Headline O’ the Day, courtesy of the Gazette:
Victory will hinge on how many voters vote Tuesday
Let’s file that under D for Duh.
Secondly, if you live in Anne Arundel, please remember to vote against religious nutcase,
bigot, and all-around asshat
Don Dwyer tomorrow.
A quick recap of the Ted Haggard affair so far: a man came forward saying he was a male prostitute, that he had been meeting with Ted Haggard for three years, and sold him meth at least twice. After an initial full denial, Haggard admitted that he had bought the meth but not used it. More recently, he admitted to “sexual immorality”, which I guess is as close as he’s likely to get to saying that he’s gay. I think he said about one of the voicemail messages that has surfaced that he was going to see the guy for a massage.
Okay, so what’s wrong with this picture? (Or, alternately, how much schadenfreude can we dig out of it, and what kind?)
The Pensacola News Journal reports that Kent Hovind was led away to jail after he and his wife were found guilty of tax fraud.
U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers released Jo Hovind until sentencing but denied Kent Hovind’s request to be released. He most likely will be detained at either Escambia County Jail or Santa Rosa County Jail until sentencing.
[Prosecuting attorney Michelle] Heldmyer said Kent Hovind was a flight risk and a “danger to the community.”
Kent Hovind? Flight risk? Say it ain’t so!… No, wait, they already did say it was so when he was arrested and the court took away his passport so he couldn’t flee the country (as it looked that he might).
Sentencing is scheduled to take place Jan. 9, so it doesn’t seem that Hovind will be having a happy Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year.
Oh, and by the way:
The jury also granted the prosecution’s request for the Hovinds to forfeit $430,400. That amount equals the value of the checks signed and cashed by Jo Hovind in the 44 counts.
I wonder how much of that $430,000 will come from Hovind’s bank accounts, and how much will have to come from auctioning off God’s guns and bits of pieces of CSE and Dinosaur Adventure Land.
Let’s hope Kent learns something during his time in prison.
Yeah, I know schadenfreude isn’t one of the nobler emotions, and I probably shouldn’t be enjoying Hovind’s conviction as much as I am, but hey, I’m descended from apes who survived by living in groups and had to punish individuals who obtained personal gain at the group’s expense, so I can’t help it.
Well, that didn’t take long:
Jury deliberations took about three hours.
A federal jury has convicted Kent Hovind and his wife, Jo, of tax fraud.
The article doesn’t say whether they were found guilty on all charges, or what the sentence will be.
Also, at some point the PNJ started reporting that the Hovinds owed $845,000 in unpaid taxes, rather than the original $470,000. I don’t know what the deal is with that.
Update, 13:19: astute commenter DodgerDean provided a link to the booking photo, which I’ve added here.
Goosing the Antithesis has two challenges for theists, neither of which ought to be terribly difficult:
(Thanks to Pharyngula for pointing these out.)
I’ve been away for a few days, but imagine my surprise at reading this
in Wednesday’s Pensacola News Journal:
The prosecution has rested its case in the trial of Pensacola evangelist and tax protestor Kent Hovind and his wife, Jo.
The defense will not present a case.
And then today’s article:
Defense lawyers for Kent and Jo Hovind rested their case on Wednesday without presenting evidence or calling witnesses.