Real World Dynamics -- the Cheek Good Faith Belief Defense

In United States v. Mostler, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS (3d Cir. 2/11/11), an nonprecedential decision, the Court offers some real world dynamics on the presentation of this defense to the jury.

The defendant asserted the Cheek good faith belief defense. The Court of Appeals noted that, prior to embarking on a course of nonpayment of tax, the defendant did some "additional research" "largely conducted on the internet." The defendant quit paying his taxes . (The Court of Appeals decision talks in terms of nonpayment, but it is unclear whether the nonpayment resulted from (i) failure to report / file or (ii) filing returns without paying the taxes reported due or (iii) filing fraudulent returns failing to report the taxes due.) In any event, he was charged with four counts of tax evasion (apparently evasion of payment because of the courts other descriptions). His "sole defense" was that he had not willfully violated the law.
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