Thursday, February 04, 1999
Three tax evaders are found guilty
Jury takes 90 minutes to decide family's fate
BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
After a month of arguments and evidence, federal jurors deliberated 90 minutes and Wednesday convicted a father and two sons of conspiring to frustrate tax collectors and failing to file their returns.
Sentencing will come in about three months for Edgar F. Bradley, 67, of Dawson Road, Madeira, and his sons, Edgar F. Bradley II, 41, of Ida Street, Mount Adams, and Roy C. Bradley, 36, of Crescendo Court, Montgomery.
It was one the longest federal trials in Cincinnati where the defendants represented themselves, and one of the swiftest verdicts in such a seemingly complex case.
Opening statements were Jan. 5.
Closing arguments were Tuesday and deliberations began after U.S. District Judge Herman J. Weber finished reading jury instructions at 4:40 p.m.
Jurors left at 5 p.m. They returned at 9 a.m. Wednesday. At 10:10 a.m., they said they'd reached their unanimous decision on all charges.
Each man was convicted of felony conspiracy.
Willfully failing to file is a misdemeanor. Edgar Bradley and Edgar II each failed to file in 1991, 1992 and 1993. Roy failed to file in 1993.
Each Bradley could be imprisoned for six months or more.
They have been free on bond since they were indicted in mid-1997. After the verdict, Judge Weber allowed them to leave on their promise to return at 10 a.m. today for a detention hearing.
If the government wants them held until sentencing, the burden will be on the Bradleys to persuade Judge Weber to let them remain free on bond.
Prosecutors Thomas G. Voracek and Rita Genetti Calvin said the Madeira insurance broker and his insurance salesman sons used a web of trusts and banks to hide their assets and income when the Internal Revenue Service tried to collect taxes owed in 1991, 1992 and 1993.
Mr. Voracek and Ms. Calvin said the Bradleys' newfound belief — sincere or convenient — that the income tax is unconstitutional was a smoke screen.
Throughout the trial, the Bradleys denied being tax protesters. They argued the income tax is an excise tax and there was no evidence that they had entered any voluntary agreement with the government to pay an excise tax on their income or property.
Similarly, they argued that they never had intended to earn any income or own any property that would be subject to an excise tax.
The Bradleys also denied being the people indicted because court documents identified them as EDGAR F. BRADLEY, EDGAR F. BRADLEY II and ROY BRADLEY.
Those are legal fictions for whom they are not responsible, the Bradleys argued, saying their names are Edgar Francis; Bradley, Edgar Francis II; Bradley and Roy Claudius; Bradley.
The Bradleys also claimed that THE UNITED STATES — as it appears in court documents — is a private corporation without taxing authority rather than the United States of America created by the Constitution of 1789.
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