Wesley Snipes sentenced to 3 years in prison

Tribune wire reports

April 25, 2008

Wesley Snipes was sentenced to 3 years in prison Thursday for failing to file tax returns, and a victory for prosecutors who sought to make an example of the action star.

Snipes' lawyers had offered dozens of letters from family members, friends — even actors Woody Harrelson and Denzel Washington — attesting to his good character. His attorneys recommended he be given home detention because his three convictions were misdemeanors and the actor had no previous criminal record.

But U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges said Snipes exhibited a "history of contempt over a period of time" for U.S. tax laws, and granted prosecutors the sentence they requested — one year for each of Snipes' convictions of willfully failing to file a tax return from 1999-2001.

Snipes maintained in a years-long battle with the IRS that he did not have to pay taxes, using arguments common to "tax protesters" who say the government has no legal right to collect.

Snipes apologized while reading from a written statement for his "costly mistakes." He said his wealth and celebrity attracted "wolves and jackals like flies are attracted to meat." He called himself "well-intentioned, but miseducated."

Snipes surprised the court before Hodges handed down the sentence by offering the government three checks totaling $5 million in unpaid taxes over several years, money the government first denied but then accepted. Prosecutors called it "grandstanding" to avoid jail time, and a mere down payment on the actor's still-undetermined multimillion dollar tax bill.