United States v. Varani, 20228.
Decision Date | 04 December 1970 |
Docket Number | No. 20228.,20228. |
Citation | 435 F.2d 758 |
Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Reno VARANI, Defendant-Appellant. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit |
James E. Wells, Detroit, Mich., for appellant.
Ralph B. Guy, Chief Asst. U. S. Atty., Detroit, Mich., James H. Brickley, U. S. Atty., Detroit, Mich., on the brief for appellee.
Before PHILLIPS, Chief Judge, and EDWARDS and BROOKS, Circuit Judges.
Appellant was named in an indictment wherein the Grand Jury charged:
"That on or about January 10, 1969, in the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division, Reno P. Varani, defendant herein, did by threats of force, endeavor to intimidate and impede Samuel M. Ginsberg, sic an officer of the Internal Revenue Service, Department of the Treasury, while the said Samuel M. Ginsberg sic was acting in an official capacity under Title 26, United States Code; in violation of Section 7112(a) 7212(a), Title 26, United States Code."
After a stormy trial before a District Judge and jury in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, he was found guilty by jury verdict and sentenced to one year of imprisonment, which sentence was subsequently suspended in favor of two years' probation.
On appeal appellant contends that the letter principally relied upon by the government at trial did not constitute "force or threats of force" within the meaning of the statute; that the appellant was denied a right to his chosen counsel, and, hence, forced to represent himself to his prejudice, and that reversible error occurred during the course of the trial as a result of prejudicial conduct on the part of the trial judge and prejudicial argument by the United States Attorney who tried the case.
Appellant also contends that 26 U.S.C. § 7212(a) (1964), as interpreted by the District Judge in his instructions to the jury, is unconstitutional.
This case has a lengthy record, but on careful examination of same it appears to afford only one arguable appellate issue, which we have stated last in the list above.
Indignant taxpayers are by no means novel in the federal appellate courts, but Mr. Varani's indignation about his tax problems appears to exceed that of any taxpayer in the recent history of this court. The merits of Varani's tax problems, of course, were not before the District Court and are not now before us.
In 1965 appellant filed a blank income tax return. Thereupon Mr. Samuel Ginsburg, a collection officer for the Internal Revenue Service, was assigned to contact appellant to secure a delinquent 1965 income tax return. This apparently was accomplished in January 1967, but the record indicates that appellant filed a similar blank return in 1966 and that Ginsburg was again assigned to contact him. Ginsburg's testimony about his next contact with appellant is as follows:
Ginsburg meantime had received a taxpayer delinquent account pertaining to appellant for income taxes due for 1963, and after some difficulty, arranged to meet appellant at a bowling alley on January 7, 1969. Pertaining to this meeting, which occurred in the presence of four or five other persons, Ginsburg testified as follows:
Thereafter on the next day appellant wrote Ginsburg a letter which was introduced as Government's Exhibit 23, and which recited as follows:
Enclosed with this letter were the Code sections of the Michigan Statutes dealing with a citizen arrest referred to in the last paragraph of the letter. Subsequent to receipt of this letter Varani was indicted. Pertaining to one of the trial days, Ginsburg testified:
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