My buddy tricked me into hiring a hit on an IRS agent

[Demosthenes]

Polk Man Blames Friend In Murder-For-Hire Trial
By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Randy Nowak says a friend he loved like a brother manipulated him into hiring a hit man to kill an Internal Revenue Service revenue officer.

Taking the witness stand in his trial this morning, Nowak denied wanting to kill the IRS officer, Christine Brandt, whom he described as "a nice lady."

Backed up by audio and video recordings of meetings between Nowak and his friend, Walt McGhee, the prosecution contends Nowak asked McGhee for help hiring someone to kill Brandt, who was auditing him and whom Nowak feared would find millions of dollars he had hidden.

According to prosecution evidence, McGhee alerted law enforcement and agreed to tape conversations with Nowak. McGhee said Nowak thought he would be able to find someone because Nowak thought McGhee was involved with the Outlaws Motorcycle Club. McGhee put Nowak in touch with an undercover law enforcement officer known only as the "Reaper."

In brief cross-examination before the lunch break, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Riedel elicited from Nowak that he told his wife in September, "All I've got to do is get up there on the stand and turn on my boyish charm."

He also made another statement: "I kind of got myself into this situation. I made a choice. It was the wrong one."

In his direct testimony, Nowak said he went to McGhee with his tax problems because he knew McGhee had state tax problems and handled them with help from the Outlaws.

He said McGhee had tried over the years to get him to join the Outlaws but that Nowak declined because he thought they were dangerous and he didn't want to expose his family to that.

Nowak said McGhee said he had resolved his tax problems through a "judicial alliance" the Outlaws had in which a harassment grievance was filed against the auditor, leading to a restraining order that gave him time to get his affairs in order.

Nowak said he sought the same arrangement, which he understood would cost $20,000 but would be less expensive than hiring a tax lawyer.

Nowak said McGhee spoke to someone he called "Hammer" who was the president or retired president of an Outlaws chapter in Polk County. He said McGhee gave his phone number to a guy who would handle everything: Reaper.

McGhee later told him his tax situation was federal and therefore more complicated than McGhee's had been, Nowak said.

He said McGhee told him, "Hammer ordered a hit on her."

"I thought he was kidding," Nowak said. "He said, 'No joke. That's how they're going to handle it.' I said, 'Game's over. Not gonna happen.' "

He said McGhee then told him that if he upset the Outlaws, the retribution would be bad for Nowak and his family. "Once an order was given by somebody, they follow through."

Nowak said he reluctantly agreed to meet with Reaper. He said McGhee told him he would try to have Hammer call off the hit but that in the meantime he would have to meet with Reaper in Brandon and tell him everything he wanted to know.

"I headed to Brandon," he said. "I had a lot of misgivings about this."

Nowak testified he gave Reaper the $10,000 down payment on the hit and got the IRS officer's home address from McGhee and gave it to Reaper.

He continued to go along with the arrangement, he said, all the while prevailing on McGhee to end it. "Walt says, "Brother, you've got an awful pretty wife and an awful pretty daughter. Be a player, and I'll get this squashed.' "

Nowak said Reaper intimidated him. "He was a scary individual," said Nowak, who is from Mulberry. "It was my understanding he knew everything about me -- knew where my family lived."

"My mental focus was to tell the guy anything I needed to tell him and then get out of there and have Walt stop this thing."

Toward the end, he said, McGhee told him Hammer was in South Dakota in a meeting over an Outlaws war with another motorcycle gang, the Hells Angels. He said he had to pay McGhee $1,000 to cover airfare for an Outlaw member to fly there to ask Hammer to cancel the hit.

Finally, he said, McGhee said everything had been taken care of. He said he didn't see anything in the news about an IRS officer being killed, so he assumed it was over.

Nowak said he went to his final meeting with the Reaper and took the $10,000 balance as a peace offering, not as compensation for a job done.

It was at that meeting that Nowak was arrested.

