Seventh Circuit Will Not Let Tax Protester Blame His Lawyer For Conviction

Besides my interest in the case (tax protestation), there are some very good "resources" mentioned (cf Russell Haynes, IRS digest of common tax protestor arguments with citation to court cases striking them down, Daniel Evans catalog refuting many tax protester theories and Here is the Law That Makes the Average American Liable for the Income Tax).

James Stuart thought that Peter Hendrickson had “cracked the code” – the Internal Revenue Code, that is. Joe Kristan would characterize it as finding the tax fariy – that magical sprite who make your taxes go away painlessly while your sucker friends send checks to the tax man. Hendrickson’s book is available on Amazon if you would like to check it out for yourself. You’ll be out twenty bucks even for a used copy, so you might want to check out some of the one star reviews. There is a free copy pdf copy available online. There are also quite a few videos in which Hendrickson explains his theories. Before you get too caught up in the concepts, I should caution you that like Peter Hendrickson, himself, Mr. Stuart has done (is still doing) federal time for tax crimes.

The Trial According to the Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator, Mr. Stuart is at a reentry facility in Chicago and is due to be released in mid-January. The Seventh Circuit just refused to overturn a District Court decision denying him a new trial. He was arguing ineffective assistance of counsel. Here are some of the high points.

During opening statements Stuart’s trial counsel asserted the theory of Stuart’s defense: Stuart believed that he owed no taxes. He explained that Stuart thought that the money he earned from his family business, New Age Chemical, was not income and that the United States had no authority to tax income. Stuart had adopted these views after reading a book called “Cracking the Code,” which urges people to resist paying income taxes, but his counsel told the jury that Stuart learned his ideas from his fellow church patrons. Counsel described Stuart as a curious, determined, and “kooky, not criminal” person. Only after he received no response to his inquiries from the IRS, the Secretary of the Treasury, or his accountants about his tax ideas, counsel mused, did Stuart begin to refrain from paying income tax.

[,,,]
It might have worked, but of course it didn’t. And that is why Mr. Stuart was arguing ineffective assistance of counsel. The District court did not buy it and the Seventh Circuit is not having any of it either.

And in this case trial counsel’s decision not to call Stuart to testify was reasonable. Stuart’s far-fetched, tax-protesting ideas were already presented to the jury through his letters to the IRS, and his emails and conversations with the accountants. They were also reinforced during opening statements and closing arguments. Calling Stuart to testify would not have added to this information but might have further alienated the jury.

Seventh Circuit Will Not Let Tax Protester Blame His Lawyer For Conviction

Imprisoned creationist faces new charges

As y'all know I follow the "Dr" Dino saga (aka Kent Hovind) via two primary individuals.  One of which sends me information almost daily.  But every now and again I find things on my own. 

This is WingNutsDaily's take on the matter.  Notice that they "rely" on  Peter J. Reilly commentary further down in the piece,

Ironically I have been accused of being a Hovind supporter myself.  I've decided to call those critics the militantly rational.  I agree with them on the probable  age of the earth and the reality of evolution and things like that, but I just don't get as upset at the likes of Kent Hovind who has never met a conspiracy theory that he didn't like.  It is understandable that someone who thinks Kent is a whackadoodle might be pleased that his whackadoodle tax theories have put him in prison and the longer the better, but that is not my view.  Very few tax crimes are prosecuted and I think further prosecution of Hovind is a bad idea.  The current case against him seems a little weak, so he might get acquitted which would appear to be a vindication.  On the other hand if he is convicted he appears to be a martyr.  Neither outcome is good for promoting tax compliance.

It is a bit awkward as Peter is now the  "love him/ hate him" guy in the middle.

[For those interested a retrospect on Peter's coverage of the Hovind case up to August of 2014.]

As for the "facts" of the case as presented they appear to be accurate by my personal understanding.  A better person than I may be able to better comment on that aspect.

