Dispatches from the Creation Wars

In the most predictable result ever, the jury deliberated only 3 hours before finding Kent Hovind and his wife guilty on all charges.

A federal jury has convicted Kent Hovind and his wife, Jo, of tax fraud.

Hovind faces a maximum of 288 years in prison. His wife faces up to 225 years. Her charges include aiding and abetting her husband with 44 counts of evading bank-reporting requirements.

He won’t get that much, of course, nor should he. A couple years in jail, a nice fine. That oughta send a pretty strong message. It’s all lost on Hovind, of course. He is impenetrable to reason and he will spin this as a test of his faith or an act of Satan (when he’s not riding around in his UFOs) or whatever he has to tell himself to keep from actually thinking.

Comments

#1 Coin
November 2, 2006

schadenfreude \SHOD-n-froy-duh\, noun:
A malicious satisfaction obtained from the misfortunes of others.
#2 Rev. BigDumbChimp
November 2, 2006

Well, it’s not misfortune when you bring it upon yourself by defrauding the goverment and its taxpayers. That’s not Schadenfreude, that’s justice.

Brian, care to comment?
#3 Ginger Yellow
November 2, 2006

I wouldn’t celebrate just yet. That article seems very confused. The headline and lead says he has been convicted, but in the middle of the text there’s this:

Kent Hovind is charged with 58 federal counts, including failure to pay $845,000 in employee-related taxes and withholdings.

If found guilty, he faces a maximum of 288 years in prison. His wife, Jo Hovind, faces up to 225 years. Her charges include aiding and abetting her husband with 44 counts of evading bank-reporting requirements.

I suspect it’s just a cut and paste from a previous article that was supposed to be updated and wasn’t, but who knows?
#4 Doc Bill
November 3, 2006

Misfortune? What misfortune?

Hovind hasn’t suffered any misfortune. He’s a crook. He defrauded the government and we all pay for his fraud.

The sad thing is that after Hovind spends a few years in the Big House and pays his fine, he’ll be right back in Florida doing the same scam, so I suspect.
#5 Joe de Lange
November 3, 2006

Praise Science!
#6 John Wilkins
November 3, 2006

Out of philosophical interest, if the penalty for each crime is fair, why is it not fair that each be applied serially?
#7 Peter B Perlsø
November 3, 2006

Rev.BDC: “Well, it’s not misfortune when you bring it upon yourself by defrauding the goverment and its taxpayers.”

If Hovind acquired these funds legitimately and legally, then they are his, and government has no excuse for taking them away from him, calling it taxes or whatever. PERIOD.

I dislike Hovind for his silly anti-scientific ramblings as much as anyone else here, but this is silly.
#8 Daniel Morgan
November 3, 2006

Ginger,

The article was just a headline-breaker, and they threw all the other crap underneath the headline from old articles they’d written. There’s now a full article up on the front page. I have it here.
#9 Ick of the East
November 3, 2006

…..If Hovind acquired these funds legitimately and legally, then they are his, and government has no excuse for taking them away from him, calling it taxes or whatever. PERIOD.

I agree! Which is why I carry asphalt around with me to make my own roads, I’ve hired private police and fire departments, inspect my own meat, direct my own air traffic, and all this while spending my time in Afghanistan hunting the Taliban with my private weapons store.

I hope you are doing the same.
#10 Corkscrew
November 3, 2006

If Hovind acquired these funds legitimately and legally, then they are his, and government has no excuse for taking them away from him, calling it taxes or whatever. PERIOD.

If the government didn’t take taxes from people then they wouldn’t have the money to draft and implement legislation, so Hovind’s acquisition of these funds couldn’t possibly be “legal” because there’d be no such concept.

You like the existence of law? Then you need to pay taxes for its maintenance.
#11 Michael Hopkins
November 3, 2006

Clearly the Nov 2. story had a copy-and-paste of a preconviction story which makes that adds a bit of confusion. But I just checked and the same paper has a much clearer November 3 story.

Hovind is in jail right now: he must wait for his sentencing in jail. His wife is free until sentencing. They must forfeit $430,400 as well.
#12 Rev. Bigdumbchimp
November 3, 2006

If Hovind acquired these funds legitimately and legally, then they are his, and government has no excuse for taking them away from him, calling it taxes or whatever. PERIOD.

I dislike Hovind for his silly anti-scientific ramblings as much as anyone else here, but this is silly.

Well he was convicted by a jury of his peers because he BROKE THE LAWS of the land. We all pay atxes and when someone defrauds the system it is defrauding each and everyone of us.

If I decide to break a law that I believe is wrong should I be punished? I think the law that you can’t import unpasturized cheese from France is just plain silly. If I start importing and selling unpasturized cheese am I not breaking that law? Yes. Should I then not be punsihed just because I think it’s a silly law? Hell no.

You say If he aquired these fund legally then they can’t take them. Well, you’re wrong. If he aquired them legally and they are taxable funds, then yes the government can take them.

The anti-tax wackos are allowed whatever beliefs they like, but when they break the laws on the books they should be punished like any other common criminal and put in the same prison as the rest of them.
#13 Rev. Bigdumbchimp
November 3, 2006

Should have read

“Am I breaking the law?”
#14 anon1234
November 3, 2006

The next step is for Hovind (or HOVIND) to appeal, on the grounds that the courtroom flag had a yellow fringe around it and the court was therefore operating under admiralty rules.
#15 Ick of the East
November 3, 2006

…..“Nobody likes to pay taxes,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Heldmyer said in her closing argument. “But we do because it’s the law..”

Really? I pay taxes because I recognize what their purpose is. That is so that people working together can build a civilization that would be impossible when working individually.

