Young Earth Creationist Kent Hovind on trial again!

[mirele]

(Warning: shameless plug for my own writing)

I think some of us may remember when PP and Zsu took their kids to Colorado a few years ago to visit Kent Hovind in prison, but the visit didn't turn out. Kent also appeared (via phone) in a movie PP did about the end times at the end of 2012. Hovind was well-known as a traveling evangelist for young earth creationism prior to his incarceration. He also had a low-end "theme park" called Dinosaur Adventure Land in Pensacola.

Anyway, Kent Hovind is on trial again, this time for mail fraud and conspiracy. The prosecution is expected to finish up today and the defense (whatever it might be) will start on Monday.

Here's a link to a generally good article and it has a timeline. I say "generally good" because I've literally read every single available scrap of paper on Hovind's legal woes and the article is not entirely accurate.

http://www.pnj.com/story/news/crime/201 ... /24341107/ (not broken, newspaper)

One of Kent Hovind's followers wrote a fact-free opinion piece to the local newspaper. It literally does not talk about why Kent is in jail and why he's on trial now. Here's a link:

http://www.pnj.com/story/opinion/2015/0 ... /24324775/ (not broken, newspaper)

I got a little bit upset about that so I spent some time on Wednesday night writing a response. (Holy moly, do you know how hard it is to get years of legal shenanigans down to 600 words or less?)

http://www.pnj.com/story/opinion/2015/0 ... /24429591/ (newspaper again)

Viewpoint: Hovind is being prosecuted, not persecuted

A few days ago, Kathleen Green wrote a Viewpoint ("The real victim is Kent Hovind," March 4) expressing her great support for Kent Hovind as a man of God and calling him a victim of the governmental system. However, Ms. Green did not explain how Kent Hovind became imprisoned in the first place and why he is on trial today. Hopefully this Viewpoint will fill in those gaps.

Kent Hovind was convicted of 12 counts of tax evasion, 45 counts of structuring financial transactions to avoid bank reporting requirements and one count of obstruction of the IRS in 2006. In addition to his 10-year sentence, the jury found Hovind and his wife, Jo, liable for a forfeiture of $430,400 as part of the structuring conviction.

Since the Hovinds did not have the money, Judge Casey Rodgers issued an order in 2007 allowing the government to substitute property. The government returned to Judge Rodgers in 2009 and asked her to allow it to take and sell nine parcels owned by various trusts managed by Glen Stoll to pay the judgment. Judge Rodgers ruled Stoll did not exercise the usual duties expected of a trustee but, rather, the Hovinds held extensive control over the properties. Consequently, the judge allowed the government to seize the nine parcels. However, she also ruled that each parcel was to be sold separately, up to the $430,400 judgment amount, and any remaining parcels and extra money were to be turned back to the Hovinds.

In fall 2011, after the government had taken possession of the properties, Paul Hansen filed liens against the parcels in the public records of Escambia County. This action put a cloud on the ownership of the parcels, essentially making them impossible to sell. The government went back to Judge Rodgers in 2012 and asked her to void the liens and enter an injunction telling the Hovinds or their representatives not to file new liens. Judge Rodgers granted the requests. After the order, the government was able to sell several of the properties. Some of the parcels were bought by Hovind family members.

However, Hovind continued to obstruct the sale of the remaining four properties. In May 2013, someone acting on Hovind's behalf filed lis pendens for the four parcels in Escambia County. A lis pendens gives notice of a pending lawsuit which may affect the ownership of a property. Hovind's lis pendens used as its basis a Bivens civil rights action filed against the Bureau of Prisons in South Carolina federal court. Judge Rodgers discharged the lis pendens in October 2013, finding Hovind had no legal or equitable interest in the four parcels, which had been legitimately forfeited to the government years previously. After that, the government initially filed a notice of criminal contempt against Hovind, but later dropped it for the current mail fraud charges. As for the Bivens action, it was dismissed in January by an appellate court for failure to prosecute.

t's unfortunate, but Kent Hovind is in a situation entirely of his own making because he holds to tax protester and sovereign citizen beliefs. Had he been compliant with the tax laws, he would not be in prison now, nor would he be facing more jail time. Kent Hovind is not being persecuted for his religious beliefs by the government. Rather, he is being prosecuted for his actions, which have nothing to do with religion.

