acroyear | justice is VERY quick...

'Dr. Dino,' wife guilty | Local News | PensacolaNewsJournal.com:

Jury deliberations took about three hours.

A federal jury has convicted Kent Hovind and his wife, Jo, of tax fraud.

Hovind faces a maximum of 288 years in prison. His wife faces up to 225 years. Her charges include aiding and abetting her husband with 44 counts of evading bank-reporting requirements.

For those who don't know, "Dr. Dino" Kenv Hovind is a young-earth creationist who set up one of those "museums" off of rt 29 in Pennsacola showing the "evidence" that man and dinosaurs co-existed and the dinosaurs were wiped out in Noah's flood. He had other views and theories that were so drastically ridiculous that even ID powerhouse the Discovery Institute was distancing themselves from him. In other words, a nutball.

He insisted that his operation was a "church" and thus shouldn't have to pay any taxes. While doing that, he also failed to withhold taxes for his employees and didn't tell them they needed to handle the taxes themselves. He said "ministers" didn't have to pay. A completely wrong misinterpretation of the establishment clause and court history on the matter. Along the way, he also insisted his operation and buildings never needed permits or safety inspections and eventually the authorities closed the place down for lack of permits. In other words, a nutball.

He didn't even mount a real defense or attempt to actually persuade the court or the jury of his interpretation of "separation of church and state" that supposedly justified all this madness. His defense merely tried to say that the government hadn't proved its case, without any witnesses or alternate evidence. He could have saved the county (Escambia ain't exactly rich these days) thousands and himself a lot of his jail time by plea bargaining. In other words, a nutball.

One nutball gone...I don't want to count how many are still out there...