Snipes: Ocala too racist for tax trial

November 08, 2007
Snipes: Ocala too racist for tax trial

OCALA -- Actor Wesley Snipes calls Ocala a "hotbed of Klan activity" in federal court documents, arguing that the city is too racist to seat a fair jury at his tax evasion trial.

The motion filed this week in federal court calls for the charges to be dismissed or the venue changed. It also includes results from a telephone survey, commissioned by Snipes' attorneys, that says 63 percent of people in Ocala think the Confederate flag is a sign of pride rather than prejudice.

In the Southern District of New York, where Snipes wants his trial moved, a similar survey found about 33 percent of people expressed similar views.

"The government ... deliberately chose the most racially discriminatory venue available to the government, with the best possibility of an all-white southern jury," Robert G. Bernhoft, Snipes' attorney, writes in the motion.

Snipes' ethnic background is African-American and Native American, and he has strong ties to the Latino community, Bernhoft says.

"While many Ocala jurors may be fair, substantial pockets of prejudice persist," Bernhoft writes. "Just one or two prejudiced jurors can prevent Snipes a unanimous verdict of impartial jurors, and such a risk is uniquely present here in compared to Manhattan. It is the real reason for the government's exceptional venue manipulation: a jury as partial and prejudiced as possible against Snipes."

The U.S. Attorney's Office declined today to comment on the motion.

"Our response will come through the court," said U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman Steve Cole.


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