Only months away from being released to a halfway house after nearly eight years in prison, the popular creation-science lecturer and theme-park creator known as Dr. Dino is facing new charges in his tax-related case.

A federal court Monday in Pensacola, Florida, scheduled a trial to begin Dec. 1 for Kent Hovind, founder of Creation Science Evangelism and Dinosaur Adventure Land, on mail-fraud charges in connection with court filings on land seized by the federal government in his case.

As WND reported, Hovind was sentenced to 10 years in prison in January 2007 after he was convicted of 12 tax offenses, one count of obstructing federal agents and 45 counts of structuring cash transactions.

Hovind contends the original charges were based largely on the Internal Revenue Service’s misinterpretation of his tax obligations as a minister of the gospel who had taken a vow of poverty and, therefore, owed no income tax. He and his wife, Jo Hovind, who spent one year in federal prison, paid employees in cash without filing payroll tax returns, designating them as “missionaries.” Although Kent Hovind, an avid blogger, has made statements challenging the authority of the federal government to collect income taxes, he has insisted he has never been “anti-tax or a tax protester,” has advocated obeying the government and “always paid every tax I owe.”


The new indictment also names his current chief legal adviser, John Paul Hansen of Omaha, Nebraska, as a defendant. Hansen has declared himself a “free inhabitant” or “sovereign citizen” who does not recognize U.S. sovereignty. He pays no income or property tax and drives a car without owning a driver’s license.

Imprisoned creationist faces new charges

We Are The Future Generations: Ernie Land Challenges Common Law Theorists And Others To Make Kent Hovind A Test Case

Ernie Land is a name that pops up in regards to tax protestation and the Sovereign Movement; and not just because of his ties to Kent Hovind.  I was tickled pink when this article came to my attention.

Also for more background info concerning Hovind's tax case, check out the links at the very end of Peter's posting.  As much as this case fascinates me and the obvious connection to the Sovereign Movement, I haven't been able to give it the "coverage" it deserves.

If you spend some time on the internet you will find that there are many theories as to why the common belief that most people in this country who work and earn beyond an insubstantial amount of income are required to file income tax returns are mistaken.  Irwin Schiff has a fairly elaborate explanation that shows how most of us are deceived into filing tax returns that are not really required.  Like Kent Hovind, Irwin Schiff is in federal prison.

Here is where Ernie and I differ,  Ernie believes that at least some of those people are right, that there are ways in which our government is fundamentally invalid.  He urges compliance merely as a practical matter.  I have yet to find an argument of the Schiff variety at all persuasive and it is not for lack of understanding or study.

Kent Hovind has been talking to a lot of people lately and has been making the argument that the crime of structuring that he was convicted of (systematically dealing in amounts of cash less than $10,000 to avoid reporting requirements) were really motivated to silence him in his quest to show that evolution is bad science.  My inference is that the reason Kent got in so much trouble on the structuring was related to the other counts of his indictment that involved paying the employees at a Dinosaur theme park in cash and referring to them as "missionaries" rather than withholding taxes and filing the appropriate forms.  Ernie agrees that it was a bad idea for Kent to do that, but still believes that the federals government's prosecution of Kent has a religious basis.

We Are The Future Generations: Ernie Land Challenges Common Law Theorists And Others To Make Kent Hovind A Test Case

ADDENDUM::Encyclopedia of American Loons: #533: Edward & Elaine Brown

Curious, I have never heard of the Brown's before,,,

Encyclopedia of American Loons: #533: Edward & Elaine Brown

After being convicted, they holed up in their house (compound) refusing to leave and threatening violent action against law enforcement, which resulted in an eight month costly armed standoff. The whole saga is summed up here.

