I Think Tom Wheeler Is A Good Man Deserving Acquittal

August 30, 2011 At the Wheeler Trial

I went with fellow actor Jay Villwock to the Tom Wheeler trial today, where we observed most of the afternoon proceedings in which Tom took the stand and faced his attorney, Angela Campbell, as well as the prosecutor, Thomas H. Miller.

My account of today's courtroom action is a series of small paragraphs and isolated sentences. Sorry, but the events today were chopped up and assorted, difficult for me to compose in large easy-to-digest chunks. Here you go.....

Tom's brothers Kent and David were present, as was their mother and Tom's girlfriend.

The jury consists of only three men, with the remaining nine jurors being women, which I find interesting because of the fact that Tom's lawyer is also a female. Why is this of interest? Well, I guess I'm hoping the jurors will find the lawyer for the defense easier to relate to.

Okay, enough of that. Now back to the trial.

Tom was asked about the producer of "The Underground", a Mr. Goldstein, and why he would have changed his name to Gold. Tom theorized that it was because Mr. Goldstein feared that some Iowans would have felt uneasy dealing with a jewish person. Mr. Goldstein had been convicted of a felony, of which Tom knew nothing when dealing with his tax incentive application.

The topic of the Range Rover came up and Tom said the "South Dakota" producers said the car would be used to transfer personnel, such as the top stars, and also for camera work. He said he did not know of any fraud involving this car.

As for the producers of "Children of the Corn", where a Mercedes car was purchased, Tom was told it would be used to transport talent. He said the state law did not restrict the use of a vehicle and therefore he did not see a violation regarding the car purchase.

He said people were mad about these car purchases and that he made efforts to modify the law but legislating changes requires a cumbersome and lengthy process and nobody took necessary action to change the law.

Tom said he wanted to keep a solid paper trail. At today's proceeding the prosecutor introduced several emails in which Tom communicated with various movie producers, which proves he did in fact maintain a good paper trail.

He said he felt he was organized but that he "had a lot to juggle". Tom said that in the summer of 2009, the IDED "rifled through everything and made a wreck" of his files. He said he worked "fifty to sixty hours a week" and was not paid for overtime. Tom said he even took care of IFO emails at his father's funeral. When asked why he said, "Because I was a loyal servant of the state."

When someone suggested that Tom's job was glamorous he pointed out that he never even met Adrian Brody, Forest Whitaker(sp) or other such actors

He wanted and needed help to handle the massive amount of paperwork but was refused by his IDED superiors.

He said he never moved a signature from one contract to another, and that things were always changing with films, requiring him to update data on contracts. It was clear to all of the IDED folks that film costs were not based on contracted amounts and that much was spent for movies at the end of each project.

Background checks were added to his duties, but his plate was overflowing and he would not be able to do this without additional help. He communicated on a regular basis but found that his superiors did not keep their appointments and that there was no open door policy for addressing problems.

Tom said he did raise questions when problems arose and there were no guidebooks to study for matters relating to the department of revenue, attorney general, and nobody clearly stated how to specifically and properly run the IFO in order to satisfy the state.

There was a huge ongoing surge of producers establishing a movie industry here, with the promise of providing jobs for generations of Iowans. 20th Century Fox, and CBS Films were among many studios who were on the verge of establishing roots here.

Prosecutor Miller posed a series of questions, most of which concerning the two luxury cars issue.Miller asked if Tom's hands were on "the pursestrings" of movie money, to which Tom said, "No, I just checked paperwork" and "conducted spot audits and cross-checking". He believed cross-checking would be a good way to discover errors and was a good overall safeguard. He said there was nobody assigned to assist him.

Producer Isaccson (sp) exploited a loophole in the film tax incentives laws, but the law did not restrict the purchase of cars. This was a legislative problem, not fixable without the involvement of Iowa lawmakers.

I feel Tom Wheeler did not knowingly commit fraud or conspiracy and that his superiors flatly refused to throw him a lifebuoy as he bobbed in heavy waves of thousands of pages of paperwork, impossible for one man to manage. Tom strikes me as being a very honest man and I hope he is acquitted of all charges and will be able to move on with his life.