Q. What did you do about your joint accounts and joint credit cards?
A. I canceled our credit cards. The joint bank account was the one she used. I took some money out of it and put it in my own account.
Q. When you canceled the credit cards, did your wife agree to that?
A. I don’t know.
Q. Did you consult her about it?
A. No. I did it, and then I told her that her credit cards were no good, and if she wanted one, she better get one for herself.
Q. Okay, Mr. Fallon. Now I want to call your attention to some documents that you’ve provided for us. Will you look at these, please, and tell me if these are photocopies of your bank statements from the time when you and your wife separated and you established your separate accounts?
A. (Witness reviews documents.)
Q. You’ve had a chance to look over these papers. These are your personal bank statements for the months of February a year ago through April, last month?
A. Yes.
Q. And this account is the only bank account that you have, or have had, since you and your wife separated your finances?
A. Right. Yes.
Q. So all of your financial activities are reflected in these bank statements.
A. Is that a question?
Q. Yes. I’ll restate. Are all of your personal financial activities since the time when you and your wife separated accounted for in this particular account, and are these the complete statements of that account?
A. That’s worse than your other question. But, yes. The answer is yes.
MS. COOPER: I want to mark these as Exhibits 13 through 27 for the record.
(Exhibits 13 through 27 marked for identification.)
Q. Okay, now, Mr. Fallon. Here we have several pages of photocopies of canceled checks and others with photocopies of checks stubs. Are these what you provided for us today?
A. (Witness reviews documents.)
Q. Have you had a chance to look at these documents? And are they what you provided for us?
A. Umm, yes. That’s what these are.
MS. COOPER: Let’s mark these exhibits now. They will be Exhibits 28 through 57. There are thirty pages of photocopies here.
(Exhibits 28 through 57 marked for identification.)
Q. Now, calling your attention to Exhibit 16, Mr. Fallon. Your bank statement from last May, a year ago. Would you read this line here, where I’m pointing?
A. That’s a deposit for $8,500.
Q. What was your source of that money?
A. I don’t remember.
Q. Would you examine the documents on which the check stubs were photocopied, please, and point out the stub for that $8,500 check you deposited.
A. (Witness examines exhibit.)
A. It’s not here.
Q. How do you account for that?
A. I don’t know. It might’ve been a check with no stub. You know, like somebody’s personal check.
Q. Could that have been cash that you deposited?
A. I don’t know. I guess so.
MR. COYNE: Yes or no.
A. Yes. It could have been cash.
Q. Where would you get $8,500 in cash?
A. It might have come from a lot of different places, in smaller amounts, and I just held onto it until it added up and then I deposited it.
Q. Is that what actually happened?
A. I don’t remember. Like I said, it might’ve been a check with no stub.
Q. And who would have given you a check for that amount?
A. I don’t know.
Q. From where might you have received cash or personal checks that would add up to $8,500?
A. I don’t know. Some people owe me money. Maybe they paid me in cash or personal checks.
Q. Who owes you money?
A. Friends. Business acquaintances.
Q. Can you be specific as to names and amounts and the conditions of these loans you’ve made?
A. I don’t recall. I help out my friends sometimes, that’s all.
Q. Okay. Now let’s look at Exhibit 19. What is this where I’m pointing?
Cooper questioned Mick about several other deposits he had made into his account within the past sixteen months. A couple of them had been made on consecutive days. All were substantial, but none exceeded $10,000. His responses were all the same—he couldn’t remember where they came from, or whether they were cash or personal checks.
I knew that Cooper was thinking what I was thinking—that banks are obligated to report any cash deposit of $10,000.01 or more to the IRS, and that Mick appeared to have broken up larger amounts than that into separate, smaller deposits.
Q. These are fairly large amounts of money, Mr. Fallon—$8,500 and $6,000 and $7,500; $5,000; $9,500; $6,500—that’s $43,000—not to remember where any of it came from. Are you sure you can’t help me out here?
MR. COYNE: My client has answered your questions.
MS. COOPER: Yes. All right.
Q. Looking at Exhibit 15, now, Mr. Fallon. What is this here where I’m pointing?
A. (Witness reviews exhibit.)
A. It’s a check I wrote, check number 43. It’s for $10,000.
Q. Would you look through Exhibits 28 through 57 and find the photocopy of check number 43, please?
A. (Witness reviews exhibits.)
A. It’s right here. Check 43.
Q. Who is this check made out to?
A. Cash. It’s made out to cash.
Q. Do you remember what you did with this $10,000 in cash?
A. No. Maybe I owed somebody some money, or—
MR. COYNE: Just yes or no, Mick.