Are most Americans really this divorced from civic responsibility?
#16 Scott Reese
November 3, 2006

Ick,

Unfortunately a significant fraction certainly are. I live in Georgia and my neighbors definitely are.
#17 Phobos
November 3, 2006

It’s all lost on Hovind, of course. He is impenetrable to reason

Here’s an apropos descriptor which ironically came from a D. James Kennedy show…it’s called “invulnerable ignorance”.
#18 NonyNony
November 3, 2006

Ick -

Yes. Yes they are. Most people I live around have no idea that their tax dollars actually ARE at work every single damn day facilitating the things that we take for granted as a first world country. The anti-tax nuts have succeeded in poisoning the debate on taxes to the point that folks equate taxes with stealing, instead of with the fact that they have a road to drive into work to earn the money that they have, or that they have police who work to protect their precious stuff.
#19 KeithB
November 3, 2006

Just because I recognise the need and willingly pay taxes, doesn’t mean I have to *like* it.

One thing though, most roads, fire and other services you care about are *not* paid by Federal taxes, but sales and property tax.
#20 Ed Brayton
November 3, 2006

John Wilkins wrote:

Out of philosophical interest, if the penalty for each crime is fair, why is it not fair that each be applied serially?

It would be unfair compared to more serious crimes and what the punishment would be. Had he murdered his wife, he would likely get no more than 20 years in prison. Surely it’s not reasonable to give 20 years for murder but over 200 for tax evasion.
#21 tacitus
November 3, 2006

Plus he’s white, and professes to be a Christian. That should be good for knocking a few decades of the maximum sentence. (Forgive my cynicism here.)
#22 MartinDH
November 3, 2006

Ed Brayton wrote:

John Wilkins wrote:

Out of philosophical interest, if the penalty for each crime is fair, why is it not fair that each be applied serially?

It would be unfair compared to more serious crimes and what the punishment would be. Had he murdered his wife, he would likely get no more than 20 years in prison. Surely it’s not reasonable to give 20 years for murder but over 200 for tax evasion.

The question to ask is “How many counts of tax evasion are equivalent to one count of 2nd degree murder?”. Anyway, since when has “justice” been concerned with “fairness”?
#23 dogmeatIB
November 3, 2006

Ed,

The problem with your comparison is that it isn’t a one for one comparison. If he had committed 44 counts of murder his penalty would have been far worse than your example of “killing his wife.”

I mean really, where do you draw the line? Multiple counts of murder = multiple sentences, but multiple counts of fraud don’t? What if it is an investment broker who defrauds little old ladies of their retirements?

He broke federal laws not once, not twice, but dozens of times.
#24 Ed Brayton
November 3, 2006

Even as much as I loathe Hovind and have for a couple decades now, I wouldn’t give him more than a few years in prison for this.
#25 LJ Aquaria
November 4, 2006

Give the guy a break for breaking the law?

Fuck ‘im!

If an impoverished kid steals a TV, he gets a longer sentence then these rich jerkoffs who embezzle millions or evade hundreds of thousands in taxes.

Let’s make the punishments fit the crimes, as the law and order types are always screaming, but really do it. You steal a $500 TV, you get X number of years in jail. You steal $500,000, you get X*1000 years in jail.

Fair’s fair.

I’m tired of these people getting to skate, simply because they have money and power enough to afford the fancy lawyer who can let ‘em skate.

Fuck ‘em.
#26 Peter B Perlsø
November 4, 2006

For those who make comment like these:

“Really? I pay taxes because I recognize what their purpose is. That is so that people working together can build a civilization that would be impossible when working individually.”

I have just a tiny bit to express in this regard, and that is that it is a woeful misunderstanding of the difference between state and society to assume that it is the state aparatus with its coercive law that “binds civilization together”.

Also Ick, considering your comments, do you support Bush’s war in Afghanistan, since you find it okay that your tax dollars are being wasted there??? Just curious.
#27 moebius
November 4, 2006

have just a tiny bit to express in this regard, and that is that it is a woeful misunderstanding of the difference between state and society to assume that it is the state aparatus with its coercive law that “binds civilization together”.

In a democracy, WE are the state.
#28 Phobos
November 9, 2006

Even as much as I loathe Hovind and have for a couple decades now, I wouldn’t give him more than a few years in prison for this.

How about a couple years in prison, plus a fine big enough to close Dinoland, and lots of community service (say, pulling warning stickers out of all those science textbooks)?
#29 A regretful tax paying citizen
November 29, 2006

Ohhhh you people are so quick to judge by your OWN Criteria. Taxes do fund may things in our country including the murder of unborn children. You want to
put this guy and his wife away for not paying taxes when
by LAW paying taxes is actually Illegal. I know a man who took the IRS to court and won – he doesn’t have to pay taxes on the condition he doesn’t tell anyone else his tactics. It takes lots of MONEY to be able to accomplish that and win. Kent Hovid had money, but he had one thing going against him – it is that he is a Christian. Our government is going to put this guy in prison for not contributing to the abortion fund – that sounds so fair. Our government is so twisted! I’m tired of our government trying to make “Christians” thier main example for everything. I’m glad this man stood up for what is truly right – you people are so critical of this man – why? – because you don’t have the guts he has to stand up and fight for what is right. There is no morality left in our government. We have a war against Islam and yet we vote a Muslim into our Congress and allow him to make his oath on the Koran instead of the Bible. This is the backward Country in which we live. And we want to pay the government to murder and financially support all the immoral gays and lesbians out there who do nothing but confuse children, spread disease, and make my insurance rates and taxes even higher. Yeah, I do pay taxes – I’m a coward – but at least I admit it. I’m not going to judge this man becuase the only one who should have that power is GOD.
#30 Ed Brayton
November 29, 2006

I am critical of Kent Hovind for one very simple reason: he is a fraud, a con man and a liar.