Hospital lab director TP

[Demosthenes]

Oconee hospital director resigns
By Chad Dorsett WSNW Special to Anderson Independent-Mail
Friday, November 30, 2007

SENECA — The director of lab services at Oconee Memorial Hospital has resigned amidst knowledge that he pleaded guilty to five counts of tax evasion in Tennessee. According to a press release form the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee Robert MacLafferty, 45, pled guilty in mid-October.

Hospital Marketing and Community Relations Director Hunter Kome disclosed the resignation.

“Bob MacLafferty resigned this week as director of lab services,” Mr. Kome said. “He recently pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges. Once we learned that he pled guilty we had a discussion with Bob and he resigned effective immediately.”

The announcement quoting Edward Yarborough, US Attorney, and Cleve Daniels, special agent in charge of Internal Revenue Service criminal investigation, states Mr. MacLafferty was employed by Tennessee Christian Medical Center in Madison, Tenn., as director of one of its laboratories from at least January 1996 through September 2006. It states that he was indicted April 11, 2007, charged with four counts of tax evasion for failing to file federal income tax returns for calendar years 2000 through 2003. He was also charged with one count of income tax evasion for attempting to evade the payment of $39,324 in income taxes owed for 1996 and 1997.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office states: “Although Mr. MacLafferty earned income which required him to file federal income tax returns for years 1996 through 2003, he failed to file such a return each year. According to testimony during the plea hearing, Mr. MacLafferty filed several false W-4 forms, which TCMC reduced or eliminated federal tax withholding from his paychecks. Additionally, Mr. MacLafferty provided false documents to his employer claiming he was not a citizen of the United States and therefore not liable to pay federal income taxes. Mr. MacLafferty admitted that he had adjusted gross income totaling $227,993 from 2000 to 2003, the years charged in the indictment.”

In light of Mr. MacLafferty’s resignation, OMH has appointed two interim co-directors for lab services. Lani Burrell and Neva Shelby will serve in those capacities and the hospital will be evaluating the situation and plans to make a decision in the near future about a permanent director.

“These are very good leaders and they are stepping up as interim co-directors, one more from a clinical standpoint and the other more from a business standpoint,” Mr. Kome said. “We anticipate that the operations in the laboratory will proceed without interruptions.”

[Quixote]

Mr. MacLafferty provided false documents to his employer claiming he was not a citizen of the United States and therefore not liable to pay federal income taxes.

I have wondered about the source of the idea that resident aliens, which Mr. McLafferty would be if he were not a citizen, are not liable for the income tax ever since I first heard it on an episode of Barney Miller.