On the verge of being released to a halfway house after more than eight years in prison, the popular creation-science lecturer and theme-park creator known as Dr. Dino was convicted in March on new charges in his tax-related case.
A federal judge, however, acquitted Kent Hovind on Monday of the March conviction for contempt of court and on Tuesday dismissed mail fraud and conspiracy charges in connection with court filings on land seized by the federal government in his case.
Already, as WND reported, Hovind, the founder of Creation Science Evangelism and Dinosaur Adventure Land, had been sentenced to 10 years in prison, in January 2007, after he was convicted of 12 tax offenses, one count of obstructing federal agents and 45 counts of structuring cash transactions.
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The Internal Revenue Service seized ownership of nine properties, claiming he owed $430,000 in taxes. The new charges of conspiring to defraud the U.S. and obtain money and property by false pretenses through the mail were based on his attempts to regain the property.
Hovind contends the original tax-related charges were based largely on a misinterpretation by the IRS of his tax obligations as a minister of the gospel who had taken a vow of poverty and, therefore, owed no income tax. He and his wife, Jo Hovind, who spent one year in federal prison, paid employees in cash without filing payroll tax returns, designating them as "missionaries." Kent Hovind, an avid blogger, has made statements challenging the authority of the federal government to collect income taxes, but he has insisted he has never been "anti-tax or a tax protester," has advocated obeying the government and "always paid every tax I owe."
Judge Margaret Casey Rodgers' orders Monday and Tuesday were primarily based on the language around the charges against Hovind, the Pensacola News Journal reported, for filing a lis pendens, a notice of a pending lawsuit regarding a claim to land ownership.
"There is no question the government presented substantial evidence at trial from which a reasonable jury could have found that Hovind caused lis pendens to be filed on several of the properties identified in the forfeiture order," Rodgers wrote in her order granting the acquittal. "The question though is whether Hovind's conduct – particularly, the filing of the lis pendens – was clearly prohibited by the forfeiture order."
Rodgers said that while the forfeiture order allowed Hovind's property to be seized, it didn't restrict Hovind from responding.
"The government has not cited any authority for the proposition that Hovind can be guilty of contempt for interfering with or evading an order that did not speak directly to his conduct. Thus, the guilty verdict ... cannot stand," Rodgers said.
Prosecutors dropped the charges with prejudice, however, meaning a new indictment could be filed.
Hovind's scheduled release date for his January 2007 sentence is Aug. 9. But his son, Eric Hovind, who directs a ministry in Pensacola with the same mission of his father's Creation Science Evangelism, told WND the release could be sooner.
"I am thrilled to see these charges dismissed and the guilty verdict acquitted," Eric Hovind told WND in an email. "Our family is ready to celebrate Dad coming home. It has been a long time coming."
Contempt charges against Hovind's co-defendant, John Paul Hansen of Omaha, Nebraska, remain. Hansen, Hovind's chief legal adviser, has declared himself a "free inhabitant" or "sovereign citizen" who does not recognize U.S. sovereignty. He pays no income or property tax and drives a car without owning a driver's license.
'Piling it on'
Last July, a tax expert who writes regularly for Forbes.com, Peter J. Reilly, said that while he doesn't share the belief of some that Hovind was targeted by the IRS because of the effectiveness of his creation science ministry, the new charges struck him as "piling it on."
The indictment filed in November 2014 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida recounted the sequence of events leading to the new charges.
After the jury in November 2006 unanimously issued a judgment of $480,400, the federal government filed a notice of pending action against the ministry's property and its bank accounts. The federal court in Pensacola in July 2009 authorized the government to seize the cash and property, and the property was sold in July 2011.
The same month, according to the indictment, Hansen caused liens to be filed on nine of the seized properties. In July 2012, the court ruled in favor of the federal government and held that Hansen's liens were null and void.
Then, in May 2013, Hovind filed a claim against federal officials in federal court in South Carolina. Later that month, he notified an agent of the federal government by mail that he intended to file liens on four of the properties the district court previously ordered forfeited. On May 29, 2013, he filed the liens.
Questioning government's judgment
Eric Hovind contends the government misrepresented his parents in the 2006 trial, portraying them as anti-government radicals.
"If there is one thing I can say about my dad, it is that he is a man of principle, and it is an honor for me to support him as he goes through these trials," Eric Hovind told WND in an interview last fall.
Eric Hovind is founder and president of Pensacola-based Creation Today, which describes itself as an "international Christian-apologetics ministry desiring to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the entire world."
Kent Hovind established Creation Science Evangelism in 1989 with the aim of presenting the Christian message through evidence for divine creation. In 2001, he opened the dinosaur theme park behind his home, which depicted humans and dinosaurs co-existing.
Dinosaur Adventure Land, however, was among the nine properties seized by the government in a forfeiture judgment.
Hovind was placed in Santa Rosa County Jail in Milton, Florida, near Pensacola, for the now-canceled trial after being incarcerated at various federal penitentiaries.
As WND reported in 2009, Hovind has argued he took a vow of poverty as a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ and, therefore, owns nothing and receives no income. All of his needs were taken care of by the ministry, he insisted.
He said he understood that as a registered 508 non-profit organization, he was not required to withhold taxes, leaving IRS obligations with each worker. In November 2006, however, Hovind was convicted of failing to collect and pay $470,000 in withholding taxes, obstructing tax laws, structuring transactions totaling $430,500 to avoid financial reporting laws, filing a frivolous lawsuit against the IRS, filing an injunction against an IRS agent and threatening investigators and others who cooperated with the investigation.
The “structuring” charges are based on application of laws designed to expose money-laundering by drug traffickers, which require banks to fill out a transaction report if any customer deposits or withdraws more than $10,000 in one day.
Hovind contends he abandoned any practice he discovered was legally questionable. But in the early morning hours of July 13, 2006, about 20 armed government agents arrived on ministry property without notice to arrest the Hovinds.
As WND reported in January 2012, Hovind has made numerous appeals in federal court, including claims that he was not given due process and that his case record does not contain a warrant "supported by Oath or affirmation," as required by the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment.
Eric Hovind has explained to WND that his father sent numerous letters to the IRS, asking exactly which laws apply to a 508 (c) (1) (a) church ministry, but he received no response. During the trial the special agent in charge of the investigation, Scott Schneider, acknowledged he never sent Kent Hovind any copies of the law or citations to specific laws in the tax code.