They just keep marching off that cliff

[Demosthenes]

Tax protester pays with prison

BY LISA THOMPSON
lisa.thompson@timesnews.com [more details]
Published: March 12. 2008 6:00AM

A GE Transportation retiree has been sentenced to one year and nine months in federal prison for failing to file income tax returns from 2000 until 2004.

Leroy M. Bennett, 64, of Edinboro and Bunnell, Fla., whom the government labeled a "tax protester," must also serve one year of supervised release and perform 100 hours of community service, Senior U.S. District Judge Maurice B. Cohill Jr. said.

The sentence issued in U.S. District Court in Erie was one of two tax-related criminal cases to go before Cohill Tuesday.

In the second case, a Waterford resident, Ella Alloway, 56, pleaded guilty to three counts of preparing false income tax returns.

She faces a maximum sentence of nine years in prison when she is sentenced Aug. 5. The actual sentence will depend on sentencing guidelines and Alloway's prior criminal history, if any.

A federal grand jury indicted Alloway in March 2007 on charges she prepared 50 false income tax returns that improperly boosted taxpayers' refunds.

The charges stemmed from tax returns Alloway prepared between March 2, 2002, and March 8, 2004, according to court records.

In the Bennett case, a federal grand jury indicted Bennett in April on five counts of willful failure to file an income tax return.

A jury convicted him of all counts at trial in December.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine A. Sanner said evidence established that Bennett earned income through wages and a pension, but failed to file his income tax returns.

She said Bennett's lawyer, Jerold Barringer, of Illinois, argued that Bennett believed he had "volunteered out" of the federal tax system. She said the defense also raised frivolous arguments meant to protest the tax system.

In handing down the sentence, Cohill said the tax loss to the government was $80,000.

Criminal investigators with the Internal Revenue Service handled both cases.

LISA THOMPSON can be reached at 870-1802 or by e-mail.

[Famspear]

from above...

[. . . .]Bennett's lawyer, Jerold Barringer, of Illinois, argued that Bennett believed he had "volunteered out" of the federal tax system.

Yes, in the same sense that Bennett has now "volunteered into" the Federal prison system.