Rockets Hero Carl Herrera triumphs over the IRS

Carl Herrera · Dec 21, 2007

Judge Royal Furgeson

Carl Herrera

The Amigo wins again!

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/...ories/MYSA122107.08B.herrera1221.2858cf9.html

Ex-Spur's tax conviction tossed

Web Posted: 12/21/2007 01:09 PM CST

Graeme Zielinski
Express-News

A federal judge Thursday gave an early Christmas present to Carl V. Herrera, the hard-luck former Spurs forward and University of Houston standout who was convicted in October of tax evasion by a federal grand jury.
In a move uncommon to trial courts, U.S. District Judge W. Royal Furgeson turned aside that conviction, saying in a 34-page ruling that the jury really didn't have enough evidence to support a conviction. And in the event government prosecutors do manage to get the acquittal vacated or overturned,

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Furgeson issued a conditional order granting a new trial.

It all added up to good news for Herrera, who was indicted in February, with the Internal Revenue Service alleging he owed more than $550,000 in back taxes for 1994 through '97. This came after recent years that saw the breakup of his marriage, some investments that went sour, the death of his father and the institutionalization of his mother.

The time he was accused of not paying taxes roughly coincided with a brighter period in which he played with the Spurs, from 1995 to '98. Herrera, 39, who was part of two championship Houston Rockets teams in the early 1990s, eventually suffered injuries that forced him out of the NBA in 1999. He's still trying to eke out a living playing basketball in Venezuela.

One of his lawyers in the case, Jay Moritz, said in a brief interview that Herrera told another lawyer on the case, Charles J. Muller III, that he was "ecstatic" over the ruling.

Prosecutors at trial tried to make the case that in 2001 Herrera transferred title from a house here and shifted other account balances in a willful effort to evade taxes.

But during his trial, Herrera's lawyers portrayed him as guilty of putting trust in a cast of shady characters, including a business manager, who took his good faith for granted.

That account seemed convincing to Furgeson, who wrote, "There is insufficient evidence that his acts were taken with the specific intent to evade the payment of tax due and owed and thus insufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to find Herrera guilty."

Calls to prosecutors were not immediately returned.
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My only question is why the Chronicle did not jump on this news before the friggin San Antonio newpaper did?

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