Snipes to be sentenced tomorrow in Ocala

The U.S. Attorney's Office says it spent more than $250,000 to prosecute actor Wesley Snipes for failure to file his tax returns.

When Snipes is sentenced in Ocala tommorow for the misdemeanor convictions, prosecutors want a federal judge to order that he pay it back. Prosecutors also want the Orlando native to pay a fine of at least $5-million.

Snipes, 45, is facing as much as three years in prison after a jury convicted him in February on three of six misdemeanor charges of failing to file his taxes. He was acquitted on felony counts of conspiracy and filing a false claim with the Internal Revenue Service.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa announced the charges against Snipes in October 2006. Prosecutors accused him and co-defendants Eddie Ray Kahn and Douglas P. Rosile of conspiring to defraud the IRS of about $11.4-million in refunds on taxes Snipes paid in 1996 and 1997.

Jurors convicted Kahn and Rosile of conspiracy and filing a false claim.

Snipes hired Kahn, a Lake County resident, in 2000 as a tax consultant. Rosile, a de-licensed Venice accountant, worked part-time for Kahn and prepared an amended return for Snipes. Kahn is facing 10 years in prison and Rosile is facing more than eight years.

The IRS estimated that Snipes failed to report nearly $38-million in gross income from 1999 to 2004. The IRS calculated Snipes' unpaid tax liability for those years as more than $15.6-million.

Snipes' attorneys said at trial that he tried repeatedly to meet with IRS officials because he had questions about his taxes.

Kahn, a tax protester, told Snipes that Internal Revenue Code Section 861 excused Americans from paying taxes on income earned in the United States. Courts have rejected the theory.

In court records asking for the maximum sentence for Snipes, prosecutors say his celebrity status doesn't warrant leniency.

"To the extent that Snipes' background is even a mitigating factor, it is offset by his nearly decade-long effort to escape paying taxes on the lucrative compensation he received as result of that professional success," prosecutors wrote in a court filing. "To the extent that Snips has, in the past, performed charity and good works, such actions should be viewed in the context of what is typical and expected of individuals who have reached defendant's station in life."

Senior U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges has set the sentencing for Snipes, Kahn and Rosile to begin Thursday at 9:30 a.m.

-Kevin Graham, Times staff writer

MJ vs. Bubba: The lawsuit

TAMPA -- Radio host Todd "MJ" Schnitt says he's had enough of the on-air mudslinging by radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem and has filed a defamation and false light lawsuit against him.

Schnitt, host of the MJ Morning Show, and his wife, Michelle, filed the lawsuit against Clem in Hillsborough County Circuit Civil Court. Also named as defendants are Cox Radio, Inc. and Bubba Radio Network, Inc.

The suit claims Clem is exacting revenge against Schnitt and his wife for allegedly orchestrating his prosecution after Clem broadcast the castration and slaughtering of a pig on his show.

Clem went on trial on an animal cruelty charge in 2002 and a jury acquitted him.

Schnitt was "one of the top four or five people behind our arrest and the trial of the hog deal," Clem told listeners of his show, according to the lawsuit.

Clem also accused Schnitt of having secret meetings at the time with Hillsborough State Attorney Mark Ober, the suit alleges. Michelle Schnitt is a former assistant state attorney.

C. Philip Campbell Jr., Todd Schnitt's attorney, wasn't immediately available for comment. Elise Brown, Clem's publicist, had no immediate comment about the lawsuit.

Clem has a morning drive time show on WHPT-102.5 FM (the Bone) in Tampa and WFYV-104.5 FM in Jacksonville.

Schnitt's MJ Morning Show airs on WFLZ-93.3 FM. He also hosts the Schnitt Show in the afternoons on 970-WFLA.

The lawsuit says Clem has referred to Schnitt on air as a snitch and called his wife a whore. In an email read by Clem on his show, a listener said that Schnitt should be "thrown into a burlap sack and tossed into the river" and someone should "drive that little midget to drink a bottle of bleach," the lawsuit states.

It also alleges that Clem told his listeners, known as "Bubba's Army," to mouth off at Schnitt during the Gasparilla Day Parade.

"I need all you sick b------- and drunken drunkards, if you will, at the Gasparilla Day Parade ... bring your loud mouths and grease that midget. Grease 'em," the lawsuit says.

The word "grease," the lawsuit explains, can be interpreted to mean "whack or eliminate someone, to bump someone off."

-Kevin Graham, Times staff writer

Naples wine auction, the world’s richest and rockingest, draws $14-million for grand wines

Five hundred wine lovers in Naples, Florida bid more than $14-million in a rollicking five hour auction Saturday.

