Following up on last week’s post (IRS Employee from Hell):  Interesting article in today’s New York Law Journal:  Conviction Reinstated of IRS Analyst Who Threatened Arresting Officers With Audits; Though Audit Threats Lacked Authority, 2nd Circuit Says IRS Employee Acted Under Color of Law, by Mark Hamblett:

An IRS employee who threatened police detectives with audits during her arrest on an unrelated harassment charge has had her conviction reinstated by a federal appeals court. The 2nd Circuit, in a case of first impression, said that IRS program analyst Eva Temple was acting under color of law when she made the threats, even though her arrest had nothing to do with her position and she lacked the authority or ability to carry out the threats. But the court also dismissed a count of intimidating conduct against Temple in United States v. Temple, 05-0165 [5/1/06]….

Two New York Police Department detectives went to the IRS office where Temple worked in Manhattan on March 5, 2003, to arrest her for a prior incident of aggravated harassment against the employees of her landlord’s management company. They met an agent of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, who escorted them to Temple’s office. Temple was asked to leave the building with the detectives, but on the way out she allegedly became violent and started screaming obscenities. She was restrained, handcuffed and taken down to a car. Once she was locked into the backseat, Temple kicked one of the detectives and, later during the trip, said she had the ability to initiate investigations and audits into their tax histories. She also said, apparently referring to black colleagues in the IRS, there "were a number of brothers and sisters who held a grudge against the NYPD," and she would contact them to audit the detectives’ tax records.