USA v. Scott Bodley
Filing
Filed Nonprecedential Disposition PER CURIAM. AFFIRMED. Diane P. Wood, Chief Judge; Richard A. Posner, Circuit Judge and Michael S. Kanne, Circuit Judge. [6816352-1] [6816352] [15-2052]
Case: 15-2052
Document: 78
Filed: 02/03/2017
Pages: 2
NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION
To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1
United States Court of Appeals
For the Seventh Circuit
Chicago, Illinois 60604
Submitted February 2, 2017*
Decided February 3, 2017
Before
DIANE P. WOOD, Chief Judge
RICHARD A. POSNER, Circuit Judge
MICHAEL S. KANNE, Circuit Judge
No. 15‐2052
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff‐Appellee,
v.
SCOTT BODLEY,
Defendant‐Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District
Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.
No. 3:13CR00052‐001
Barbara B. Crabb,
Judge.
O R D E R
Scott Bodley appeals from the judgment in a criminal case that ended his
multi‐year, obstreperous campaign to impede IRS collection efforts. After a three‐day
trial at which Bodley represented himself (he had fired both of the lawyers appointed to
represent him after they refused to answer his 52‐question “Voir Dire for Attorney”), a
jury found him guilty of obstructing the IRS, 26 U.S.C. § 7212(a), creating phony money
orders, 18 U.S.C. § 514(a)(2), submitting false tax forms to the IRS, id. § 1001(a), filing a
We have agreed to decide this case without oral argument because the briefs and record adequately
present the facts and legal arguments, and oral argument would not significantly aid the court. See FED. R.
APP. P. 34(a)(2)(C).
*
Case: 15-2052
Document: 78
Filed: 02/03/2017
Pages: 2
No. 15‐2052
Page 2
false tax return, 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1), and tax evasion, id. § 7201. The government had
established that Bodley sent the IRS fake money orders totaling over $70 million, filed 58
fraudulent tax returns in a single year, falsely claimed on IRS forms that then‐Treasury
Secretary Henry Paulson was his fiduciary, submitted to the IRS $2.8 million in fake
bonded promissory notes as “tax payments” for other delinquent taxpayers (whom he
charged for his “services”), filed false IRS forms purporting to document $70 million in
unreported income received by IRS employees, and sent threats to a federal judge, a
federal prosecutor, and IRS employees. The district court sentenced Bodley to a total of
78 months’ imprisonment—well below the guidelines range of 121 to 151 months, and
ordered him to pay roughly $32,000 in restitution.
We initially appointed counsel to represent Bodley, but again he fired his attorney
and insisted that we let him continue to represent himself. After filing numerous
baseless motions, he tendered an appellate brief that is entirely frivolous. Bodley argues
that his 26 convictions must be overturned due to the loss of “highly relevant material
informational documentational evidence”—i.e., trial transcripts. But the record contains
full transcripts of his trial, as Bodley must know, since the clerk of this court mailed him
more than 1,000 pages of transcripts. Bodley also argues that he received ineffective
assistance of standby counsel (the second attorney appointed by the district court to
represent him), forcing him “to do battle alone and unarmed.” This assertion is meritless
because a defendant who exercises his Sixth Amendment right to represent himself does
not have a right to standby counsel, let alone effective standby counsel. See Simpson v.
Battaglia, 458 F.3d 585, 597 (7th Cir. 2006).
Bodley’s remaining assertions consist of shop‐worn tax‐protestor arguments that
courts have consistently rejected for over a century. For example, Bodley argues that he
is not a U.S. citizen, but a “direct individual beneficiary to the Constitutional Compact
Trust,” and therefore not subject to federal jurisdiction; that the entire federal criminal
code is unconstitutional; that federal judges and prosecutors collude to obtain
convictions in tax prosecutions for which, Bodley says, they receive a $40,000 bounty for
each person convicted; and that the district court erred by refusing his request for
personal financial records from each government employee involved in his prosecution
in order to prove such collusion. We have rejected as “unbelievably frivolous” similar
tax‐protestor arguments countless times. See United States v. Collins, 510 F.3d 697, 698
(7th Cir. 2007); see also, e.g., United States v. Cooper, 170 F.3d 691, 691 (7th Cir. 1999). And,
were this a civil case, Bodley would face a presumptive $4000 sanction for filing this
frivolous appeal. See United States v. Patridge, 507 F.3d 1092, 1096 (7th Cir. 2007); Szopa v.
United States, 460 F.3d 884, 887 (7th Cir. 2006). The judgment of conviction is AFFIRMED.
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