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Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Judge Denies Mistrial Motion By Defense

Late yesterday after the 12 person Jury asked a series of questions that were somewhat answered by the judge, Helio's defense team headed by Roy Black motioned for a mistrial.

Judge Donald Graham not only ruled that a mistrial will not be given but he added:

  • "We're complicating matters because we keep raising new terms that require definitions."
The motion of mistrial was filed yesterday upon concerns that the defense had because additional instructions were given to the jury after the deliberation had already begun. The Judge than made changes to his original instructions today, as he denied the motion. Helio's defense team then attempted to make more changes to the Judges instructions.

Excuse me while I go take some Tylenol, how the Jury keeps up with all of this is beyond me.

A verdict could come anytime, stay tuned....

3 comments:

This HAS to be a hung jury at best; the two tax experts on the case couldn't agree on the law. How is a 12-person jury of non-experts to have any idea what the correct interpretation is? It's also clear to me that there was no ill intent on Helio's part. But that is besides the point: they should NOT be convicted over a "law" that is so poorly worded as to render it unintelligible.

I agree. Does Helio owe taxes, yea I think so, but for him to be convicted, it has to be proven BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT that he avoided them on purpose. And from what I've read, they didn't prove it.

If it does end up as a hung jury, I wouldn't be surprised at all if the prosiction decided not to go ahead with another trial. It would cost a ton of money plus it would be nearly impossible to find 12 people that would all understand the tax laws.

Is that the cast of "Reservoir Dogs" in that pic?

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