Every year, countless people for whom a verdict goes the wrong way vow to take their fight "all the way to the Supreme Court."
Only a tiny percentage of the aggrieved ever get there, though.
|
JUMP TO STORY:
Editorial Tough Times Schindler Hudson Gallagher Mt. Views Citycide Billstuff Letters |
On Nov. 9, two brothers from Niagara Falls and their alleged accomplice complete that rare journey, one that's lasted more than four years and taken multiple detours.
"I'm nervous right now, but I want to get it over with so I can go on with my life," said Carl Pasquantino, who faces nearly five years in federal prison if the nation's nine most powerful justices affirm his 2001 conviction on federal wire-fraud charges.
Pasquantino and his brother, David, were originally convicted on wire-fraud charges stemming from their alleged supervision of a ring that purchased liquor in Maryland, transported it to the Niagara Falls area and smuggled it into Canada without paying that nation's exorbitant taxes on booze.
According to court documents, a case of liquor that cost the Pasquantinos $56 in Maryland should have brought the Canadian government $100 in taxes.
The Pasquantinos' legal odyssey began two years earlier, when Arthur Hilts, who drove the cases of liquor from Maryland to Western New York in a rented truck, realized he was being followed by federal agents during a return trip. Hilts abandoned the truck and fled. In April 2000, all three men were indicted.
Federal prosecutors alleged that 39,000 gallons of liquor had been spirited across the border over a four-year period, denying the Canadian government $5.8 million in taxes.
The Pasquantinos -- who maintain that the people who bought the liquor from them and actually transported it across the border were never prosecuted -- appealed.
Their attorneys argued that the common law "revenue rule," which has guided judges and juries for more than 200 years, forbids the U.S. government from enforcing the tax laws of another nation.
Prosecutors countered that, by placing their orders with a Maryland liquor store over the phone, the brothers had committed wire fraud, with Canada's unclaimed revenue serving as the property required by that law.
The Fourth District Court of Appeals initially overturned their conviction by a 2-1 vote, but after an appeal from federal prosecutors, an en banc proceeding involving all 11 justices in the district overruled the three-judge panel and reinstated the conviction.
The Supreme Court agreed in April to consider the case, one of only 43 they accepted this term from more than 9,000 applications.
Making the Pasquantinos even more exceptional, the justices hear only a handful of criminal cases each year, with most of their rulings involving civil or legislative matters.
The case carries potential ramifications for international corporations, and even investors in foreign companies, the brothers' attorneys argue.
"Foreign governments wishing to harass U.S. citizens or to interfere with U.S. business interests may take this case as a signal that they are free to criminally prosecute American citizens and businesses abroad for putative (commonly accepted) violations of U.S. tax law," the attorney of record for the three men, Laura Brill of Los Angeles, wrote in appealing to the Supreme Court.
Brill, who served as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg before going into private practice and has argued three cases before the court in the past two years, joined the defense at the behest of Bruce R. Bryan of Syracuse. Jensen E. Barber of Washington, D.C., is the third member of the legal team.
"He's done so much for me -- if he charged me for everything, I'd be on a street corner someplace," Pasquantino said of Bryan. "We've got the best legal team in the country, with Laura's knowledge and aggressiveness, and the experience of Bruce and Jensen."
Carl Pasquantino said his daughter, Lisa Pasquantino Kates, has been instrumental in pushing the case to this point.
"She's not a lawyer, but our attorneys say she should be," Pasquantino told the Niagara Falls Reporter during a telephone interview from his daughter's home in Columbia, S.C., where he's staying until heading to the nation's capital for his day in America's highest court.
Kates' campaign on behalf of her father and uncle was instrumental in persuading the National Association of Manufacturers and National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys to submit briefs on the defendants' behalf. She also lobbied Sen. Hillary Clinton, several congressmen and even the White House.
Due to the case's implications, the Georgetown University Law School and conservative Heritage Foundation have each scheduled mock Supreme Court proceedings for this week, giving the Pasquantinos, Hilts and their attorneys two dress rehearsals for their Nov. 9 date before the real justices.
The basic questions before the court -- does the wire-fraud law override the common law revenue rule, and does tax revenue owed a foreign government constitute "property" as defined by that legislation?
Pasquantino said his attorneys are confident the Supreme Court will rule that the answer to both questions is "no."
"If we knew we were doing something illegal, we wouldn't have done it," he said. "I wasn't responsible to pay Canadian taxes. All American taxes were paid at the point of purchase." Pasquantino said he and his co-defendants have been indicted in Canada, but that the Canadian government has made no effort to pursue those charges.
And one way or another, his legal ordeal in the United States is nearly over, with a decision expected from the court within two months of next week's oral arguments.
"When I first got arrested, an attorney told me, 'This case is going to the Supreme Court,'" he said. "We thought it would get there, but you never know."
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Nov. 1 2004 |