The final total fell short of last year's record $15.6-million, but still added to the nearly $70-million raised for children's charities in Collier County in the eight years of the auction.

Bidders spent an average $200,000 per lot in a five-hour frenzy pumped along by live video, noisemakers and blasts of La Bamba, Good Vibrations, Good Golly Miss Molly and other oldies.

But organizers were not disappointed.

"We're ecstatic" said Ann Bain, a trustee of the Naples Winter Wine Festival. "We're leaving here with $14-million to spend on the children of Collier County," including money for new medical services and other programs in nearby Immokalee.

Snipes' lawyer says he tried to cooperate

OCALA -- It took six years for the Internal Revenue Service to respond to Wesley Snipes' written request for a meeting on whether he owned money or whether they had to pay him $11.4-million in refunds.

When an IRS agent contacted Snipes in May 2002, he informed the actor of his rights and told him the IRS was launching an investigation, Robert Bernhoft, Snipes' lead attorney, said today during opening statements in Snipes' federal tax evasion trial.

Several prosecutors have accused the Blade trilogy star of filing fraudulent tax returns for 1996 and 1997, claiming millions of dollars in refunds on taxes he already paid. The IRS also says that Snipes filed no taxes at all from 1999 to 2004.

The U.S. Attorney's Office indicted Snipes on criminal charges in October 2006. His trial began Monday.

Bernhoft says that Snipes sent more than two dozen document packages to the IRS as he tried to get them to sit down for a meeting and explain what he owed and which forms he needed to complete.

Snipes had received conflicting information from separate finance advisers on tax law, Bernhoft said. One of them was celebrity finance firm Starr and Company of New York, whose client list included broadcaster Tom Brokaw and actor Sylvester Stallone.

When Snipes asked the IRS to explain whether he had to file certain taxes at all, Bernhoft said, the agency wouldn't.

"We can't tell you whether you are supposed to file a tax return until you file a return," the IRS responded, according to Bernhoft.

"Welcome to the wacky world of the IRS," the attorney told jurors.

In his opening statement for the prosecution, interim U.S. Attorney Robert O'Neill told jurors that he plans to show finance records for Snipes during the years he did not file, which will prove that the actor made money and willfully did not file his taxes.

O'Neill also said that Snipes worked with American Rights Litigators, a Lake County firm known for trying to "thwart the process of the IRS" for its clients.

Evel Knievel, Kanye West settle dispute

TAMPA -- Famed daredevil and Clearwater resident Robert Craig "Evel" Knievel and rapper Kanye West have settled a lawsuit, the parties announced today.

Knievel sued West for imitating him in the rap video for West's Touch the Sky.

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 polled 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, about 33 percent of people polled expressed similar views, the survey says.

"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.

Snipes, 45, was born in Orlando and recently lived in Windemere.

The Blade and White Men Can't Jump star surrendered to federal authorities in December on charges that he defrauded the Internal Revenue Service of more than $11-million in taxes.

Also named in the indictment are Eddie Ray Kahn, a tax protest group leader from Sorrento, and Douglas P. Rosile, an unlicensed accountant from Venice. The three men are accused of conspiracy to defraud the IRS and presenting a false claim for payment to the agency.

Prosecutors say Kahn and Rosile helped Snipes, who earned $5-million to $8-million per film in the mid 1990s, file amended tax returns for 1996 and 1997. They said he didn't owe taxes and was due refunds of $4-million and $7.3-million.

In September, Senior U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges denied Snipes' request to have his trial moved to New York City from Ocala. He also denied a request from Snipes to have his trial separate from the two co-defendants.

-Kevin Graham, Times staff writer

[AP photo]

Jenna Bush hopes new book inspires

First daughter Jenna Bush will be in Tampa and Brandon on Thursday to promote her new book, Ana’s Story: A Journey of Hope, the story of an abused girl living with HIV in Latin America.

Speaking by phone from Miami with The St. Petersburg Times this morning, Bush said she hopes the book sheds light on “the way kids live globally,” helps young people living with abuse and illness to find strength, courage and the help they need, “and that kids who do have the time to give back are inspired by Ana’s story to help boys and girls like her in their communities around the world.”

After visiting Freedom High School in New Tampa for a student-only event Thursday morning, Bush is set to appear at the Books-A-Million in the Westfield Brandon mall at noon.

Books-A-Million suggests arriving early — the line for the event will start at 7 a.m. — to allow for screening and leaving all backpacks, large handbags and other prohibited items at home or in the car.

