. Treasury secretary saying that he had repatriated himself from the United States to the "Republic of Texas."
When McColl tried to query witnesses on legal definitions of "employee" and "wages," McBryde cut him off. The judge told jurors they could not question the constitutionality of the tax code.
Prosecutors put 11 witnesses on the stand to show that Simkanin knew what he was doing when he stopped withholding and paying taxes. Under federal tax laws, ignorance of tax codes can be used as a legal defense.
Jurors sent out seven notes during their 11 hours of deliberations Wednesday.
They asked for legal definitions and whether they had to review evidence on who does have to pay taxes.
McColl said his client's company, Arrow Custom Plastics, is in deep financial trouble because of his fights with the government. Simkanin has been in jail since June.
Simkanin was convicted on 10 felony counts of failing to withhold about $139,000 in taxes from employees' wages and 15 felony counts of filing false tax refund claims for about $235,000.
He also was found guilty of four misdemeanor counts of not filing individual income tax returns from 1998 to 2001. Simkanin had an estimated gross income of about $410,000 during those years, according to the indictment.
Dottie Harrison, a Simkanin supporter from Houston, said his allies will continue to fight.
"I'm in shock, but the determined energy everyone feels to overturn this injustice will be a catalyst that will expose the entire IRS fraud," she said.
But,but,but he's a good man.
That won't happen. It's not in the game plan for people who advocate a "holy war" against our culture. How dare you attempt to do other than worship to the two party god? YOU are the target of the "Jihad". The culture of freedom must be wiped out at all costs.
You cite, as evidence that juries cannot review the constitutionality of law, the USSC decision that says the USSC can. One does not preclude, or even involve, the other. When presented evidence for the right of juries to judge the law, you stamp your feet and cite the irrelevant again. What in Marbury v. Madison precludes a jury from deciding a law is unconstitutional and refusing to apply it?
Perversly, it had nothing to do with the Constitution.
Most folks don’t realize it’s NOT the US Code, but the Code of Federal Regulations where the answers can be found.
The main question, I believe, was whether or not the gentleman involved was an ‘employer’ as defined by the code.
The fact is, you are only an employer or an employee if you are within the ‘United States.’
BUT
Both the United States and State are defined as 'include the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, the Territories of Alaska and Hawaii before their admission as States, and (when used with respect to services performed after 1960) Guam and American Samoa.
The single place it differs is in the Railroad Retirement Act (Chapter 221 Sec.31.3306)
(s)The term United States when used in a geographical sense means the States.
So most people are not 'employees' or 'employers' as defined by the code.
Yet ANOTHER tax protester tactic: well, if we can't decide the constitutionality of the law, we'll contend that the law doesn't even exist!
Another attempt to put the law on trial.
TWENTY-NINE COUNTS. FIVE YEARS FOR EACH.
Simkanin's going to learn a very hard lesson.
YET ANOTHER tax protester tactic: take an obscure reference out of context and contend that it determines something it doesn't.
So I can redefine my relationship to my employer because of the Railroad Retirement Act?
This is really getting entertaining.
So was Jimmy Carter.
My neighbor is a good guy, but I don't want him as President either. (or School board member for that matter)
I missed those promises. He may have said "tax reform" but you heard NRST or a Flat tax.
I would call giving Social Security benefits (to anyone other than a legal citizen) with an illegal/phony Social Security number a kind of tax reform...promises made promises kept...
BTW, I'll bet if you're a legal citizen with a phony SS # getting benefits you go to jail with Simkanin.
You can not like Marbury vs. Madison, but there it is.
I have. Many, many times. I just can't figure out how to skate on taxes without going to jail.
You go first, and tell me how it's done.
Ok, but what specific law was he charged with violating?
Don't we all have a right to know that? (Not the act that was deemed unlawful, failure to withhold, but the law which states that act to be unlawful.)
TIA
Okay, you say (pretend to know...?) that it does exist. Chapter and verse of the Code, please.
Also, if this law actually does exist, why does the IRS refuse to cite it in open court?
What law? What Code? What chapter? What verse? I mean, since you claim to know...
I have taken nothing out of context sir.
Perhaps YOU should bother reading the codes for yourself as I have.
That's tax protester code for "a tax evasion trial which finds the defendant guilty."
Well, at least most here can agree we pay these taxes at gunpoint. One poster even opined that it was a "responsibility" to be robbed.
Call the US Attorney in Fort Worth. He'll know. He won, remember?
I have nothing to do with this case, except to be glad that another tax scammer will have learned his lesson.
Unfortunately, the lemmings who follow clowns like Bob Schulz and Irwin Schiff won't, and many of them will fall into the same trap as Simkanin.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.