The Snipes Trial

[Demosthenes]

Ocala is pretty -- spanish moss covering horse stables, lots of open land, lots of flora, lots of Hallelulah centers.

I drove in from Orlando last night and had an Outer Limits experience. I live in DC where commutes are measured in time, not distance (because an 8 mile commute can easily take an hour) and there I was driving 70+ miles an hour on an open highway with only one other car about a half mile ahead of me. WTF is that all about. Highways without traffic???

This morning, the courthouse was a circus. They've closed the roads, tv film crews are everywhere, and the number of reporters and photogs is quite impressive.

[wserra]

tv film crews are everywhere, and the number of reporters and photogs is quite impressive.

Vampires.

[Judge Roy Bean]

...and there I was driving 70+ miles an hour on an open highway...

Chicken.

You were about 10mph short of the average.

[RyanMcC]

WTF is that all about. Highways without traffic???

Sounds like Pyongyang, North Korea, home of 6 lane highways with no traffic. Probally less traffic jams there than any other capital city in the world.

[Demosthenes]

Snipes witness list is amusing:

Tom Brokaw
Barbara Walters
Spike Lee
Gus van Sant
Woody Harrelson
Goldie Hawn
Sylvester Stallone
Muhammed Ali
Diane Sawyer
Paul Simon

[Nikki]

What about Woody's father?

[Famspear]

Woody's father? Ouch.

Actually, though, according to Wikipedia (caveat lector), daddy has moved on to the great beyond ...

See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Harrelson

[ElfNinosMom]

Snipes got his own wacky entry in The Smoking Gun today.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/ye ... ipes1.html

Now he's really famous.

I used to live in Ocala, Demo. Lots of horse farms, very pretty place to visit, extremely boring place to live.

Take a ride on the glass bottom boats at Silver Springs while you're there. Neat stuff, the water is crystal clear. You can see the remains of a really old Tarzan movie under the water.

[The Operative]

I wonder if Edward Lewis:Brown and Wesley Trent:Snipes would enjoy being roommates in the GrayBar Hotel?

[Judge Roy Bean]

Snipes witness list is amusing:

Tom Brokaw
Barbara Walters
Spike Lee
Gus van Sant
Woody Harrelson
Goldie Hawn
Sylvester Stallone
Muhammed Ali
Diane Sawyer
Paul Simon

Ah, yes. Go from just a circus to Circus Maximus.

[webhick]

Well, if Snipes wants this to be a celebrity thing, he should find a way to push his movies during opening or closing arguments. Here, I'll help:

After a One Night Stand, Wesley stood on Sugar Hill, located on the outskirts of New Jack City, and dreamed of Streets of Gold. He realized that America's Dream was Down in the Delta with the Wildcats and that the Rising Sun would reveal the Critical Condition of the country. Determined to catch the Money Train and no longer satisfied with Waiting to Exhale he set off to meet the King of New York at the Drop Zone before the Demolition Man performed his Disappearing Acts. It seemed he was Unstoppable as he felt his theories were Undisputed and just as he reached his Boiling Point, the U.S. Marshals opened up a Major League can of Chaos and he found that no amount of advice from The Art of War was going to help him. It seemed that The Detonator, The Marksman, and The Contractor were successfully subjecting him to The Waterdance and were making him feel like The Gallowwalker. But Wesley's Hard Luck was about to run out: Liberty Stands Still when White Men Can't Jump, for the Blade of triumph does not ZigZag for more than 7 Seconds when in the grip of Jungle Fever.

[grixit]

That one was worthy of the Daily Show.


Scab!

[Famspear]

From the Associated Press, 14 January 2008:

Snipes' tax fraud trial opens in Ocala

By TRAVIS REED, Associated Press Writer

Attorneys for Wesley Snipes ticked off more than 70 potential character witnesses, including several celebrities, as jury selection began Monday in the actor's tax fraud and conspiracy trial.

Muhammad Ali, Spike Lee, Tom Brokaw, Barbara Walters, Woody Harrelson, Sylvester Stallone and Gus Van Sant were among the names mentioned.

Snipes, 45, and two co-defendants, both known tax protesters, are accused of conspiring to defraud the U.S. of millions of dollars. Snipes allegedly first collaborated with Eddie Ray Kahn and Douglas P. Rosile in 2000, then stopped filing tax returns.

Prosecutors say he fraudulently tried to retrieve $11 million in paid 1996 and 1997 taxes and directed his movie companies to stop withholding taxes from employees.

Snipes, who starred in the "Blade" movies, faces up to 16 years in prison if convicted, while Kahn and Rosile face 10 years.

His case has been delayed twice because of his commitments and the huge volume of paperwork in the case.

Jury selection was expected to conclude Monday, with opening arguments beginning Tuesday.

Snipes had tried unsuccessfully to get his trial moved from this central Florida town, arguing it was racist and he couldn't get a fair hearing. The pool of 37 potential jurors were predominantly white, and Senior Judge William Terrell Hodges moved through them slowly.

Most had heard of the case, but not extensively.

Before court, Snipes appeared at a vigil with the leaders of several predominantly black churches. The pastors followed Snipes to the courthouse and continued to watch when jury selection began.

see:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080114/ap_ ... ZvGjRxFb8C

[webhick]

That one was worthy of the Daily Show.

Thanks, but what can I say? Wesley Trent: Cannon Fodder.

In all seriousness, who has celebrities as character witnesses? Actors are generally people who spend hours upon hours a day pretending to be someone else and making it believable. Sometimes they even show one side to the public and are secretly cross-dressing dung Beatles. They're like paid compulsive liars. Where is it a good idea to have them as character witnesses? Doesn't he know normal people? Were they all too busy to help the Daywalker?

[Demosthenes]

If the prosecution is smart, they put on a simple, efficient, and clear case and then shut up. If all Wesley can do is name drop in response, he's toast.

[Judge Roy Bean]

...Where is it a good idea to have them as character witnesses? Doesn't he know normal people? Were they all too busy to help the Daywalker?

I wonder how many will remain "available" when their publicists, agents and attorneys learn more about Kahn.

[LPC]

If the prosecution is smart, they put on a simple, efficient, and clear case and then shut up.

I doubt that there are cases in which that would be a bad strategy.

[Famspear]

I kinda hope that Snipes calls Goldie Hawn as a witness. I just can't figure out why. (Make up your own joke.)

[Famspear]

I know. Have Goldie show up as a character witness, dressed in a bikini like she used to wear on Rowan & Martin's Laugh In (uh, oh, I'm dating myself); Paul Simon, also - singing "Still Crazy After All These Years," while wearing the turkey suit he once wore on NBC's Saturday Night Live. Also, they can have Stallone wandering around the court room, yelling "Aaaadriannnn!"

Confuse the jury.

[Famspear]

And maybe Gus van Sant will testify that he is planning to make his next film -- about Wesley Snipes and Snipes' understanding of tax law obligations - to be entitled "My Own Private I Dunno."