Miller v. Commissioner
| Decision Date | 21 May 1981 |
| Docket Number | Docket No. 3750-71. |
| Citation | 1981 TC Memo 249,41 TCM (CCH) 1548 |
| Parties | Ronald L. Miller v. Commissioner. |
| Court | U.S. Tax Court |
Ronald L. Miller, pro se, Tracy, Calif. Edgar Gonzalo Rios, for the respondent.
The Commissioner determined the following deficiencies and additions to tax in respect of petitioner's 1967, 1968 and 1969 income taxes:
Additions to Tax
Sec. 6653(a)
Year Deficiency I. R. C. 1954
1967 ............ $155,712.08 $7,785.60
1968 ............ 1,622.29 81.11
1969 ............ 2,061.26 103.06
The principal matter requiring decision is whether petitioner received unreported income from kidnapping and other crimes. The case was submitted on the basis of a stipulation of facts.
At the time of the filing of his petition herein, petitioner was a resident of the California State Prison in Tracy, Cal. However, by the time this case was set for trial, petitioner had been released on parole. From August 1964 through October 10 of 1969, petitioner was employed as a Special Agent with the Intelligence Division of the Internal Revenue Service. As a Special Agent, petitioner's duties included the investigation and assistance in the prosecution of criminal violations of the Internal Revenue Code.
Some time after midnight on April 3, 1967, Kenneth Jon Young, who was then ten years of age was kidnapped from his family home in Beverly Hills, California. According to Kenneth, a man took him out of his bed, tied his hands, and blind-folded him. He hit Kenneth over the head when Kenneth started to scream. The man said, "shut up or I will kill you" and told Kenneth he wanted to steal some money from Kenneth's father. The man put Kenneth on the floor of a car parked in the driveway and drove toward Sunset Boulevard. The man told Kenneth he could get killed for this. The man drove for 20 minutes and then carried Kenneth up some stairs to a room and closed the door.
At approximately 8:00 a.m. on April 3, 1967, Arline Young, Kenneth's mother, discovered that Kenneth was missing. She found an envelope on Kenneth's bed marked . She gave the envelope to her husband, Herbert Young, Kenneth's father, who subsequently found a letter inside the envelope. The letter warned Mr. Young not to call the police, or his "missing merchandise" would be "vindictively destroyed". The letter further demanded payment of $250,000, and warned that Mr. Young would "never see this merchandise again" if he refused to pay.
Following directions in the ransom letter, on April 5, 1967, Herbert Young took $250,000 in $100 dollar bills in an overnight bag to a service station in Westwood, Cal. At approximately 6:00 p.m. he received a call at the station instructing him to drive to a service station in Brentwood. At the Brentwood service station a man in a white 1965 Chevrolet Impala motioned Young to follow him. Young followed the man to Sepulveda Boulevard near the San Diego freeway, where the man took the money and said Young's son would be returned later that evening. According to Herbert Young, the man to whom he gave the money was the same size as petitioner; there was a strong similarity between the man's walk and petitioner's walk; he had the same shape head, nose, mouth, jaw, and chin line as petitioner; and his voice sounded like petitioner's voice. Young also thought that the man's hair might be artificial.
Kenneth was held captive for approximately three days. Kenneth Young testified (presumably at the criminal trial, hereinafter referred to) that he believed there were two men involved in the crime, as the hair and height of the man who actually kidnapped him were not the same as the man who stayed with him at the apartment. At approximately 9:00 p.m. on April 5, 1967, Kenneth was given some sleeping pills by the kidnapper. He awoke about 3:00 a.m. in a car parked in a garage at an apartment house in Santa Monica. Kenneth went to the nearest apartment, called his father, and shortly thereafter was reunited with his family.
The $250,000 which Herbert Young delivered to the kidnapper has never been recovered.
In an indictment returned by the Grand Jury of Los Angeles County, on March 31, 1970, petitioner was charged in Count I with burglary in that on or about April 3, 1967, he "did willfully, unlawfully and feloniously enter the dwelling house and building occupied by Herbert Young and Kenneth Young, in the City of Beverly Hills, * * * with the intent * * * to commit kidnapping, a felony", in violation of section 459 of the Cal. Penal Code (West 1970). In Count II of the indictment petitioner was charged with "Kidnapping For Ransom And Reward", in violation of section 209 of the Cal. Penal Code (West 1970), in that "on or about the 3rd day of April, 1967, * * * he did willfully, unlawfully and feloniously seize, confine, abduct, conceal, kidnap and carry away Kenneth Young, an individual, with the intent to hold and detain and did hold and detain said Kenneth Young, with intent and for the purpose of exacting from relatives and friends ransom and reward, to wit, $250,000".
The petitioner entered a plea of not guilty to the charges set forth against him in the indictment. After a trial on the merits before a jury, on October 26, 1970, the jury found petitioner guilty of violating the provisions of section 459 and 209 of the Penal Code of California, as charged in Counts I and II of the indictment. On November 2, 1970, the Superior Court of the State of California, for the County of Los Angeles, entered its judgment in accordance with the verdict. Petitioner filed a timely notice of appeal, and his conviction for kidnapping and burglary was subsequently affirmed in an unpublished opinion by the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District. People v. Miller, 2 Crim. No. 19650 (Cal. Ct. Appeal, filed April 4, 1972).
As summarized in the stipulation of facts filed herein, the following is the principal evidence introduced by the prosecution in petitioner's criminal trial for kidnapping and burglary:
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