Wesley Snipes Asks for Retrial after Starr Arrest

Attorneys for Wesley Snipes are requesting a new trial for the actor on tax charges after a key prosecution witness was arrested on fraud charges.

Snipes was convicted in April 2008 on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file a tax return and sentenced to three years in prison. He is currently free on bail pending his appeal. But Snipes’ attorney Daniel Meachum has filed a motion with the court to stop considering the pending appeal and instead permit the attorney to file a new request to either dismiss the conviction or grant Snipes a new trial. Meachum argues that the recent arrest of Kenneth Starr, a former investment adviser to Snipes and other celebrities, “revealed new evidence pointing to a miscarriage of justice at Mr. Snipes’ trial,” according to the Associated Press.

Meachum argues that Starr (not related to the Ken Starr who acted as independent counsel during the investigations of former President Bill Clinton) was being probed by federal investigators for his own tax problems at the time he was testifying against Snipes in 2008, and that this damages his credibility, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Starr was arrested in May and accused of embezzling $30 million from Snipes as well as actress Uma Thurman and director Martin Scorsese.