"Fairbanksan Whips IRS", The Pioneer All-Alaska Weekly, July 30,1992,
Vol.49, No. 42, Andrew, D. Binkley, Editor

     Gabriel W. Scott, a 60-year old Fairbanks sheet-metal worker, has been
found innocent by a jury in Fairbanks after being indicted May 5 by a grand
jury for income tax evasion.
      A 12-person jury told Federal trial Judge James Fitzgerald that
Scott was innocent of all charges in the case.  Federal Public defender Sue
Ellen Tatter represented Scott in the trial.
     Scott said it was the end of a nightmare, but not the
end of the fight.  "I felt pretty lost when this
(indictment) came down.  I had no money, no attorney, and
they tried to try the case in Anchorage, even though I live
in Fairbanks and we have a federal court in Fairbanks.  I
had to go down there at my expense for three days, when I
couldn't afford to be there, what with 130,000 miles on my
car, and out of work for six months.  When I got the
indictment, I couldn't understand it."
     Scott intends to get his money back from the IRS, money
the agency seized before the trial.  They haven't returned
it, the innocent verdict notwithstanding.
     "They took my permanent fund dividend, and about
$25,000 of my pay. leaving me only $100 a week to live on
(he was forced into bankruptcy).  They suck; they've run
amok.  They don't answer to anybody.  They have their own
rules and regulations, and the court didn't inform the
jurors.  They had the Criminal Intelligence Division and
everybody else, including two or three prosecutors, after
me.  They're ganging up on us, and it's time people got up
and got their heads out of their ass, and did something
about it.  But people are scared; they don't want to lose
their toys.
     "My wife Lenore stood right by me; I'm proud of her,
and I'm proud of that jury-they are real American citizens."
     Prosecutors held that Scott received taxable income
totaling approximately $36,656., resulting in a tax debt of
approximatel $6,160 during the 1989 tax year.
     Scott, said the government, "did wilfully attempt to
evade and defeat the said income tax due and owing by him to
the United States of America for the calendar year 1989, by:
(a) failing to make an income tax return on or before April
16, 1990, and (b) failing to pay to the Internal Rvenue
Service the income tax then due."
     Scott's defense centered on the question of good faith,
and whether he wilfully evaded paying income taxes.  Scott
wanted to know what law required him to file, and what law
made him liable for income taxes.  "They couldn't come up
with any such law, just penalties.  You can't violate a law
that doesn't exist," said Scott.
