Acquittal likely in ex-Spur's tax case
Web Posted: 08/13/2007 10:53 PM CDT
Graeme Zielinski
Express-News
Moments after a jury found him guilty Monday of tax evasion, fortune seemed to turn for former Spurs forward and Venezuelan national Carl Herrera when a federal judge gave strong signals he would throw out the verdict.
"The odds are in favor of me granting a motion for a judgment of acquittal," said U.S. District Judge W. Royal Furgeson Jr., who presided over the weeklong trial.
Over its course, Herrera's defense lawyer portrayed him as a victim of naiveté and unscrupulous handlers. The defense described a cascading series of misfortunes for Herrera, beginning with injuries that botched his NBA career, leading to marital troubles and financial destitution.
He was indicted in February on charges that, beginning in 2001, he lied to IRS agents and took steps to conceal his assets to avoid paying $554,471 in taxes owed from 1994 to 1997. That coincided with the peak of his NBA career: He was with two Houston Rockets championship teams and played with the Spurs from 1995 to 1998 before leaving the NBA in 1999 with a bum shoulder.
His IRS problems began not long after and so too, prosecutors alleged, did his efforts to avoid back taxes.
After the jury left the courtroom, Furgeson said that the government might have failed to prove certain elements of the crime. "I almost never overturn a jury verdict, but I could in this instance," he said, at the same time praising the jury's work in the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas McHugh said, "I think that the jury's verdict is just an unfortunate consequence of many bad decisions on (Herrera's) part."
A federal trial judge overturning a jury verdict is rare, said David A. Schlueter, a St. Mary's University law professor. "In most cases, the judge will defer to the jury," he said. "It's unusual, but not unheard of."
Herrera, 40, whose mother is in a nursing home in the San Antonio area, was free on bond and was expected to return to Venezuela, where he still is trying to eke out a basketball career with pro teams there.
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