TITLE: Fairbanks Man Whips IRS, The Pioneer All-Alaska Weekly, July 30, 1992, Vol.49, No. 42, Andrew, D. Binkley, Editor
SUBJECT MATTER: Aquittal of Gabe Scott - charged with willful failure to file and tax evasion.
SYNOPSIS: Rare media exposure of aquittal. Acknowleges no underlying statute for tax liability and lauds assertion of rights by defendant
Gabriel W. Scott, a 60-year old Fairbanks sheet-metal worker, has been found innocent by a jury in Fairbanks after being indicted May 5 by a grand jury for income tax evasion.
A 12-person jury told federal trial judge James Fitzgerald that Scott was innocent of all charges in the case. Federal Public defender Sue Ellen Tatter represented Scott in the trial.
Scott said it was the end of a nightmare, but not the end of the fight. "I felt pretty lost when this (indictment) came down. I had no money, no attorney, and they tried to try the case in Anchorage, even though I live in Fairbanks and we have a federal court in Fairbanks. I had to go down there at my expense for three days, when I couldn't afford to be there, what with 130,000 miles on my car, and out of work for six months. When I got the indictment, I couldn't understand it."
Scott intends to get his money back from the IRS, money the agency seized before the trial. They haven't returned it, the innocent verdict notwithstanding.
"They took my permanent fund dividend, and about $25,000 of my pay. leaving me only $100 a week to live on (he was forced into bankruptcy). They suck; they've run amok. They don't answer to anybody. They have their own rules and regulations, and the court didn't inform the jurors. They had the Criminal Intelligence Division and everybody else, including two or three prosecutors, after me. They're ganging up on us, and it's time people got up and got their heads out of their ass, and did something about it. But people are scared; they don't want to lose their toys.
"My wife Lenore stood right by me; I'm proud of her, and I'm proud of that jury-they are real American citizens."
Prosecutors held that Scott received taxable income totaling approximately $36,656., resulting in a tax debt of approximatel $6,160 during the 1989 tax year.
Scott, said the government, "did willfully attempt to evade and defeat the said income tax due and owing by him to the United States of America for the calendar year 1989, by: (a) failing to make an income tax return on or before April 16, 1990, and (b) failing to pay to the Internal Rvenue Service the income tax then due."
Scott's defense centered on the question of good faith, and whether he willfully evaded paying income taxes. Scott wanted to know what law required him to file, and what law made him liable for income taxes. "They couldn't come up with any such law, just penalties. You can't violate a law that doesn't exist," said Scott.
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