Everyone who passes through the checkpoint, including children, will be given a wristband which must be worn at all times for security identification purposes.

Attendees will have the opportunity to meet Bush in person and get copies of Ana’s Story signed — three copies maximum per person with no personalization. Bush will not sign memorabilia, videos, DVDs and the like. Photographs are permitted, but posed photos will be prohibited.

Ana’s Story was birthed from Bush’s internship with UNICEF, which started in the fall of 2006 when she was tasked with documenting the lives of children and young adults living in poverty. The book is a narrative about the struggles of a 17-year-old HIV-positive single mother that Bush met at a community support event. Bush spent six months with the young girl, interviewing her about her past of abuse and neglect, but also her future hopes.

Ana’s Story is also built around the stories of other children in similar circumstances who Bush met during her time abroad.

“A lot of conversations we had that were really difficult,” Bush said. “But they’re living with such optimism and such hope ... they just want the same things as many of us.”

According to UNICEF, some 2.3-million children worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS, and millions more suffer from abuse, poverty and neglect.

A portion of the proceeds from the book will benefit the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

---Amber Mobley, Times staff writer

BayWalk is for sale

ST. PETERSBURG -- BayWalk, the popular downtown entertainment and retail complex, is on the market.

"We're in the business of developing, investing and selling assets," said Craig Sher, the CEO of Sembler, which developed the $40-million complex in 2001. "Is there a cash need? No."

Included in the package deal is also 36,000 square feet of retail space in the Midcore garage complex on First Avenue N between Second and Third streets. BayWalk's 150,000 square feet, including 80,000 square feet of movie theater, is one block north.

The complex of restaurants, bars and retail stores that attracts 3-million to 4-million visitors a year is credited with helping to spark the recent downtown renaissance. When the complex was proposed, downtown was slumbering and the nearest movie theater was miles away.

"We're proud of our BayWalk legacy," Sher said, adding that other factors also contributed to reviving downtown. "It's still a central meeting place and public forum. It hasn't been without its issues, but that's a measure of its success."

The complex has become so popular that it was the center of controversy as antiwar activists staged protests there. It also is a magnet for teenagers, whose sometimes unruly behavior has disturbed some BayWalk visitors.

Shortly after BayWalk opened, Sembler also partnered in building the $50-million Centro Ybor, a similarly designed project in Tampa's Ybor City. That location has been less successful, and the company sold its interests in that development last year.

"That's the risk you take," Sher said. "It's a big gamble."

Sher said BayWalk and Midcore are almost completely leased and operating well, but that in examining the companies' portfolio, executives decided these assets could fetch attractive prices to fund further expansions. He said Sembler has been steadily growing its assets and now manages about 60 properties in the United States mainland and Puerto Rico, owning about half of those. He said commercial property has been fetching good prices lately so the company decided this was a good time to offer BayWalk.

The complex was part of a complicated deal to redevelop the downtown. Dating back to the 1980s and the Bay Plaza venture to create a three-block retail center, BayWalk was originally to be the North Core parking garage. When Bay Plaza bailed out, Sembler and partners stepped in to revive the deal.

The city consolidated property to make the deal happen and gave the land to Sembler in exchange for a $1.45-million mortgage, said city attorney John Wolf. The conditions of the mortgage would require repayment, however, only if Sembler made a windfall on any subsequent sale.

"It was designed against them making a tremendous profit," Wolf said. "I told the City Council at the time that we'd never see that money. But that's what redevelopment projects do. That's why you give an incentive. And it worked."

- Paul Swider, Times staff writer

Tampa is No. 6 party city

TAMPA -- It has been a year of unprecedented rankings for Tampa. First the USF Bulls climbed to No. 2 in college football's BCS rankings.

Now, Maxim magazine, has ranked Tampa its No. 6 party city, according to the upcoming November issue. The magazine's scientific approach to ranking included this summary of the city, which joins notorious party destinations such as New York, Las Vegas and Miami (which finished No. 1).

"It's four o'clock: Do you know where your dad is? He's probably at one of the city's 49 strip clubs," the magazine stated. "That's more booby-barns than you'll find in Vegas. Yes, the city's median age is a list-high 40.45 years, but citizens down 5.41 cases of beer at home annually."

Justin George, Times staff writer

Local English teacher wins $50,000 on 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'

Ryan Haczynski, at right in the striped shirt, celebrates with friends and family Tuesday after Who Wants to Be a Millionaire aired. From left are Jason Kimball, a friend; sister-in-law Holley Gentry; brother-in-law Brian Gentry; and Haczynski's wife, Erin Haczynski. [Chris Zuppa | Times]

In 1925, dogsledders mushed nearly 700 miles along an Alaskan mailing route to deliver a serum that halted an outbreak of what disease?

