United States v. Richard W. (Dick) Rylander, Sr.

Richard W. Rylander appeals his convictions of criminal contempt for willfully failing to comply with the district court’s order to produce various corporate documents in response to Internal Revenue Service summonses and for failing to appear at a hearing to show cause why he should not be held in contempt. The initial difficulty arose when the IRS tried to obtain certain corporate records and documents from Rylander in order to investigate the tax returns of two corporations of which he had been president. He did not produce the records in response to an IRS summons, contending that he did not possess them. The efforts of the IRS to enforce the summons and obtain contempt sanctions form the genesis of this case.

This case highlights the problems involved in the interrelationship of civil and criminal contempt. Rylander was tried for both civil and criminal contempt in the same proceeding. In United States v. Rylander, - U.S. -, 103 S.Ct. 1548 , 75 L.Ed.2d 521 (1983) (Rylander I), reversing 656 F.2d 1313 (9th Cir.1981), the Supreme Court reversed this court and affirmed the civil contempt citation. Courts frequently have difficulty distinguishing between civil and criminal…

dissenting.

This case is a conspicuous illustration of the capacity of a determined individual literally to thumb his nose at a district court and later escape being called to account because judges are unable to avoid tripping over themselves with legal technicalities. Try as I have, I simply cannot agree that this defendant, whose history of utter defiance of legal process and court orders, is spread across a clear record, is again to be bailed out on the grounds that he did not act knowingly and intelligently when he rejected two court appointed lawyers, tried to insist that a personally-known lawyer be appointed at public expense and, denied that luxury, elected to represent himself. In an earlier phase of this same case the defendant became the beneficiary of judicial technicality when this circuit reversed the trial court’s adjudication of civil contempt. United States v. Rylander, 656 F.2d 1313 (9th Cir.1981) (Rylander I). The Supreme Court overruled and reversed us and reinstated the judgment. United States v. Rylander, - U.S. -, 103 S.Ct. 1548 , 75 L.Ed.2d 521 (1983) (Rylander II). We are about to reward him again.

I can agree that Rylander was not shown sufficiently to…

714 F.2d 996 83-2 USTC P 9574 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Richard W. (Dick) RYLANDER, Sr., et al., Defendant-Appellant. Nos. 80-1813, 80-1702 and 80-1703. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted June 9, 1981. Submission Withdrawn Nov. 8, 1982. Resubmitted May 16, 1983. Decided Sept. 2, 1983. Joseph F. Harbison, III, Sacramento, Cal., for defendant-appellant. JoAnn Horn, John F. Murray, Charles E. Brookhart, Washington, D.C., for plaintiff-appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California. Before ANDERSON, HUG and POOLE, Circuit Judges. HUG, Circuit Judge: 1 Richard W. Rylander appeals his convictions of criminal contempt for willfully failing to comply with the district court's order to produce various corporate documents in response to Internal Revenue Service summonses and for failing to appear at a hearing to show cause why he should not be held in contempt. The initial difficulty arose when the IRS tried to obtain certain corporate records and documents from Rylander in order to investigate the tax returns of two corporations of which he had been president. He did not produce the…