William R. O'ROuRke v. United States

William R. O’Rourke, Jr., appeals from a judgment, entered upon a jury verdict, convicting him of evasion of individual income taxes for the year 1958, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7201 (1958). He urges three reasons why the judgment should be reversed: (1) the evidence is insufficient to establish any willful intention on his part to evade the payment of individual income taxes in 1958; (2) the verdict was coerced or compromised; and (3) the verdict of guilty is inconsistent with the verdicts of not guilty returned on the five other counts of the indictment.

In three counts of the indictment O’Rourke and his wife were jointly charged with evasion of individual income taxes for the years 1956, 1957 and 1958. In three additional counts covering the same years they were' jointly charged, as president and vice-president, respectively, of their wholly-owned corporation, W. R. O’Rourke Company, Inc., with evasion of corporate income taxes. The jury acquitted Mrs. O’Rourke on all six counts and acquitted appellant on five counts, finding O’Rourke guilty of count III relating to the joint personal income tax reported for the year 1958 by appellant and his wife.

Appellant was the sole…