Dee Holmes holds a juris doctor from the University of Houston Law Center. She works as a systems analyst for a financial institution and lives in Arizona.

I was thinking today that I'm an expert in a few things in my life and now I can add "Kent Hovind's legal problems" to that short list. *sigh* And I didn't get interested in Hovind because of PP and Zsu or creationism, or even the tax evasion. It's because Hovind is a follower of whackadoo Sovereign Citizen theories.

[August]

Is Kent:Hovind a criminal? Is Kent:Hovind a martyr? Is Kent Hovind or Kent:Hovind the real citizen? Why is the paper not reporting the full facts?

;) Sovergein citizens are a hobby of mine, too.

[mirele]

Is Kent:Hovind a criminal? Is Kent:Hovind a martyr? Is Kent Hovind or Kent:Hovind the real citizen? Why is the paper not reporting the full facts?

;) Sovergein citizens are a hobby of mine, too.

So far as I know, Kent of the Family Hovind has not written his name as Kent E:Hovind or any of the wacky ways sovereign citizens decide to declare their independence from the system. He's interesting because many of his followers are absolutely latched on to his young earth creationism, think he's being treated abominably by the government and are waiting for God to do a miracle.

Here's the YouTube of one of Kent's faithful follower, a guy named Rudy Davis from Texas:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDyds1 ... 4HS1PDkApw

Rudy is currently in Pensacola at Kent's trial.

[Georgiana]

I heard somewhere that Kent Hovind was trying to distance himself from ZZ and PP because he didn't want their bad association. Anyone know anything on this?

Zsu is so pro-Hovind it seems weird she wouldn't comment on this.

[August]

Well, if he's never distanced himself from his strawman he deserves everything he gets, right?

[fundiefan]

Kent Hovind and Steven Anderson - a match made in an alternate heaven. They really are perfect for each other.

[Moonbeam]

Thank you Mirele!!!! :worship:

[mirele]

I heard somewhere that Kent Hovind was trying to distance himself from ZZ and PP because he didn't want their bad association. Anyone know anything on this?

Zsu is so pro-Hovind it seems weird she wouldn't comment on this.

I think right after PP did his interview with Hovind, Rudy Davis came along and basically told people in a video to stop fighting among each other. However, Rudy has put out literally hundreds of videos since that interview early in January and finding it is like a needle in a haystack. But I definitely remember the video.

[Soulhuntress]

I wonder if/when the feds will do a mental health eval on this guy. He is a tax resister and I do not get how he owns nothing but can file paperwork on properties that were seized from him. If he owns nothing that is..... :stir-pot:

[mirele]

I wonder if/when the feds will do a mental health eval on this guy. He is a tax resister and I do not get how he owns nothing but can file paperwork on properties that were seized from him. If he owns nothing that is..... :stir-pot:

I administer a Facebook page about Kent Hovind and the guy I work with, he thinks Kent has undiagnosed Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I'm not big on Internet diagnoses, so I stay well away from that kind of speculation. However, I will share with you a few paragraphs from a blog post written by Jonathan Schwartz, a Massachusetts documentary filmmaker who took his crew down to Pensacola for the trial. (There are other blog posts about the trial at the blog as well.)

The letters and audio selections reveal that Hovind, like many of us, has two sides. But his two sides are more pronounced than most of ours, and he has the Lord supplying the wind in his sails.

One side is genuinely kind and charismatic, sensitive, funny and paternal. He never blows up, he never gets angry to the point of bluster, and he’s poised all day long in the courtroom. He’s been in prison going on a decade, and the wearing is obvious.

The other, as revealed in those phone excerpts played in stunning fidelity through the courts superlative hi-tech sound system, in snippets from six months of emails, is manipulative, cunning, and not unlike the mobster running his oxytocin ring selling drugs to school kids from his jail cell.

He crushes on someone like Stoll or Hansen or Land who will champion his defense, for a while anyway, and then feels bitterly abandoned and damns them. He loves his son, but manipulates him fiercely, which his son resists with more skill as the years pass. It was tragic comic.

