Post by WaTcHeR on Mar 24, 2006 17:11:04 GMT -5
03/24/2006 - The tax evasion trial of a North Charleston police officer opened Thursday with a simple message to the jury.
"Police normally enforce the law," Assistant Attorney General Thomas McDermott said. "But not in this case."
Sgt. Joyce Middleton, a department supervisor who earned more than $40,000 a year, is charged with failing to pay three years' worth of state income taxes, from 2000 through 2002.
Her motivation is unclear, although in the past she's characterized herself as a self-educated tax protester who asserts that state and federal income taxes are unconstitutional.
For more than five hours Thursday, prosecution witnesses portrayed Middleton as a cheat who invented her own tax rules and took deductions to which she wasn't entitled.
She listed meals she ate while on duty, even though North Charleston's personnel policy doesn't allow them to be deducted, said Marshall Smith, a field auditor with the state Department of Revenue.
She also deducted her police uniform expenses, even though her uniform was provided by the city, which also reimbursed her for cleaning costs.
And, in one of the more extreme filings, she claimed to have nine dependents, though prosecution witnesses said they knew of only two children in her life: Her own and another child that her husband brought to their marriage.
When she did file a state tax return for some of the years in question, it was months late and didn't include a check for the amount she owed, even by her own calculations, Smith said.
"She didn't feel she needed to pay state or federal income taxes, so she didn't," McDermott told the jury.
"She didn't file after her arrest," he added. "She still hasn't paid."
Middleton's public defender didn't say whether Middleton will testify in her defense, which continues this morning before Circuit Judge Danny Pieper when the trial resumes in the county Judicial Center.
In his opening, defense attorney Tree Martschink asked the jury to consider whether Middleton's actions were "consistent with someone who knew they were breaking the law."
The trial is one of many that have popped up across the country in recent years with people protesting paying their income taxes on religious or constitutional grounds.
Practically all have been turned back through the courts.
Middleton faces three counts of felony income tax evasion for failing to pay nearly $3,000 in state income taxes. The maximum penalty is 15 years in prison and $30,000 in fines.
Middleton, who lives in Bowman in Orangeburg County, has been on unpaid suspension since March 2003, when she was arrested by state revenue agents.
She came to the attention of authorities after she filled out a W-4 form claiming that she was exempt from taxation. She requested that no money be withheld from her salary because she was a "nonresident alien," and therefore not required to pay income taxes.
She was told she couldn't work as a police officer and be an alien at the same time.
City officials said Middleton then changed her position and asserted that she is a citizen but refused to allow the city to withhold taxes from her pay.
"Police normally enforce the law," Assistant Attorney General Thomas McDermott said. "But not in this case."
Sgt. Joyce Middleton, a department supervisor who earned more than $40,000 a year, is charged with failing to pay three years' worth of state income taxes, from 2000 through 2002.
Her motivation is unclear, although in the past she's characterized herself as a self-educated tax protester who asserts that state and federal income taxes are unconstitutional.
For more than five hours Thursday, prosecution witnesses portrayed Middleton as a cheat who invented her own tax rules and took deductions to which she wasn't entitled.
She listed meals she ate while on duty, even though North Charleston's personnel policy doesn't allow them to be deducted, said Marshall Smith, a field auditor with the state Department of Revenue.
She also deducted her police uniform expenses, even though her uniform was provided by the city, which also reimbursed her for cleaning costs.
And, in one of the more extreme filings, she claimed to have nine dependents, though prosecution witnesses said they knew of only two children in her life: Her own and another child that her husband brought to their marriage.
When she did file a state tax return for some of the years in question, it was months late and didn't include a check for the amount she owed, even by her own calculations, Smith said.
"She didn't feel she needed to pay state or federal income taxes, so she didn't," McDermott told the jury.
"She didn't file after her arrest," he added. "She still hasn't paid."
Middleton's public defender didn't say whether Middleton will testify in her defense, which continues this morning before Circuit Judge Danny Pieper when the trial resumes in the county Judicial Center.
In his opening, defense attorney Tree Martschink asked the jury to consider whether Middleton's actions were "consistent with someone who knew they were breaking the law."
The trial is one of many that have popped up across the country in recent years with people protesting paying their income taxes on religious or constitutional grounds.
Practically all have been turned back through the courts.
Middleton faces three counts of felony income tax evasion for failing to pay nearly $3,000 in state income taxes. The maximum penalty is 15 years in prison and $30,000 in fines.
Middleton, who lives in Bowman in Orangeburg County, has been on unpaid suspension since March 2003, when she was arrested by state revenue agents.
She came to the attention of authorities after she filled out a W-4 form claiming that she was exempt from taxation. She requested that no money be withheld from her salary because she was a "nonresident alien," and therefore not required to pay income taxes.
She was told she couldn't work as a police officer and be an alien at the same time.
City officials said Middleton then changed her position and asserted that she is a citizen but refused to allow the city to withhold taxes from her pay.