*In an appearance on CNN’s “Larry King Live” Tuesday night, Wesley Snipes said he relied on the advice of tax professionals and doesn’t believe he deserves a three-year prison sentence for failing to pay taxes. [Watch below.]
The 48-year-old actor will report to McKean Federal Correctional Institution in Lewis Run, Pennsylvania, Thursday to begin serving a three-year sentence for failing to file tax returns. Snipes told King his case has been misrepresented in the media and he wanted to clear the air.
“It’s been presented as though I’m worthy of this kind of punishment,” Snipes said. “It’s been presented as though ‘He’s getting his just due.’ Larry, I’ve been a law abiding citizen ever since I grew up in the Bronx, New York. I think all of us as Americans are due due process and have a right to a fair trial, and have a right to be considered innocent until proven guilty. I think that is the American way and the foundation upon which this country was built…”
King cut him off: “But you did lose in trial and you lost your appeals. So that’s the American system, too.”
Snipes said he’s not nervous about reporting to jail on Thursday, but was still hopeful that his prayers would be answered.
“We still have prayers out there. We still believe in miracles. So don’t send me up the river yet,” Snipes said.
His lawyer, Daniel R. Meachum, also on the program, added: “We have not turned our heads into turning Mr. Snipes in to the facility. We have made inroads to try to make sure that there is some possibility of reprieve. And so we will fight and do that to the very last minute.
Snipes’ attorney said he is appealing Snipes’ misdemeanor convictions for not filing tax returns in 1999, 2000 and 2001. The 48-year-old star of the “Blade” trilogy was acquitted of felony charges, but convicted in 2008 on three misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file income tax returns.
nigga please, ……PLEASE
That cooment says it all. LOL
This negro is trying to fight it! Keep hope alive Wes, Keep hope alive. LoL!! Get ready to kiss the fam goodbye cause its going down this time.
I hope he accomplished whatever he was trying to last night because it sounded like a bunch of double talk to me. I started to doubt his story when he stated other people had the power of attorney to sign checks for him. Wesley seems smarter than this. I’ll never forget what Oprah told Toni Braxton, “SIGN YOUR OWN CHECKS”.
Yes, and sign your own income tax return too. We all know April 15 is the tax man day- whether you make $20K per year or $2Million a year. If you know you didn’t sign a tax return, then maybe your accountant didn’t file one.
Why does it surprise you that multi-millionaires give other people the power of attorney to sign checks?? That’s not unusually at all. What Oprah says sounds good, but at the same time power of attorney does not give you the right to fuck a person over either. And Oprah talks that shit, but do you believe for one minute that she does her own damn taxes with Turbo Tax or some shit?? Of course not!! So it’s understandable to count on professionals to provide certain services for you that are either above your knowledge or very inconvenient.
Yeah, sure Oprah rights her own checks for her light bills, property taxes, phone bills, etc. And I saw the top of Halle Beery’s head last night while in bed.
Al- B– yeah, I get the point regarding power of attorney and having professionals do your taxes for you. My point is– you should have brains enough to ask for a fukn copy of your tax return, especially if you went 3 years straight without seeing any copies.
I don’t see any of his attorney’s or accountants about to do any time for him. If you give someone power of attorney to make decisions for you then you must live with the decisions they make. Everybody has an excuse once they get caught…heard it all before.
You may have “heard it all before” but obviously you refuse to hear the fact that this man had a jury that had at least 2 jurors that were biased against him before his trial even began so with that knowledge why would anyone be fine with this verdict & sentence? Keep in mind that the jurors even basically played “Let’s Make A Deal” between 2 groups of amongst them (guilty & not guilty). They basically said “ok we’ll find him guilty on this one because it’s less than the other one so that we can break this deadlock between us and go home!” That’s not how it works and a fair judge would want to hear from this juror & others about the process they used to come to their decision when issues of improper behavior is brought to their attention. The power of attorney shit has nothing to do with the way the jury conducted themselves in deciding the man’s guilt or innocence. If you want to talk about how shitty jurors can be when deciding other folk fates I can tell you from personal experience that ball games, dates, and vacations are more important to some folk than taking the time to really study the evidence against a defendant to come to a proper decision on that case. Now since you seem to like cliches, I’ve actually “been there & did that.”
