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Snipes: Say a Little Prayer for Me Wesley Snipes is hoping to bolster his legal team with a little help from the man upstairs. Before facing the 138-member all-white jury pool for his tax-dodging trial Monday, Snipes joined in a prayer service at a local church in Ocala, Florida. The service was organized on his behalf by 22 pastors and attended by 150 friends and supporters, per the Orlando Sentinel. "We just prayed for favor, fairness and deliverance," Frank Thompson, an Orlando-based minister, told the newspaper. Afterward, Snipes—dressed in a blue suit and accompanied by a phalanx of lawyers—turned up at the federal courthouse in Ocala and watched as potential jurors were quizzed about their impartiality in what is turning out to be the biggest tax fraud trial in years. The 45-year-old actor stands accused of trying to cheat the Internal Revenue Service out of $12 million in fraudulent refunds in 1996 and 1997 and not filing any tax returns from 1999 to 2004. If he's convicted, he could face up to 16 years in federal lockup. Snipes has pleaded not guilty to all counts. Snipes had tried to stall the trial, filing motions arguing that he couldn't get a fair shake in Ocala and requesting the trial be moved to New York. But a federal appeals court shot down the petitions last week. As the proceedings got underway, Snipes' defense team reportedly ticked off a list of potential celebrities who may be called as character witnesses, including filmmakers Spike Lee (who directed Snipes in Jungle Fever) and Gus Van Sant, former costars Woody Harrelson (White Men Can't Jump) and Goldie Hawn (Wildcats), news personalities Tom Brokaw and Barbara Walters and Muhammad Ali. Opening arguments are slated to begin Tuesday, with Team Snipes expected to argue that Snipes didn't think he was required to pay federal income taxes on millions he made from his movies due to "unscrupulous" tax advice from his two codefendants, both known tax protesters. Prosecutors claim the erstwhile Demolition Man knowingly sought to avoid paying up with the help of two Florida men—Eddie Ray Kahn, founder of the 1990s organization American Rights Litigators and later the Guiding Light of God Ministries, who has previous tax fraud convictions; and Douglas Rosile, a former certified public accountant for Kahn whose licenses were yanked in Ohio and Florida. Both face similar charges and could get up to 10 years in prison. They too have pleaded not guilty. "Not too many people are successful on a tax-protester argument. It's rare," Jim Rodio, a partner at Holland and Knight's private wealth practice and a former federal prosecutor of high-profile tax cases, told E! Online. "You really have to be able to convince a jury that you just didn't know." Per the indictment, Snipes entered into an agreement with Kahn and Rosile in 2000 to use American Rights Litigator's system to protect millions of dollars he banked between 1998 and 2004, when he was on fire at the box office with his Blade trilogy. ARL based its strategy on a discredited tax-avoidance scheme known as the 861 position. "I think he's going to have a tough time putting forth the argument that he didn't know that these amounts weren't taxable," said Rodio. "For him to believe that, he's got to believe everybody's income in the U.S. is not taxable. That's a tough burden, and he'll need a jury nullification." |