State v. Brodson
| Decision Date | 28 June 1960 |
| Citation | 103 N.W.2d 912,11 Wis.2d 124 |
| Parties | STATE of Wisconsin, Plaintiff, v. Sidney A. BRODSON, Defendant. |
| Court | Wisconsin Supreme Court |
Rudolph P. Regez, Monroe, for Bd. of State Bar Commissioners.
Nathaniel D. Rothstein, Milton R. Bordow, Milwaukee, for defendant.
The record shows that defendant Sidney A. Brodson was graduated from the law school of the University of Wisconsin in June, 1931, and in that year was admitted to the Illinois bar. He practiced law in Chicago until 1934. Then he was admitted to the Wisconsin bar and came to Milwaukee. He was given office space by a Milwaukee lawyer and had no rent or other office expense to pay. His business consisted principally of making collections. His income was approximately $2,000 per year. Brodson found this was insufficient to support his family and in June of 1940 he abandoned the practice of law and has not re-engaged in it.
In making small social bets Brodson discovered that he had the ability to anticipate the results of athletic contests and the approximate scores of the competing teams and, beginning in 1943, he made gambling his business. He was extremely successful in that and made his living from his gambling operations. In the late '40s and early '50s his bets were in the neighborhood of $1,000,000 per year.
In 1951 Brodson appeared before the Kefauver Committee of the United States Senate and there in the course of his testimony relating to gambling he disclosed the extent of his operations and the income derived from them. He estimated that his income from gambling amounted to $50,000 to $80,000 per year. However, Brodson's federal income tax return declared income of slightly more than $33,000. In 1953 the United States indicted Brodson for the offense stated in the indictment as follows:
[Brodson] '* * * did wilfully and knowingly attempt to defeat and evade a large part of the income tax due and owing by him and his wife * * * by filing and causing to be filed * * * a false and fraudulent joint income tax return on behalf of himself and his said wife, wherein it was stated that their net income for the said calendar year [1950] was the sum of $33,074.62 and that the amount of tax due and owing thereon was the sum of $7,838.64; whereas, as he then and there well knew, their joint net income for the said calendar year was the sum of $137,846.83, upon which said net income was due and owing to the United States of America an income tax of $71,691.06; in violation of Section 145(b), Internal Revenue Code; Section 145(b), Title 26, United States Code of Laws.'
The United States did not bring the action promptly to trial but in the meantime seized all of Brodson's assets, whereby Brodson was greatly hampered in making any defense which he might otherwise have made. He was unable to retain counsel for lack of funds and the District Court of the Eastern District of Wisconsin appointed two able and energetic counsel to serve without pay. However, money could not be obtained to defray necessary expenses of investigation and preparation for trial and in 1958, before the matter was brought to trial, Brodson entered a plea of guilty to the indictment set forth above, was adjudged guilty upon that plea, and he was sentenced to eighteen months in a United States correctional institution, in addition to a fine of $10,000. Defendant served eight months in the federal penitentiary and ten months on parole. Parole has now been completed.
Although taking into consideration the fact that Brodson's lack of funds impaired his ability to defend himself, the referee found that 'there is no escape from the conclusion that the fraud admitted by the plea of guilty has not been rebutted or satisfactorily explained.' By defendant's present motion to affirm the report he, of course, repeats his acknowledgment of guilt. Upon such finding the referee studied whether such fraud perpetrated by the defendant constituted moral turpitude and concluded that it did, as stated in the case of Jordan v. DeGeorge, 1951, 341 U.S. 223, 71 S.Ct. 703, 708, 95 L.Ed. 886:
'Whatever else the phrase 'crime involving moral turpitude' may mean in peripheral cases, the decided cases make it plain that crimes in which fraud was an ingredient have always been regarded as involving moral turpitude.'
We concur with that conclusion.
The referee then gave attention to what discipline, if any, ought to be imposed upon the defendant for the offense so found. He took into consideration the fact that the fraud did not involve a relationship between attorney and client and that very heavy financial punishment and the results attendant on his prosecution have already beggared the defendant and left him saddled with...
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Humphreys, Matter of
...498 (Okla.1966); In re Foley, 364 S.W.2d 1 (Mo.1963) (en banc); In re Alker, 398 Pa. 188, 157 A.2d 749 (1960); State v. Brodson, 11 Wis.2d 124, 103 N.W.2d 912, 195 (1960); In re Teitelbaum, 13 Ill.2d 586, 150 N.E.2d 873 (1958); State ex rel. The Florida Bar v. Evans, 94 So.2d 730 (Fla.1957)......
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...F.2d 929, cert. denied, 355 U.S. 892, 78 S.Ct. 265, 2 L.Ed.2d 190; In the Matter of Landon, 319 S.W.2d 553 (Mo., 1959); State v. Brodson, 11 Wis.2d 124, 103 N.W.2d 912; Chanan Din Khan v. Barber (9th Cir., 1958), 253 F.2d 547, cert. denied 357 U.S. 920, 78 S.Ct. 1361, 2 L.Ed.2d 1364; In re ......
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Kirby v. Alcoholic Beverage Control Appeals Bd.
...F.2d 929, cert. denied, 355 U.S. 892, 78 S.Ct. 265, 2 L.Ed.2d 190; In the Matter of Landon, 319 S.W.2d 553 (Mo., 1959); State v. Brodson, 11 Wis.2d 124, 103 N.W.2d 912; Chanan Din khan v. Barber (9th Cir., 1958), 253 F.2d 547, cert. denied 357 U.S. 920, 78 S.Ct. 1361, 2 L.Ed.2d 1364; In re ......
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