Ummm..”Toni Braxton”?? SHE has been “bankrupt” a COUPLE of times! I think there should be a different person used to compare to/mention! I mean…obviously?, Toni didn’t take OR use Oprah’s advice!, so SHE ain’t so…”great” either!
Just take your azz to jail already, you have been stalling for 3 dayum years just do the lil bit of time and it will be over…. he acting like a lil bytch… Martha Stewart and Lil Kim both went to jail suck it up Wesley and report…..
Did I hear the same interview that some of y’all heard. 1st off just look at the inconsistency in sentencing in the example that he gave. One man owed 54 million and got 6 months probation while Snipes gets 3 years for allegedly owing far less. 2nd, how about the judge not even wanting to hear shit from one of the jurors who admits to compromising on his own decision & pointing out that 2 of the jurors felt that Snipes was guilty from the door. Those issues alone should’ve been enough for a mistrial.
Now I’m not defending Snipes, but he there are to many issues surrounding this guys harsh treatment & in some ways mistreatment by the judge & the prosecutor. This is why sentencing should be the same for everybody if they are found guilty, because once you allow “discretion” in sentencing & in prosecution you invite unfair treatment.
I mean come on now, the guy has never committed a crime worth talking his entire life and y’all think it’s ok for him to be sentenced to 3 years??? Even after hearing one of the jurors speak on serious issues that went on during jury deliberations really would’ve made at least 2 of the jurors be excused before the trial even began??? In the words of Nino of New Jack City, “come on G we bigger than that.”
I think that Snipes should’ve done this interview a lot sooner than now, because I was saying send his ass to jail at one point just like everyone else, but after hearing his side and more importantly the juror I feel that a fair judge would definitely want to take another look at this case or at the very least the jury’s decision. I say make him pay some money, do community service, and do some probation time. He’ll T.I.’s crimes were far more serious and his criminal history far more fucked-up than Snipes and some of y’all were happy to see him get a lousy 1 year sentence back then!!
pump your brakes, if he didn’t committ a crime, why is he going to jail?
That’s a silly question when there are thousands of folk in jail for crimes that they didn’t commit thousands more who served time and were later proven to be innocent of the crime that they were convicted of. You can’t believe that our justice system is without flaw. You seem to believe that every jury’s verdict is the correct one. Damn did you even pay any attention to what one of the jurors on this case had to say about 2 of his fellow jurors own biases against Snipes before the trial even began???? They had it in their minds before the trial even began that he was guilty. You had half of the jurors who believed that he was innocent & the other half believing he was guilty so to make each side happy they chose to find him guilty of SOMETHING (the lesser charge) and because he’s Wesley Snipes the prosecutor & judge pushed to give him the maximum sentence. I don’t see how anyone could be cool with the results of this case.
All I have to say if it were any of our black asses in the same situation whether it’s for taxes or anything else that we were charged with, we’d at least want a fair trial, fair jury, and a sentence that was fair if we lost!
So…the people who created “lying”?, are the ones telling Us what Wesley did, & We?, are SO quick to…agree WITH “them”! WTF are “We” gonna actually …”have OUR OWN backs”!!?? I bet, after peeps “actually” know what W.S. did?, they would IMMEDIATELY…change their minds, just like peeps did with M.Moore & The Dixie Chicks & anyone else who had the objectivity, intelligence & BALLS!!, to stand up & dispute the B.S. Dubyah nem was shoveling! Now..again?, when asked to at least “find out” or “have someone’s back”?, “We” the People”?, are erasing every fkn thang “that” phase USE tah stand for! Just like with I.Washington,POTUS etc… people are STILL not willing to “look at the damn facts”!! (but?, I digress!)
Wesley Snipes sounds just as arrogant here as he did on the TJMS yesterday. See ya in 2013, Wes.