And Hovind gets obsessive, about chasing Anthony Jaworski so that he will allow Hansen to sleep in a trailer on the only land of Hovind’s that actually went to a third party, or repeated requests to everyone to keep after Jaworski for access to the electricity dead head that originates on the parcel that Jaworski bought from the Feds for 100,000 dollars. And yes, to get off the land and pay Hovind a hundred bucks a day as long as he remains. One can see how this whole thing really started from Hovind’s distaste for pulling construction permits and complying with zoning laws.

http://ytmp.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-tw ... -3-of.html (not broken, blog owner Peter Reilly doesn't care)

I think a mental health evaluation would be good for Kent, but he'd say he's quite sane.

The judge put a restriction on people who were not reporters being unable to take notes in the courtroom. I had wanted to go but I'm glad I didn't because I would have been extremely frustrated with that restriction. I guess I'll just have to wait on the transcript.

[apple1]

mirele,

I have longered wondered about the whole Hovind saga. I admit to extreme confusion about it. I guess what I understood can be summed up as: He refused (tried to get away with not doing it) to pay taxes. So he is in jail for not paying taxes. I still am confused by what this (newer) trial is about. I mean, does he still own stuff that he is supposed to currently pay property taxes on? They didn't already confiscate his property for not paying the taxes?

:? :? :?

Aside: I know someone - a really good person - who totally believes that Hovind is a fine Christian and that no Christian should be criticizing Hovind. I think this person just has a very large blind spot on this topic.

[Peas n carrots]

Mirele, I'm not worthy! I enjoyed your rebuttal.

[slickcat79]

That is great information. I've always found Kent Hovind's legal issues to be interesting.

And because no thread about Hovind is complete without it, I would highly recommend skimming his "doctoral dissertation" or the corresponding rationalwiki article. It reads like a 4th grader's "How I Spent My Summer" paper :lol:

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Kent_Hovin ... ite_note-0

For context, it starts out, "Hello, my name is Kent Hovind. I am a creation/science evangelist. I live in Pensacola, Florida" :?

[mirele]

mirele,

I have longered wondered about the whole Hovind saga. I admit to extreme confusion about it. I guess what I understood can be summed up as: He refused (tried to get away with not doing it) to pay taxes. So he is in jail for not paying taxes. I still am confused by what this (newer) trial is about. I mean, does he still own stuff that he is supposed to currently pay property taxes on? They didn't already confiscate his property for not paying the taxes?

:? :? :?

Aside: I know someone - a really good person - who totally believes that Hovind is a fine Christian and that no Christian should be criticizing Hovind. I think this person just has a very large blind spot on this topic.

I'd really suggest reading my op-ed piece and I think you'll understand it better. The tl;dr is that Hovind didn't have the money to pay his forfeiture, so the government went after the Dino Adventure Land property. Hovind and his codefendant, Paul Hansen, tried various legal shenanigans to put a cloud on the title so the property couldn't be sold. This would be annoying but legal, except they were under a court order to not do this unless they ran it by the judge first. They didn't run it by the judge and instead filed lis pendens (a notice of lawsuit) against four properties. This, by, the way, is sovereign citizen behavior--clog the courts and the legal system with paper.

http://pnj.com/story/opinion/2015/03/05 ... /24429591/

If you have any other questions, I'll try to answer them. As I said, one of the few things I'm expert at these days is Kent Hovind's legal problems.

[mirele]

Hovind took the witness stand this morning. Apparently he talked and talked and talked. Let's just say this is not especially good behavior when you take the stand.

http://www.pnj.com/story/news/2015/03/1 ... /24712901/

I also learned from one of Rudy Davis' videos (Rudy is a follower of Kent's) that Kent was very unhappy that he couldn't go back through every single document which had been entered in the last week and "discuss" them. The time for doing that was when the docs were being introduced, not when you're taking the stand in your own defense and you want something to riff off of for hours and hours.

The US Marshals want to ask Rudy about his videos. Gee, ya think calling the judge and prosecutor Jezebels and darkly predicting bad things at the hand of the Lord might not be a good thing?

[mirele]

Kent Hovind was found guilty yesterday of one count of contempt. The jury deadlocked on the mail fraud and conspiracy charges. His codefendant Paul Hansen was convicted of two counts of contempt. (Hansen got a second count because he refused to show up to testify before a grand jury.) Sentencing for Hovind is on June 12. It's unknown whether the government intends to retry Hovind. I think not, but people who are more in tune with the IRS and its concern with "sovereign citizens" indicate there's a better than 70 percent chance this will end up back in court.

http://www.pnj.com/story/news/2015/03/1 ... /70205932/

There isn't a set sentence for criminal contempt of court. The judge will use the sentencing guidelines and a points system to figure out how much additional time Hovind will get to spend as a guest of the Bureau of Prisons. Keep in mind, Hovind is still completing his first sentence, imposed in late 2006. He was supposed to get out in August of this year. It's an open question as to whether this conviction, for a crime committed during his jail term, is going to lead to some sort of revocation of federal "good time."