A. No. I don’t remember.
And Barbara Cooper proceeded to question Mick about checks he had written to “cash.” There were nine of them, all large. His answers in all cases were the same: “I don’t remember.”
Q. That’s, let’s see, that’s $72,500 that you took in cash in the space of a few months, and you don’t remember how you spent it. Is that your testimony?
A. Yes.
Q. Now, Mr. Fallon, calling your attention to Exhibit 12 again, which is a copy of your individual tax return for last year, would you please point out to me where on this return you have accounted for the income of $43,000 that you testified came to you as cash or personal checks and that you deposited into your bank account?
MR. COYNE: I want to go off the record for a minute.
(Counsel confers with witness.)
I steered Mick back out into the reception area. The secretary, who was talking on the telephone, looked up, gave us a quick smile, hung up the phone, and left the room.
“Sit down,” I said to Mick.
He slumped on the sofa. I stood in front of him.
“Okay,” I said, “now tell me. Is that forty-three grand accounted for on your tax return?”
He shook his head.
“Should it have been?”
“I don’t know. I guess so.”
“You testified you couldn’t remember where it came from. Was that the truth?”
“No. I know where it came from.”
“And the seventy-two-five you took in cash?”
“What the fuck is she trying to do to me?”
“Who?”
“Kaye, for Christ’s sake. Don’t you see what’s going on?”
“I think I do,” I said. “Now answer my question.”
“About the seventy-two-five?”
“Right.”
“Yeah, I know what I did with it.”
“You paid off debts.”
He nodded.
“What kind of debts, Mick?”
He looked up at me, then shrugged. “You know,” he mumbled.
“Maybe I do,” I said, “but I want you to explain it to me right now. And you better tell me the truth this time, or I’ll fire you. You lied to me before. You said you didn’t cheat on your tax
es.”
“You’re pissed, huh?”
“I’m embarrassed, Mick.”
He looked up at me, shrugged, then bent forward with his arms dangling between his legs.
“Gambling?” I said.
He nodded.
“You’re supposed to report what you win gambling.”
“I figured if I lost more than I won—”
“It doesn’t work that way. You know that, don’t you?”
Mick’s eyes refused to meet mine. “Yeah, I guess I do. But, see, I figured—”
“Don’t lie to your lawyer, Mick. Never again. Understand?”
“Okay,” he said.
“Tell me about the gambling, Mick.”
He let out a long breath. “When Kaye and I got married, she made me promise to quit. I tried, but…”
“But you can’t help it, right?”
He nodded. “I’ve always gambled. I was lucky in college and in the pros. I mean, I never bet on my own games, and back then you could get away with it if you were careful. But Kaye knew. She hated it. So I promised her I’d quit.”
“But you didn’t quit.”
“I really did try. But I—it’s in my blood. I handled the money in the family, I did all my gambling with cash, I never lost too much more than I won, and I was able to cover it up from Kaye.”
“Your accountant never questioned you?”
“Ray? Oh, he just used the figures I gave him. He never said anything.”
“Do you realize what kind of trouble you could be in?”
He looked up at me. “I think about it all the time, man. Every time the phone rings or someone knocks on my door, I’m thinking, Uh-oh, the IRS. Here they come.”
“And you’re still gambling?”
“Oh, yeah. I need a big hit. I owe ’em big time. I’m in bad shape, man.”
“Well,” I said, “this explains why Attorney Cooper wanted to depose you.”
“What, so she could get me arrested for tax evasion?”
“No. Because she’s protecting her client’s interests.”
“Kaye doesn’t know about the gambling.”
“Well, Attorney Cooper has figured it out, Mick. Come on. We’re going back in there.”
“You mean, I’ve got to tell them about the gambling?”
“No.”
MR. COYNE: I’ve advised my client not to answer that last question, or any other questions pertaining to his bank account or his tax return for last year.
MS. COOPER: What about questions pertaining to his income and expenditures for the period before he and my client separated?
MR. COYNE: No more questions on those subjects, either.
MS. COOPER: I don’t have any further questions, then.
(Whereupon the deposition concluded at 12:45 P.M.)
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I AM INDEBTED TO Vicki Stiefel (my virtual spouse, for her incredibly perceptive, helpful, and candid editorial criticism, not to mention her love and support), Keith Kahla (an editor who actually edits), Keith Wegener (my hunting and fishing partner and my main man in Maine), Dr. Charles Damitz (for his technical help on veterinary medicine), and Jed Mattes (my good shepherd), who were all wonderfully generous with their time and expertise, and without whose faith, interest, and insights this story would undoubtedly be a mess.
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Copyright © 1998 by William G. Tapply
Cover design by Kathleen Lynch
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