Lincoln- Gaylon "Whitey" Harrell of rural Latham was acquited by a 12 person jury of the 4 count felony charges of willful failure to file an Illinios State Income Tax Form. The actual trial began on Wed. May 24th in the Logan Co. Cir. courtroom, presided over by Senior Judge David "Slick Coogan (He calls himself "Slick"), and closed on Friday after four hours of deliberation when the jury returned with four consecutive "not gilty" verdicts.

"We were in a heated debate, reported one unamed juror, "but when the court refused, after our specific written request, to furnish us copies of the actual statutes, (that imposed the obligation on the defendant), it didn't take long for all of us to see that something was wrong with the states case".

"That was not all the court refused to let the jury see", added Jerry Barringer, Harells attorney. "The court, at the request of the Ill. States attourney, denied the jury access to evidence that already had been introduced and accepted". "Astoundingly, even the Bill of Indictment was denied to the jury", chimed in Barringers legal assistant Lindsey Springer, ""Also denied were jury instructions sanctioned by the Supreme Court and even a VCR recorder to play the video tape that Whitey had made of his meeting with the CID agent. "I've seen a lot of tyranny in the courts, but never anythng so blatant as what I saw here over the last two days, added Bob Minark, a friend of Harrells.

The four criminal felony charges had been brought against Harrell in 1997 and just came to trial this past week. Harrell had submitted numerous motions in a case that saw both assigned judges and assigned staes attourneys resign or recuse themselves.All Harrells motions were denied.

The case started back in early 1997 when Harrell was approached by Ill Dept. of Revenue Criminal Investigation Div. CID agent Robert Craner, who asked him for an interview. The testimony was that Harrell refused until he had witnesses present and a video camera set up at the local library where helater video tapped a 45 minute meeting with with Craner. On the video, which was shown tothe jury at the trial, Harrell specificlly pointed out that he could find no section of the ILL. statutes that obligated him to file an ILL. income tax return. He presented Craner with numerous documents which he identidied as outlines of statutes and regulations and "administrative code" which he searched to no avail in finding any obligation that would apply to him. Craner accepted the documents. The tape showed that Craner promised Harrell at least five times to produce the stautes that made hime liable and get answers to Harrells questions.

The testimony later showed that Craner didn't do that and instead went back to the Grand Jury to testify that Harrell was a resident of Logan County who failed to file ILL. state income tax forms. Unbeknownst to Harrell, at the time of the interview, Craner was also acting as a Grand Jury investigator. "He never told me" said Harrell. "He never read me a Miranda Warning. He just promised to get me the information, but instead went back to the Grand Jury to get an indictment". Grand Jury transcripts show that Crane testified that Harrell, at the library meetig, had nothing to offer in his defense of why he didn't file a tax return, but the video tape brought Craners credibility into serious question.

Harrell testified in his own defense and verified his many efforts to obtain the law that made him liable for the income tax or how his activity was priviledged.

Even though the attitude of th court played a major role in the outcome, it would never have happened had Whitey not established the factual eevidentiary foundation to present to the jurors. Video taping the meeting with the CID agent Craner and elliciting Craners statement to offer to help was brilliant, especially having that video tape after Craner testified that he didn't do anything to find answers for Whitey.

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-- KoFE (your@town.USSA), April 11, 2001

Answers

Uh......KoFE??

There's about a bazillion spelling and grammatical errors in your, uh, "article". ;-)

Just an FYI....

Deano

-- Deano (deano@luvthebeach.com), April 12, 2001.

so Kofe...did you you get your taxes done yet?

-- (cin@cin.cin), April 12, 2001.

I guess it's safe to say this isn't cut and paste...

Do you have any sort of citation for this story, as in a newspaper where it appeared, a case number, or anything else to track it down?

-- Tarzan the Ape Man (tarzan@swingingthroughthejunglewithouta.net), April 12, 2001.

Sorry Deano. I was tired, and can't type worth a shit besides.

-- KoFE (your@town.USSA), April 12, 2001.