United States v. Jirak, No. 12-3436 (8th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed his conviction on five counts of making a false claim for a tax refund on January 9, 2009; making a false claim for a tax refund on March 27, 2009; uttering a forged treasury check on March 9, 2009; mail fraud in January 2009; and aggravated identity theft on January 9, 2009. The court concluded that there was sufficient evidence to convict defendant; the court rejected defendant's challenge to the district court's decision to grant the third motion in limine, asserting that his intent in offering such evidence was to show that he made the relevant filings in good faith, because it was irrelevant under Federal Rule of Evidence 402; and the district court did not abuse its broad discretion in denying defendant's motions to continue. The court remanded with instructions that the district court modify its written judgment to conform to its oral pronouncement of special condition two of supervised release.
Court Description: Criminal case - Criminal law and sentencing. Evidence was sufficient to support defendant's convictions for making a false claim, uttering a forged treasury check, mail fraud and aggravated identity theft; even assuming, without holding, that reliance on an expert tax preparer is a valid defense to crimes charged under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 287, defendant was not entitled to introduce such evidence because the advice he relied was not from an expert tax preparer, attorney or accountant; district court did not abuse its discretion in denying multiple pro se motions for continuance; there was a discrepancy between the oral pronouncement concerning family contact and the written special conditions of supervised release contained in the judgment, and the matter is remanded so that the district court can conform the written sentence to its oral pronouncement.
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