United States v. Heath, Crim. No. 11012.
| Citation | 147 F. Supp. 877 |
| Decision Date | 01 February 1957 |
| Docket Number | Crim. No. 11012. |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. David Ransom HEATH, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Hawaii |
Louis B. Blissard, U. S. Atty., by E. D. Crumpacker, Asst. U. S. Atty., Honolulu, Hawaii, for plaintiff.
J. Garner Anthony, Honolulu, Hawaii, for defendant.
Defendant Heath was indicted by the grand jury on December 14, 1955, on a charge of willful attempt to evade and defeat income taxes due from him and his wife for the calendar years 1949 and 1950, 26 U.S.C. § 145(b). After entering pleas of not guilty to both counts of the indictment, Heath filed two motions for discovery and inspection of his books, papers, and records which were turned over to agents of the Internal Revenue Service by him and his accountant in the year 1952. Although a receipt was given for the records delivered to the agents by the accountant, no receipt was given Heath for the records which he delivered to the agents.
After an extended hearing on the motions, at which testimony was given by witnesses on behalf of the accused and on behalf of the government and numerous exhibits were introduced, the court entered its findings of fact and conclusions of law. As to one vital fact, the court could come to but one conclusion, based on the evidence, including the testimony of one of the Internal Revenue Service agents:
"(3) That records of the defendant for at least a part of the period covered by the indictment were corrected by defendant in his handwriting and initialed; that those records were in existence prior to the time (Internal Revenue Service) agents Black and Thompson received certain records from the accused and that those records were in the hands of the Internal Revenue agents during the period they were investigating the civil and criminal tax liability of the accused for the years 1949 and 1950."
These records are not now available and must be presumed to be lost, and for this reason the court was unable to compel their production.
On matters of law, the court concluded:
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...542 (S.D.N.Y.1961), aff'd, 301 F. 2d 236 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 370 U.S. 944, 82 S.Ct. 1585, 8 L.Ed.2d 810 (1962); United States v. Heath, 147 F.Supp. 877 (D.Hawaii 1957), appeal dismissed, 260 F.2d 623 (9th Cir. 1958) (approving the district court's holding) (the Birrell and Heath cases ......
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United States ex rel. Parson v. Anderson
...efforts' to preserve crucial material and to find them once a discovery request is made." Id. at 651). But see, United States v. Heath, 147 F. Supp. 877 (D.Hawaii 1957) (loss by government of evidence put in its possession by defendant denied defendant ability to make his defense and preclu......
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United States v. Birrell
...suppressed evidence was material to the defense, the Court reversed the conviction and ordered a new trial. In United States v. Heath, 147 F.Supp. 877 (D.Hawaii 1957), appeal dismissed, 260 F.2d 623 (9th Cir. 1958), defendant, in a prosecution for income tax evasion, had voluntarily turned ......
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United States v. Isaacs
...or bad faith involved on part of the Government and the importance of the evidence lost. Another case is that of United States v. Heath, 147 F.Supp. 877 (D.C.Hawaii 1957), appeal dismissed 260 F.2d 623 (C.A.9, 1958). In that case, defendant was charged with evading his income taxes for the ......