Ben Shefler reporting from the Pensacola federal court house on Day 1 of Kent Hovind trial.
Jury selection was held Monday for the trial of Kent Hovind and co-defendant Paul Hansen. Several people gathered outside the U.S. Courthouse in Pensacola, Fla., to voice their support.
Key issues for potential jurors to consider included their religious beliefs, their knowledge and opinion of Hovind’s Dinosaur Adventure Land, whether or not they can believe police testimony, and if they had formed any opinions of Hovind by reading newspaper articles about him.
Chief U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers questioned approximately 10 potential jurors during individual voir dire.Roughly half of them said they couldn’t deliver an objective verdict because of their strongly held opinions.
One woman said she is skeptical of police officers and judges because of an experience she had involving a car accident with a police officer. She said the officer got out of his car and told her the wreck wasn’t her fault, but after his supervisor arrived on scene and she was taken to the emergency room, she was ticketed. In court, both officers said they never spoke to her, and the judge didn’t question it any further, even after she told her side of the story, according to her.
Some did say they’d be able to look at the facts of the case and put their opinions aside.
One woman, who works with the wife, though not very closely, of Thomas Keith, Hovind’s public defender, also has an uncle who had tax-related issues. However, she was certain she could remain objective.
Near the end, Judge Rodgers asked the prosecution and defense attorneys if they had any more questions for the potential jurors.
Keith, who hadn’t asked any additional questions during the individual voir dire, asked Judge Rodgers if the entire group could be asked if they were physically able to sit for lengthy periods of time and if their hearing and eyesight was good.
Judge Rodgers was taken aback by Keith’s question and explained she meant questions regarding the potential jurors prejudices.
The matter was considered because one man, who has a bad hip, had asked for a break earlier in the day, but that was already over two hours into jury selection. It was determined a break in the trial would take place around that time anyway.
Christopher Klotz, Hansen’s attorney, asked Judge Rodgers if all the potential jurors could be asked if they were U.S. citizens and residents. It was clear Hansen urged Klotz to ask the question, most likely what he wanted to ask immediately after court reconvened from a break, when he requested to address the court, to which Judge Rodgers said not now. A court reporter handed Judge Rodgers a form, which she read aloud, that asked jurors under oath if they are U.S. citizens, and the matter was settled.
Hansen again talked with Klotz, and Judge Rodgers said the next question Klotz asks better come from him.
Hansen has filed numerous hand written motions challenging the jurisdiction of the court. He is clearly dissatisfied with the public defender’s refusal to embrace his theories, which are sometimes referred to as Sovereign Citizen. Hansen has clashed with Judge Rodgers about his representation. Judge Rodgers has characterized the type of representation he is seeking as being “hybrid”.
Hansen continually rocked in his chair and took his glasses on and off. Hovind was more stoic and appeared comfortable and content.
Judge Rodgers was polite and understanding with each person as she asked questions during individual voir dire.
Several Hovind supporters were demonstrating with signs in front of the federal courthouse, but a few were inside the courtroom.
Joshua Tyrone, who’s lived in Pensacola on and off since 2000, said he just wants to get more people on the bandwagon for what’s right, whether Democrat or Republican.
“I believe that our government and our country are both heading for something it won’t be able to change, something very bad,” he said. “And I believe if people don’t start standing up for what they believe in, then pretty soon we’re not going to have a first amendment, they’re going to come and take our second amendment, and pretty soon we’re going to be in a soviet/dictatorship where we’re just living under tyranny.”
Tyrone mentioned that actor Wesley Snipes owed more money in taxes than Hovind, yet he served a much shorter sentence.
Snipes served three years in federal prison after being convicted in 2008 of willfully not filing tax returns from 1999-2001. In 2008, The New York Times reported that Snipes had to pay up to $17 million, which included back taxes, penalties and interest.
“There’s several celebrities though, the same exact thing but usually more money that they’ve been caught evading,” Tyrone said. “It’s just corrupt.”
Louis Charles Geshlider, director of the Tea Party in Washington County, Fla., said only one master can be served, even with a business.
“Your corporation is either owned by the state, or it’s owned by Christ,” he said. “It’s that simple.”
Geshlider said he’s not here to pass judgement on businesses that find it advantageous to become an agent of the state.
“But when Christ is involved in your non-profit venture such as a church, now you got a problem because you cannot serve the state…and serve Christ at the same time; it doesn’t work,” he said.
Geshlider points to the eighth amendment, which partly says no cruel and unusual punishment inflicted, as to why he thinks enough is enough for Hovind.
“Isn’t this a little harsh?” he said. “Al Sharpton is out running around with $4.5 million allegedly owed, nobody’s even bothering him, and (Hovind’s) already served 99 months in prison.”
In November 2014, The New York Times reported that Sharpton had more than $4.5 million in state and federal tax liens against him and his businesses.
When asked what he knew about Hovind’s original conviction Geshider responded.
