United States v. Strawberry
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
892 F. Supp. 519 (1995)
- Written by Steven Pacht, JD
Facts
Major-league baseball player Darryl Strawberry and his agent Eric Goldschmidt (defendants) were indicted in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (the district) for allegedly concealing Strawberry’s cash income from the Internal Revenue Service to avoid paying federal-income tax on that income. Strawberry pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion. Goldschmidt moved to, among other things, dismiss the indictment against him on the ground that venue was improper in the district under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 18 (Rule 18), which requires a case be tried in the district where the offense was committed. Per Goldschmidt, the charged offense did not occur in the district because neither he nor Strawberry lived in or had their principal place of business there and because the relevant tax returns were not prepared, signed, mailed, or filed there. However, according to the indictment, Strawberry received some of the allegedly unreported cash income in the district. Goldschmidt responded that because Strawberry’s actions in the district—refusing to sign a receipt for a cash payment and refusing to accept payment by check—were not inherently deceptive actions, they were insufficient to confer venue on the district. The prosecution responded that the allegation in the indictment that Strawberry took certain actions in the district with the intent to evade his tax obligations was enough for venue purposes even if Strawberry’s actions conceivably could have been benign.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Parker, J.)
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