To give you an idea of a sentencing range, the judge could have found him in criminal contempt of her order without a trial and sentenced him to six months. So it's going to be more than six months. Here's a story about TV infomercial scamster Kevin Trudeau, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison a year ago. Hovind is not exactly in Trudeau's league; the Federal Trade Commission has been trying to collect a $37.6 million fine from Trudeau for years.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014 ... ork-guzman

Hovind has been misleading his followers into thinking he will be out next week. This is how it goes in the wacky world of Hovind. He's had this idea for some time now that the Bureau of Prisons will release him to home confinement six months prior to his actual release date (and yes, the BoP does do that in situations where the prisoner needs some re-entry time). However, that had never been settled in Hovind's case and was up in the air. I believe Hovind's whipping up his followers to expect that since Kent's trial is now over, he should be let out of prison to do his pre-release re-entry. The problem is, he has another conviction on his record.

Some of Hovind's dumber followers were tweeting to Florida Governor Rick Scott to pardon Hovind, as well as the mayor of Pensacola. No lie. Uhm, Hovind's crimes are all federal. They'd have to approach teh ebil Obummer to ask for a pardon.

Given Hovind's love of sovereign citizen nuttery, I realized a while ago that whether he was convicted or acquitted, he wasn't going away. He is still going to harass the government about his property. He's going to try and make life unpleasant for a particular special agent. And despite the letter he wrote that was read in court about him apologizing to the poor man who bought one of the Hovind properties from the government, I have little doubt he's going to pressure this guy into selling out and moving out.

And even if Hovind does get out on parole in August (not a sure thing), or whenever he gets out on parole, he's going to run into an issue when the parole officers tell him he has to get a job (and not working for his son). The same thing happened to Hovind's wife, Jo, and she ended up working at a coffee shop. Knowing Kent, he will bitch, moan and complain about having income tax and social security deducted from his paycheck. He will likely also be required to file income tax returns every year he is on parole. Given that he told the New York Times in 2003 that he'd not filed income tax returns in 30 years, and was later found in arrears for taxes from 1998 to 2006 (when he went to prison), it would not surprise me to hear in a few years that Hovind has been returned to prison because he refused to file a Form 1040.

[Soulhuntress]

Kent Hovind was found guilty yesterday of one count of contempt. The jury deadlocked on the mail fraud and conspiracy charges. His codefendant Paul Hansen was convicted of two counts of contempt. (Hansen got a second count because he refused to show up to testify before a grand jury.) Sentencing for Hovind is on June 12. It's unknown whether the government intends to retry Hovind. I think not, but people who are more in tune with the IRS and its concern with "sovereign citizens" indicate there's a better than 70 percent chance this will end up back in court.

http://www.pnj.com/story/news/2015/03/1 ... /70205932/

There isn't a set sentence for criminal contempt of court. The judge will use the sentencing guidelines and a points system to figure out how much additional time Hovind will get to spend as a guest of the Bureau of Prisons. Keep in mind, Hovind is still completing his first sentence, imposed in late 2006. He was supposed to get out in August of this year. It's an open question as to whether this conviction, for a crime committed during his jail term, is going to lead to some sort of revocation of federal "good time."

To give you an idea of a sentencing range, the judge could have found him in criminal contempt of her order without a trial and sentenced him to six months. So it's going to be more than six months. Here's a story about TV infomercial scamster Kevin Trudeau, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison a year ago. Hovind is not exactly in Trudeau's league; the Federal Trade Commission has been trying to collect a $37.6 million fine from Trudeau for years.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014 ... ork-guzman

Hovind has been misleading his followers into thinking he will be out next week. This is how it goes in the wacky world of Hovind. He's had this idea for some time now that the Bureau of Prisons will release him to home confinement six months prior to his actual release date (and yes, the BoP does do that in situations where the prisoner needs some re-entry time). However, that had never been settled in Hovind's case and was up in the air. I believe Hovind's whipping up his followers to expect that since Kent's trial is now over, he should be let out of prison to do his pre-release re-entry. The problem is, he has another conviction on his record.

