Wesley Snipes ordered to surrender in tax case

Assoc. Press Story

A federal judge on Friday ordered actor Wesley Snipes to surrender to authorities so he can begin serving a three-year prison sentence for tax-related crimes.

U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges in Florida rejected a request from the actor's attorneys to review Snipes' sentence and grant a new trial. Snipes has been free on bond for more than two years while appealing.

"The defendant Snipes had a fair trial; he has had a full, fair and thorough review of his conviction and sentence. ... The time has come for the judgment to be enforced," the judge wrote in his 16-page decision.

The 48-year-old star of the "Blade" trilogy and Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever" was convicted in 2008 on three misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file his income tax returns. He was acquitted of two more serious felony charges.

Snipes' defense attorney, Daniel Meachum, said in an e-mail to the Associated Press that he planned to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Meachum said later in an interview that he didn't expect the Bureau of Prisons to take custody of the actor for another five to seven days. Snipes is in Atlanta, preparing to film the movie "Master Daddy."

"Wesley is incredibly calm and positive," Meachum said in the interview in his Atlanta office. "He wasn't angered. He wasn't bitter."

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