Leo J. Schlinsky v. United States

379 F.2d 735, 19 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1597, 1967 U.S. App. LEXIS 6103
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedJune 6, 1967
Docket6864_1
StatusPublished
Cited by75 cases

This text of 379 F.2d 735 (Leo J. Schlinsky v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Leo J. Schlinsky v. United States, 379 F.2d 735, 19 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1597, 1967 U.S. App. LEXIS 6103 (1st Cir. 1967).

Opinion

ALDRICH, Chief Judge.

Defendant appeals from his conviction, following a jury trial, of willful evasion of income tax for the years 1958, 1959, and 1960. 1954 I.R.C. § 7201. Defendant was the sole proprietor, and principal operator, of a drug store. His returns were prepared by an accountant named Warrick. Warrick did not audit or, with one exception, examine any of defendant’s books, but simply took the figures given him by defendant and, for a charge of $55, prepared the return. The book which defendant did supply contained the receipts from defendant’s regular sales, but did not contain the receipts from his “accommodation,” or no-profit sales. Defendant retained a notebook, described by him as a “personal memorandum,” that showed both. He destroyed this after Warrick told him that the Internal Revenue Service audit of his returns was revealing substantial discrepancies. 1

The discrepancies were in fact substantial. It was stipulated at the trial that defendant’s net taxable income for *737 the three years, totaling. approximately $117,000, was understated by^ some $37,000, or more than 30%, an<^ that savings bank interest of almost $ TO., 000 was 50% underreported. Defendant avoided cross-examination upon yjhat might be thought sizable inadequacies on the face of the returns by testifying that he never looked at them. His explanation, while lengthier than this, amounted to little more than that he trusted War-rick.

Defendant testified that the book supplied to Warrick contained proprietorship accounts showing how much money he was taking out of the business. He now contends that since these figures reflected his true income, an inference of good faith should be drawn. In fact, however, these accounts accurately reflected neither his income from the pharmacy nor his total income from all sources. It was pure coincidence that the total corresponded closely with what was eventually stipulated to be his true income. The jury was not required to conclude good faith from this. It is true that Warrick might have learned from these figures that defendant was extracting from the business more than it was earning, but, assuming he did so, Warrick was not retained either to investigate, or to evaluate, defendant’s business judgment. If the jury disbelieved defendant’s statement that he never looked at his returns, as well it might, but credited his testimony that he attached “biblical” importance to the proprietorship figures, it could conclude that rather than trusting Warrick’s results to be accurate defendant was well aware that they were not.

Before trial defendant filed what district judges are now finding almost inevitable, a motion to dismiss and a motion to suppress. The former, based on a delay in the return of the indictment, asserted a denial of his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial. The investigation began in the late summer of 1961, and the indictment was returned in January 1965. The defendant was interviewed by IBS personnel in April and May of 1962. In May hiS attorney Registered his appearance with the IRS. *Kn February 1964 defendant was interviewed again, and in March the Service formally advised him of the possibility of criminal proceedings. Defendant does not complain of the ten months delay after March 1964 because during that period his counsel were seeking to head off any indictment. Nor does he make any showing that any delay prior to March caused his actual prejudice, or was improperly motivated. Cf. United States v. Ewell, 1966, 383 U.S. 116, 122-123, 86 S.Ct. 773, 15 L.Ed.2d 627. We do not agree with the defendant that the burden was on the government to “explain.”

It has generally been held that the right to a speedy trial does not attach prior to indictment. E. g., Nickens v. United States, 1963, 116 U.S.App.D.C. 338, 323 F.2d 808, cert. den. 379 U.S. 905, 85 S.Ct. 198, 13 L.Ed.2d 178; Foley v. United States, 8 Cir., 1961, 290 F.2d 562, cert. den. 368 U.S. 888, 82 S.Ct. 139, 7 L.Ed.2d 88; Hoopengarner v. United States, 6 Cir., 1959, 270 F.2d 465. As the Supreme Court has stated in a somewhat different context, “There is no constitutional right to be arrested.” Hoffa v. United States, 1966, 385 U.S. 293, 310, 87 S.Ct. 408, 417, 17 L.Ed.2d 374. While we are not prepared to hold categorically that the statute of limitations is the only control on the length of time permissible between the conclusion of the government’s investigation of a crime and the bringing of an indictment, cf. Ross v. United States, 1965, 121 U.S.App.D.C. 233, 349 F.2d 210, we do hold that a claim of unconstitutional preindictment delay must be supported by something much more than appears in the present case.

The motion to suppress was directed to records that the defendant had supplied to IRS agents and other evidence obtained as “fruit” of examination of those records. This motion was properly denied. The court found that in the initial civil audit no warnings were given to the defendant. However, when *738 the possibility of criminal liability appeared, the case was turned, over to Special Agent who, at his first meeting with the defendant, advised him that he need not answer any questions, that he need not produce any records that might incriminate him, and that he could terminate the interview at any time. 2 All interviews were conducted on defendant’s premises. It is not contended that there was any physical restraint, threats or promises.

The relation between a taxpayer’s obligation to supply information to taxing authorities and his Fifth Amendment privilege is a complex and unsettled one. Every person is required to maintain records of all financial dealings that bear on his tax liability, 1954 I.R.C. § 6001 and Treas.Reg. l-6001-l(a), and under some circumstances he may be required to produce them. 1954 I.R.C. § 7602. To what extent the “required records doctrine” of Shapiro v. United States, 1948, 335 U.S. 1, 68 S.Ct. 1375, 92 L.Ed. 1787, which denies the privilege to records that the law properly requires certain classes of persons to keep, is applicable to tax records is uncertain. See generally Meltzer, The Privilege Against Self-Incrimination and Required Income Tax Records, 30 Taxes 45 (1952). We may assume for present purposes, however, that personal records, even though discoverable for civil purposes, may be withheld by a defendant in a criminal case. See Scanlon v. United States, 1 Cir., 1955, 223 F.2d 382; cf. United States v. Blue, 1966, 384 U.S. 251, 86 S.Ct. 1416, 16 L.Ed.2d 510. The court’s finding, however, that defendant’s actions were voluntary in fact was manifestly correct. It is apparent that defendant produced what he wanted, and retained what he wanted.

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Bluebook (online)
379 F.2d 735, 19 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 1597, 1967 U.S. App. LEXIS 6103, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/leo-j-schlinsky-v-united-states-ca1-1967.