Ed used to be a militia guy and spokesman for the Constitution Defense Militia. His (self-appointed) responsibility, according a 1994 interview, was to designate various individuals and organizations as being part of a conspiracy to deprive Americans of life and liberty, a relatively easy task for the already unhinged (not being very creative the 1994 list included primarily very predictable choices: Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Gorbachev, The Council on Foreign Relations, the UN, the Trilateral Commission, the American Bar Association, and FEMA). Aside from his primary duty Brown stockpiled 18 months’ worth of food, weapons and ammunition, believing there would be a Federal government takeover of “private property, utilities, health facilities and the media,” in the near fugure. The militia was setting up its own “courts… for the purpose of taking back America,” and Brown saw no way the conflict would end except in violence – an attitude that has a tendency to be self-fulfilling.
,,,
After going into hiding, Elaine claimed that “[t]he only law book we now recognize is the Bible. The only way we're coming out of our home is either as free man and free woman or in body bags,” alleging that they were not US citizens, were non-residents for tax purposes, that their compound was not in the US but in the Kingdom of Heaven, and – just to be sure – also that the New Hampshire business tax laws were incorrect, null and void, that the Feds have no jurisdiction in New Hampshire, that labor could not be taxed, and that the law enforcement officials surrounding his properties were part of a “Zionist, Illuminati, Freemason movement,” who were “now attacking the Creator himself or itself, … You kill them. That is exactly what the Ten Commandments tell you to do.” But as Ed emphasized “We're not conspiracy theorists, we deal with conspiracy facts. Freemasonry and Judaism – that is the truth.”

For those that say there is no law requiring the payment of Income Tax, see: 26 U.S. Code § 6012 - Persons required to make returns of income,,, 

Pardon By President Ron Paul - Last Hope for the Browns ?

,,,Instead of surrendering to serve their five year sentences, they fortified their home in New Hampshire stockpiling food and weapons. They had a lot of sympathy and support including an endorsement by presidential candidate Ron Paul, who compared them to Gandhi and Martin Luther King,,,

,,,During the nine month stand-off with the marshals, the challenge that the Browns made was summed up in the phrase “Show me the law”:,,,

The challenge got me to thinking. I spend most of my time helping people with tax compliance so I know a good bit about the various sections that go into computing the tax, but I could not off the top of my head say what section said you had to file. Talk about existential terror. What would I have said to Ed Brown. It was a great relief when after about five minutes I found in Title 26 of the United States Code:_

6012 Persons required to make returns of income.

Returns with respect to income taxes under subtitle A shall be made by the following:

Every individual having for the taxable year gross income which equals or exceeds the exemption amount ……..

Pricey, possibly bomb-laden property no easy sell - The Washington Post

It turns out there isn’t a huge market for a $250,000-plus, 100-acre property that may be booby-trapped.

The sale of the compound owned by a now-jailed pair of tax evaders who held off police during a nine-month armed standoff is beset by problems both procedural and perilous: High bidders would have only seven days to come up with the financing for the property they have to buy largely sight-unseen because it could be filled with hidden explosives.

No bidders showed up at an Aug. 15 auction at federal court in Concord, where Deputy Chief U.S. Marshal Brenda Mikelson went through the motions of soliciting a minimum bid of $250,000 on the Plainfield compound where fugitives Ed and Elaine Brown holed up in 2007.

The Browns were ultimately captured by U.S. marshals posing as two of the supporters who thronged the compound.

[,,,]
Another obstacle: Concerns that booby traps and explosives may be buried on the densely wooded property mean federal officials still won’t let interested bidders tour it. Buyers who are prepared to ante up a hefty bid on the Plainfield property have to do it with little access.

During his trial in 2009, Ed Brown testified that explosives in the woods around their home were there to scare intruders, not hurt them. But in a radio interview during the standoff, he said if authorities came to kill him or arrest him, “the chief of police in this town, the sheriff, the sheriff himself will die. This is war now, folks.”

Elaine and Ed Brown are in the 70s. Elaine Brown is serving 35 years in prison; Ed Brown is serving 37 years.

Pricey, possibly bomb-laden property no easy sell - The Washington Post