[Nikki]

Somehow the following phrase comes to mind:

"Here, hold my beer while ..."

[tracer]

From that article, it seems that Nowak is playing sweet-and-innocent. We'll see how much of his story holds up when the recorded conversations come out.

[Dr. Caligari]

Update: He got convicted.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28298925/

[fortinbras]

"Tricked me" or "manipulated me" ??? Seems like the request was straight forward and very clear from the start. I don't see any trick about it.

[Bud Dickman]

Man Gets 30 Years for Trying To Have IRS Officer Killed * Tampa Tribune
Tampa Tribune
March 5, 2009

Man Gets 30 Years for Trying To Have IRS Officer Killed
By ELAINE SILVESTRINI

TAMPA - Randy Nowak told a judge today that he never wanted any harm to come to the IRS officer he tried to have killed.

"It wasn't my intention for that woman to get hurt," Nowak said. "All I've ever done is just help people."

But U.S. District Judge James Moody sentenced Nowak to 30 years in federal prison, telling him, "You just have no conscience." The sentence is the maximum allowed by law.

Moody said Nowak perjured himself when he testified at his December trial that he wasn't trying to hire an Outlaw biker to kill IRS Revenue Officer Christine Brandt, whom Nowak described as a "nice lady."

Nowak testified at trial that he actually thought the Outlaw Motorcycle Club could help him with his tax problems by filing a judicial grievance against Brandt.

Jurors were unconvinced, however, convicting Nowak after viewing videotapes of him talking to an undercover investigator about eliminating Brandt and possibly blowing up the IRS Lakeland office. Nowak also paid the undercover investigator, who went by the name "Reaper."

Nowak's wife and children supported him through his trial but did not attend his sentencing hearing. Defense attorney William Sites told Moody that Nowak had just learned that his wife has divorced him.

"I'm not a hideous person that's been painted," Nowak told the judge. "I've got a heart. I've got compassion. I've got needs."

For the past 15 years, he said, he has been active in local charitable causes, including a fund for a memorial for a Polk County sheriff's officer and dog killed in the line of duty.

"Virtually anybody that crossed my path that had a need didn't go without, and it's all gone – family and all – it's all gone," he said.

He said the IRS auctioned off all his belongings in January, leaving him with nothing but a toothbrush, a comb and some debt.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Riedel said Nowak "pursued a criminal endeavor for months." When he ran into problems with the IRS for not paying his taxes for five years, he opted to try to have someone murdered instead of trying to settle his obligations.

"He could have sold his custom home on acres and acres of land with an 11-car garage," she said. Or he could have sold his 18 custom cars or any of his other toys and stopped buying expensive concert tickets for his friends.

"He lived a life of largess," Riedel said. "He decided Christine Brandt's life was a better price to pay. … If it was up to him, Christine Brandt would be dead right now for doing her job."

[wserra]

Nowak testified at trial that he actually thought the Outlaw Motorcycle Club could help him with his tax problems by filing a judicial grievance against Brandt.

I know I confuse the Outlaw Motorcycle Club with Debevoise Plimpton all the time.

That may be the lamest line I've ever heard.

[Famspear]

From the report above:

Nowak testified at trial that he actually thought the Outlaw Motorcycle Club could help him with his tax problems by filing a judicial grievance against Brandt.

Yeah, right.

And hey, every member of the Outlaw Motorcycle Club is aware that an IRS employee is not a "judicial" officer, and could not properly be the subject of a "judicial grievance." Outlaw Motorcycle Club members are, of course, up to date on all the latest procedural legal technicalities. And that's why, these days, everybody who knows anything about anything goes to the Outlaw Motorcycle Club membership for help with complex legal matters.

[grixit]

He said the IRS auctioned off all his belongings in January, leaving him with nothing but a toothbrush, a comb and some debt.

"..Nothing but a fine toothed comb"

[ASITStands]

Is there any connection to the Outlaw Legal Services used by the Browns?