Hovind on Hold
The Pensacola News Journal reports:
An appeal by Pensacola creationist Kent Hovind and his wife, Jo Hovind, seeking acquittal on tax-fraud charges was denied.
U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers upheld the Hovinds’ November 2006 conviction on 44 counts of bank-structuring — the withdrawal of bank funds under the $10,000 threshold that triggers bank reports to the Internal Revenue Service.
During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that showed the couple routinely withdrew $9,500 and $9,600, from their bank.
In November, a jury found Kent Hovind guilty on 58 federal counts, including failure to pay $845,000 in employee-related taxes. In January, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Jo Hovind was convicted of 44 counts of evading bank-reporting requirements. Her sentencing was delayed pending the appeal and should soon be set.
Is anyone surprised by this? If so, I have some lovely oceanfront property in Oklahoma to sell you. As I recall, Hovind started by screwing with the judge, by pleading “Subornation of false muster”, whatever that means; then hired a lawyer with a long history of involvement with tax evasion; then didn’t even mount a defense.
And now, like a kid who has finally realized that there’s only so much he can get away with before mommy gets mad and really punishes him, he wants a mulligan.
Allow me to predict that he’ll continue claiming that he hasn’t done anything wrong (unless he thinks that repentance will play well with the parole board); he’ll rationalize his problems by saying that God wants him in prison, spreading the Word™ through his prison ministry; and his followers will continue to defend him.
(Thanks to for the headline. Better than what I could come up with: “God to Hovind: HA-ha!”)