“I knew that either whoever was advising him, or whatever structures he set up, kind of got him in the same trouble Irwin Schiff got in,”
Irwin Schiff wrote several books and frequently spoke about the entirely voluntary nature of the income tax system. He is currently incarcerated and will be nearly ninety when he is release in a few years. The letters from tax professionals that Kent Hovind has indicated that he relied on appear to contain arguments similar to those that Schiff promoted.
There was also one man who was around the courthouse for a time who wasn’t there to show support. He went around recording all of the demonstrators without saying anything. His intent is unknown, but one of the demonstrators seemed to recognize him and said he was a demon. The man declined to comment.
Who is this demonic documentarian? That's what I want to know!
It was probably just someone from DHS keeping tabs on suspected, or potential domestic terrorists.
you would know robert, you like protecting your irs buddies who admit to stealing a quarter billion from americans, abuse their structuring laws, get awards for targeting christians (lois lerner $149k)… now they apologize…
but they are not terrorists they are just the irs (how are your retirement checks coming along?)
Typical anonymous Hovindicator whiner who wants to talk about anything except Kent Hovind criminal career.
Please do a better job reporting on the facts and don't get sucked into a red herring by idiots who don't know the difference in quantity and the type of charges between Hovind and these other cases.
Hovind was not convicted over failing to file income taxes like Wesley Snipes or Al Sharpton who wasn't charged criminally for anything. In 2006, Hovind was guilty of "willful" failure to withhold employee tax, structuring and obstructing the government.
Hovind faced more than 250 years in prison on those FIFTY-EIGHT felony charges and received 10 years.
In contrast, Wesley Snipes was convicted of THREE misdemeanor charges of not paying income tax.
Someone who was convicted of THREE charges should receive less time than another person convicted of FIFTY-EIGHT. Right?
To recap: Hovind's supporters bring up other people who received different prison terms for less crimes because they don't know the circumstances that Hovind was tried and found guilty.
If you, as a reporter, are going to give a voice to fringe people that mention other figures who received less time than Hovind then you have a duty to to your audience the differences in the amount and type of charges between the cases.
I tend to agree with Anonymous. The point also needs to be made that all these others who owe back taxes are not denying their debt or defying the government's authority to levy it, or filing complaints of corruption against the judge, or lawsuits against individual agents/wardens/prosecutors/what-have-you. Hovind is just as unrepentant now as he was when he went in eight years ago and is still promoting his fantasies to his followers.
I have been covering this story for over two years and can't pack every aspect into every article. Here is a discussion from forbes on Hovind's innocence claims and there are other discussion on this site
http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterjreilly/2015/01/13/looking-at-kent-hovinds-innocence-claims/
peter reilly allies himself with an ex irs employee who admits he lies about kent hovind on purpose.
peter's duck standard goes like this, "if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck"
so according to peter's own standard, he is a ducking liar.
You really should come up with something a little more clever after all this time.
Not to sound too critical — thanks to Sheffler for covering it and to Peter for hosting it here. It's a good article and Sheffler goes into some detail. But still, the deliberate distortion of fact and the endless diversionary tactics by Hovind's supporters are something people who have not dealt with creationists before may not be prepared for.
Anyway, I think one interesting takeaway spin from this story is that a Tea Party director says that Eric Hovind's Creation Today and Ken Ham's Answers in Genesis corporations are not serving Christ.
Dear Peter,
I too don't want to be overly critical, but the balance must be based on facts.
You don't need to "pack every aspect into every article." That is not the issue.
An article about Hovind and his trial should be restructured if there are ten lines about Snipes, Schiff and Sharpton, but not a single line about what Hovind was found guilty for in 2006 and what he was charged with in 2014.
Kent and his people, despite my repeated efforts, have trouble admitting to some of what Kent Hovind was found guilty of in the 2006 trial; and it's an matter near and dear to the heart of Kent Hovind and his people.
You would think that after 8 more years they would have at least figured out what it was. I think they have, but Kent and his people, most of them, don't want to admit to it and deal with it. Instead, Kent and his people keep being noticed misrepresenting the law and its application to Kent.
My invitation for that discussion remains outstanding and is, I believe, fundamental to understanding Kent's criminal history and sovereign citizen, tax cheatin' antics.
Robert Baty’s Structuring Proposal for Discussion
Withdrawing less than $10,000 in a single transaction
with the intent to evade bank reporting requirements
is a violation of the law and regulations and was at
the time of the Hovind withdrawals in question and
was the legal standard used to convict Kent Hovind
of “structuring”.
Robert Baty – Affirm
Kent Hovind – Deny
http://www.FreeKentHovind.com & http://freekenthovind.com/2015/03/02/32-live-updates-usa-vs-kent-hovind/ for LIVE updates #FreeKent
prison is the back door to gun control and tyranny and profit for judges, and lawyers, it is all a sham.
#FreeKent and http://www.FreeKentHovind.com Taxs are a RIP OFF! why should I have to pay for you to murder your babies?!
I murdered my babies? You paid me to murder my babies? Do you have the canceled check?
Wait. I had babies?