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Snipes' Trial Stays In Ocala

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The Associated Press

Published: December 28, 2007

Updated: 12/27/2007 11:34 pm

OCALA - Actor Wesley Snipes' federal tax-evasion trial will go forward next month in this Central Florida city, despite arguments by his lawyers for a delay and relocation.

The rulings were among several that U.S. District Judge William T. Hodges made Monday in the case.

Snipes' lawyers had claimed he could not get a fair trial in Ocala. Snipes previously filed two motions to dismiss or transfer the trial because of racial prejudices.

A Snipes attorney could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Federal prosecutors have previously said there was "no basis in reality" for Snipes' claims.

An October 2006 federal indictment charges Snipes with fraudulently claiming refunds totaling almost $12 million in 1996 and 1997 for income taxes already paid. The 45-year-old star of the "Blade" trilogy and other films also was charged with failure to file returns from 1999 through 2004.

Snipes is accused of conspiring with American Rights Litigators founder Eddie Ray Kahn and tax preparer Douglas P. Rosile Sr. to file false refund claims based on a bogus argument that only income from foreign sources was subject to taxation.

Snipes' lawyers argued he had the right to a trial in New York, where he lived between October 2000 and April 2005, when the offenses allegedly occurred, or in Orlando, where he also has a home.

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