Wesley Snipes Gets a Ticket to Fly
Wesley Snipes is free to go…overseas to work on some films, that is.
A federal judge signed off Wednesday on the actor’s request to be able to travel for work while he waits out the appeals process pertaining to his conviction on tax-evasion charges.
According to Senior U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges’ ruling, Snipes is allowed to go to London this month to complete postproduction on the horror film Gallowwalker and then to Bangkok in September to film the action flick Chasing the Dragon.
Prosecutors objected to what they called Snipes’ vague estimate of how long he’d be spending in Thailand (eight weeks, the actor said), saying it’s one thing to let him go to England for a week but another to allow him to spend at least two months “beginning a new project half-way around the world with an open-ended return date.”
Snipes was sentenced in April to three years in prison for failing to file multiple income-tax returns but the court has allowed him to remain free while his attorneys appeal his case.
Tatum O’Neal Cops to Bad Conduct, Gets Wrist Slapped
Crime may not pay, but for Tatum O’Neal, it doesn’t exactly cost all that much, either.
The former wild child actress has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct stemming from her June crack bust. Prosecutors in turn dropped more serious charges, including drug possession.
To atone for her misdoing, Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Elisa Koenderman sentenced the youngest ever Oscar winner to spend two half-day sessions in a drug-treatment program and pay a $95 fee.
Should the 44-year-old Rescue Me star make good on both conditions of her sentence by Sept. 4, when she’s due back in court, the case against her will be dismissed.
O’Neal turned down a nearly identical deal from prosecutors last month in which they offered her the chance to plead guilty to disorderly conduct and spend two days in a treatment. No word on what caused the change of heart.
Judge Smites Charlton Heston Embezzler
As the ancient Egyptians found out the hard way, you don’t cross Moses and get away with it.
The sea may not have opened up, but a former employee of a Los Angeles business management firm was sentenced Friday to five years and four months in jail for embezzling thousands of dollars from, among others, the late Charlton Heston.
Sharon Walker, who copped a plea to avoid harsher punishment, admitted to stealing more than $150,000 from the Ten Commandments star, as well as nearly $560,000 from 21 Jump Street creator Stephen Cannell by forging their signatures to pay her own credit card bills.
She pleaded no contest to two counts of grand theft and one count of tax evasion.
The onetime account manager, who could have ended up behind bars for 11 years, was also ordered to pay full restitution to her victims and $82,000 in back taxes. Prosecutors never publicly named the firm where Walker was employed.
Heston died of Alzheimer’s disease April 5. He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Lydia, and two children.
R. Kelly Case Goes to the Jury
Sitting through reruns can be such a drag. Or it can just be really uncomfortable.
The eight-man, four-woman jury sitting in judgment of R. Kelly rewatched the sex tape at the center of the R&B star’s child-pornography trial before beginning their deliberations Thursday.
As part of their closing argument today, prosecutors replayed the 27-minute video, which they allege features Kelly having intercourse withand then urinating ona girl who was only 13 or 14 years old at the time.
Kelly is “directing her to dance, where to stand, when to stop urinating,” Assistant State’s Attorney Robert Heilengoetter told the jury as the video played.
There were no shocking statements in either side’s final summation of the case: The prosecution pressed for a conviction on all charges, which could land Kelly in prison for up to 15 years. The defense continued to argue that Kelly has been the victim of money-hungry acquaintances and is not the man on the tape.
Multiple witnessesfriends and relatives of the now 23-year-old alleged victim (who has since denied being the girl in the video) and former associates of Kelly’shave positively identified the “stars” of the home movie as Kelly and the female in question. Forensic video analysts also testified that it was highly unlikely the copy of the tape being used to prosecute Kelly was a fake.
Meanwhile, the Grammy winner’s team put its own expert on the stand, and he pretty much said anyone can do anything with computers these days. A private investigator spoke on Kelly’s behalf as well, saying the fiancé of the woman who attested to having a threesome with Kelly and the girl had tried to extort $300,000 from the singer to keep quiet.
“That’s what this is about: money, money, money,” defense attorney Sam Adam Jr. said during his closing argument.
The people who testified that it was Kelly on the tape, Adam continued, know it wasn’t himbecause “any solid man in that family, any solid woman in that family would have gone over there and broken his legs, would have gone over there and beat the crap out of him.”
Deliberations kicked off Thursday afternoon. After about an hour and a half, jurors asked for a transcript of purported threesome participant and “star witness” Lisa Van Allen, per the Chicago Tribune.
Both sides objected, saying the request was unreasonable because it would take several hours to print out a copy and delete sidebar dialogue. The defense, meanwhile, is pulling for the jury to get a copy, while the prosecution thinks they should have to review a transcript of the entire trial or get nothing at all.
Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan sent the jury a note informing them that the transcript was not available at the time and that they should continue deliberating.