That question tripped up Durant High School teacher Ryan Haczynski, left, tonight on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. The 32-year-old English teacher was out of lifelines and decided not to answer the $100,000 question.

Haczynski, who auditioned for the show at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in July, walked away with the $50,000 he had already won after answering 11 questions correctly.

Several other Bay area residents are slated to appear later this season.

(Give up yet? Diphtheria.)

Catherine Shoichet, Times staff writer

Hogan opens up about son's wreck on 'Inside Edition'

"When I saw the wreck, I didn't think anybody was alive," Hulk Hogan tells Inside Edition's Pat O'Brien about the day his teen son Nick crashed Hogan's yellow Toyota Supra in Clearwater. "I thought no one could have lived through a wreck like that." The crash injured Nick Hogan's friend, John Graziano, who is in critical condition at Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg. The Insider Web site has the story and video.

Potter pandemonium nearing fever pitch

Tampa Bay readers are gearing up for tonight's release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and last book in J. K. Rowling's impossibly popular series.

Most readers preordered their copies months ago, but are stopping by bookstores early today to secure their place in line when the book is released tonight at the witching hour ("midnight," in Muggle-speak).

But if you forgot to reserve a copy, don't worry -- area bookstores say they have more than enough for everyone and expect their stocks to last through the weekend. Area bookstores said customers who have not reserved copies should expect to wait in line until 1 a.m. or 2 a.m.

About 30 people were in line by 7 a.m. at Border's on N Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa, store manager Dennis Wade said. He expects about 1,000 customers to show up for the book. Employees are distributing color-coded wristbands to customers who pre-ordered copies, ensuring them a place at the front of the line.

(The Grand Hallow's Ball is scheduled for 8 p.m., complete with face painters and kids games.)

Tammara Vest, 21, picked up her orange wrist band around 1 p.m., which will make her among the first 150 customers to get the book.

Vest said her husband will babysit their 11-day-old daughter so she can pick up the book at midnight. She's been reading the series since the first book was published, and she preordered Deathly Hallows months ago. 

In St. Petersburg, the Barnes and Noble at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg will close briefly before reopening at 9:30 p.m. for a magic show, costume and jelly bean counting contest and other Harry Potter-themed fun before the sale.

Independent retailer Inkwood Books, 216 S Armenia Ave. in Tampa, is hosting a Potter Prognosticators Party at 11:15 p.m.. Customers can get entry forms for a chance to win a trip for four to London as part of the Independent Muggles for Harry Potter Sweepstakes.

Several area spoilsports - or savvy customers, depending on your view - won't partake in the Potter pandemonium.  About fifteen copies of the book will be delivered to South Tampa residents as part of an Inkwood promotion.

That offer is closed, but that hasn't stopped a day of inquiries.

Said one Inkwood bookseller:

"The phones been ringing all day."

-- Casey Cora and Sarah Mishkin, Times Staff writer

Photo: Charlie Gibbons, left, watches as Leah Smith picks up her wristband to reserve her place in line to purchase her reserved copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from Borders worker Richard Fotherby. (Kathleen Flynn | Times)

Floor is gone, not the thrill

It's amazing how secure little things like a floor and a rail can make you feel -- especially when you're pulling 4Gs and dropping 200-feet.

Now, I'm not much of a screamer.  More of a "whoooooooooo"-er. Nearly two years ago, I sat in the same spot -- front row, center -- on SheiKra. Arms raised, high over my head. Heart pounding loudly in my chest.  I wasn't sure what to expect. The car climbs 200 feet, hooks right around a bend and then comes to a complete stop, dangling you over the edge for four seconds.  Which is just enough time to wonder how I'd gotten myself into this situation before it lets go -- straight down. My stomach is now planted in my throat, and the adrenaline rush makes me want to jump out of my skin.  

I've ridden Sheikra between 40-50 times since.

Now, the floor is gone... letting you look straight down.  Legs dangling, with nothing beneath you and the track.  From that same front row spot this morning, we stopped at that same point. Sheikra, tipped over the edge, passengers waiting for the fall as we were looking down at our own immortality, and I realized that the front rail is gone, too. There's nothing stopping you, nothing to brace against.  

It's absolutely amazing. A totally different sensation. You feel exposed, and vulnerable. Somehow it's scarier.  More intimidating. More of a thrill.

Whoooooooo...

Video: Feel the thrill

-- Text and photo by Times photographer  Melissa Lyttle