Wednesday, January 06, 1999
Father, sons in tax trial reject powers of IRS, court
BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A father and two sons went on trial Tuesday in Cincinnati, charged with using a web of trusts and banks to frustrate tax collectors.
To the Internal Revenue Service, it is a case of felony fraud and misdemeanor failures to file annual returns.
“They didn't want the IRS to know what they earned and what they owned,” Justice Department prosecutor Rita Genetti Calvin said in her opening statement.
As a result of their efforts to conceal their income and assets, she told jurors in U.S. District Court, all three men are charged with conspiring to impede tax collections and failure to file tax returns.
To the accused, it is aggression by an agency and a court whose authority they reject.
Defending themselves are Edgar F. Bradley, 67, of 6532 Dawson Road, Madeira, and his sons, Edgar F. Bradley II, 41, of 1279 Ida St., Mount Adams, and Roy C. Bradley, 36, of 10650 Crescendo Court, Montgomery.
If convicted, they could be imprisoned for six months or more.
The Bradleys were “extremely successful” insurance salesmen, Ms. Calvin said, who quit filing tax returns.
“As you might expect, the IRS took notice,” she said, and when it became clear the IRS would try to collect, all three transferred homes to their wives and told insurance companies to pay commissions into various trusts.
However, “they continued to use this property as they always had,” Ms. Calvin said, and “the money went straight to the Bradleys.”
Edgar Bradley and Edgar Bradley II complained that collection efforts were depriving them of all income and they were beginning to suffer malnutrition, Ms. Calvin said.
Meanwhile, they retained “considerable income” and the elder Bradley continued to enjoy meals and other privileges of his Kenwood Country Club membership.
None of the Bradleys admits to being a defendant. They deny being the people indicted because their names are typed in court documents as EDGAR F. BRADLEY, EDGAR F. BRADLEY II and ROY BRADLEY.
They say their correct names are Edgar Francis; Bradley, Edgar Francis II; Bradley and Roy Claudius; Bradley.
“I am not a defendant,” Mr. Bradley said for himself and his sons on Tuesday. “I am an aggrieved party. Let her prove I am a defendant.”
Edgar Bradley II acknowledged he may have made mistakes, but subjecting himself to those tax laws was never his intent.
Roy Bradley said he never intended to “violate a regulation of the United States.”
The eldest Bradley gave the longest opening statement, saying, “All government and all law begins with an agreement” based on “natural law, the laws of God found in the Bible” and he never consented to federal tax laws.
He and his sons are subject only to the Covenant of Abraham, the “original jurisdiction” of the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution through the first 10 amendments, and the unamended 1802 Ohio Constitution.
He told the eight women and six men in the jury box that Congress rewrote the Constitution in 1871 without going to the people.
The trial resumes today.
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