Some of Hovind's dumber followers were tweeting to Florida Governor Rick Scott to pardon Hovind, as well as the mayor of Pensacola. No lie. Uhm, Hovind's crimes are all federal. They'd have to approach teh ebil Obummer to ask for a pardon.

Given Hovind's love of sovereign citizen nuttery, I realized a while ago that whether he was convicted or acquitted, he wasn't going away. He is still going to harass the government about his property. He's going to try and make life unpleasant for a particular special agent. And despite the letter he wrote that was read in court about him apologizing to the poor man who bought one of the Hovind properties from the government, I have little doubt he's going to pressure this guy into selling out and moving out.

And even if Hovind does get out on parole in August (not a sure thing), or whenever he gets out on parole, he's going to run into an issue when the parole officers tell him he has to get a job (and not working for his son). The same thing happened to Hovind's wife, Jo, and she ended up working at a coffee shop. Knowing Kent, he will bitch, moan and complain about having income tax and social security deducted from his paycheck. He will likely also be required to file income tax returns every year he is on parole. Given that he told the New York Times in 2003 that he'd not filed income tax returns in 30 years, and was later found in arrears for taxes from 1998 to 2006 (when he went to prison), it would not surprise me to hear in a few years that Hovind has been returned to prison because he refused to file a Form 1040.

So his sentence completes in the custody of the BOP. And he is REQUIRED to have health insurance and depending on his term of supervision will have probation and requirements to meet or he gets to go in front of a judge and likely be sent to jail. :popcorn2:

[mirele]

Well that took almost no time at all. I thought the government might drop the charges the jury was hung on (mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud), but not so. The prosecution notified the judge it wants a retrial and the judge has scheduled it for the week of May 18.

[apple1]

:orly: :)

[countressrascal]

His supporters have started a petition on White House Petition site to get Full Pardon for Kent Hovind and Paul Hansen. :angry-banghead: Kent have called PP a number of times while he has been in prison and PP records them and puts them on his YouTube site.

[mirele]

His supporters have started a petition on White House Petition site to get Full Pardon for Kent Hovind and Paul Hansen. :angry-banghead: Kent have called PP a number of times while he has been in prison and PP records them and puts them on his YouTube site.

Hovind hasn't called PP since January. I think it's because there was some in the background fracas since PP is even more out there than Hovind. I know Rudy Davis, Hovind's biggest cheerleader, has gotten on to other supporters of Hovind for wanting to divide over the PP issue.

[mirele]

And much to my surprise, the prosecution asked last Friday to try Hovind and Hansen again on the counts the first jury got hung on (mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud). The retrial is scheduled for May 18. I want to go (have the time off from work) but I'm trying to line up some press credentials. The judge prohibited anyone who was not a member of the press from having a pen and paper in court. (Yeah, I had a problem with that too.) Based on some of the motions that have come out over the past couple of days, there was a lot of juicy stuff in the testimony that didn't even make it into the recaps being given outside of court--frustrating!

[salex]

And much to my surprise, the prosecution asked last Friday to try Hovind and Hansen again on the counts the first jury got hung on (mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud). The retrial is scheduled for May 18. I want to go (have the time off from work) but I'm trying to line up some press credentials. The judge prohibited anyone who was not a member of the press from having a pen and paper in court. (Yeah, I had a problem with that too.) Based on some of the motions that have come out over the past couple of days, there was a lot of juicy stuff in the testimony that didn't even make it into the recaps being given outside of court--frustrating!

Phone with recorder allowed in?

[Olive Plant]

As a twist to this story, freehovind.com, which used to be the place his followers congregated, has been wiped clean because the person running it decided the whole worldview was nuts: "Please understand and absolve the perspectives I have formerly shared." :pink-shock:

The website is now three pages that have nothing to do with Hovind and instead are about the moderator's new views on life and what's important. Reading between the lines, it's the opposite of what Hovind is into.

I wish it was a little clearer though. It's encouraging but still very dense and SOTDRT-ish.

[mirele]

Phone with recorder allowed in?

Actually, quotes from the testimony in the government's rebuttal to Hovind's motion for acquittal notwithstanding the verdict.