Wesley Snipes

Snipes heads for prison on June 3?

Updated 14.53 Thu May 22 2008
Keywords: blade trilogy, jungle fever, white men can't jump, wesley snipes

Hollywood actor Wesley Snipes must surrender to prison authorities on June 3 if he isn't granted bail.

Snipes' lawyers plan to argue before the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals that the trial judge erred in several ways before and after his February conviction.

Last month US District Judge William Terrell Hodges sentenced Snipes to three years in prison for failing to file tax returns

Last month US District Judge William Terrell Hodges sentenced Snipes to three years in prison for failing to file tax returns.

In order to be granted freedom during the appeal, Snipes must prove that he has a substantial issue to raise and isn't a flight risk.

In a filing on Monday, US Attorney Robert O'Neill said Snipes had told the probation office he had less than $10,000 in liquid assets, but the actor then surprised the government by producing $5 million in payment for back taxes at his sentencing.

US Attorney Robert O'Neill wrote: "His apparent lack of candor about his assets, combined with trial evidence that he has transferred millions of dollars offshore, show some risk of flight."

His lawyers argue that the US District Judge William Terrell Hodges had given the jury bad instructions and should have granted them an expanded pretrial hearing on their request to move the proceedings.

Snipes, the star of the Blade trilogy, White Men Can't Jump, Jungle Fever hasn't filed a tax return since 1998, the US government has alleged.

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