I have been following the tax controversy surrounding Kent Hovind a/k/a Doctor Dino for over two years. As he nears the end of a long sentence on a variety of tax related charges, he is now facing a new trial related to the filing of a lis pendens on property that the government had seized. The new trial has motivated a number of supporters to start a public campaign to free Kent. Kent is giving numerous telephone interviews. The effort has not yet really broken into the mainstream, but I think it may soon. Kent is represented publicly by his old friend Ernie Land. His most vocal new supporter appears to be Rudy Davis. I received an email from Rudy that summarizes the most recent efforts. I'm reproducing it below without further comment.
Hello Mr. Reilly,
FYI below.... I didn't create these but I will be sending them out to as many people as I think can help.
Christian's come together to give counsel on how to FREE KENT HOVIND!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Becuase of Jesus Christ,
Rudy
******************************
Dear Congressman ______,
I am contacting you with an urgent appeal for a Congressional investigation. As you are well aware, the IRS has recently been under Congressional scrutiny for abuses of their authority in targeting conservatives for audits and denials of benefits.
What you may be unaware of is a gross injustice in the case of Kent Hovind. Hovind is a conservative, somewhat controversial Christian minister who has served 8-years in jail on trumped up multiple counts of tax-related charges. Hovind, having served his prison time, was scheduled to be released in early 2015. The U.S. government has now brought up additional charges against Hovind while he is still in jail, for mail fraud and contempt, basically for using the prison mail system to appeal his previous convictions.
The lead prosecutor in the original case was arrested for attempted child molestation charges 8-months after Hovind was sentenced. He most certainly targeted Hovind for his creationism beliefs, not because he was a grievous tax cheat.
The judge in the original case, Judge Margaret Casey Rodgers, made a statement during the trial that what Hovind did was “worse than rape,†according to several eyewitnesses. She has also ruled against Christian causes in other cases. Her biases against all things Christian are not in question. She is scheduled to preside over the next Hovind trial set to begin in February 2015. She has refused to recuse herself from his upcoming trial.
Hovind is facing an additional 20-years in prison, again for conjured up misapplied charges. He will not be able to receive a fair trial from a judge who is biased against him, due to his unwavering Christian faith.
I am making this appeal in hopes that the Congress will thoroughly investigate this blatant case of judicial and prosecutorial misconduct. Kent Hovind is eager to testify before Congress against the IRS for their abuse and targeting of himself.
As a former New York City police officer with over 20-years of service, I have never seen a more egregious case of American persecution against an individual for what I believe are his conservative religious beliefs, using tax code violations as an ruse to keep him incarcerated. Now they are seeking to give Hovind a life sentence.
I hope and pray that you, through Congress, will thoroughly investigate this case and put an end to this IRS abuse, judicial and prosecutorial misconduct, and obscene injustice case. Kent Hovind needs to be released from jail. He has already served well more than enough time for his alleged tax crimes.
Regards,
xxxxxxxxx
FREE KENT HOVIND: A Case of U.S. Religious Persecution
http://cowgernation.com/2015/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Hello Pastor xxxxx,Hebrews 13:3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
2 Timothy 1:16 The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain:God bless you Sir. I pray you take the time to digest the information in this email regarding an innocent baptist minister in prison and under current persecution.
I along with so many others are deeply grieved in our hearts when we hear that they are trying to keep Kent Hovind in prison for the remainder of his life as people were looking forward to him being released in 2015. I truly believe this is an innocent man in prison and a POW (Prisoner of War) in the spiritual warfare of Good vs Evil. God will get the glory in Kent's case no matter what. As you may know, Kent will not compromise with the devil and has maintained his innocence the entire 99 months that he has been incarcerated.
20,000 people have signed a petition to free Dr. Hovind. Below is a form letter we are sending out to anyone and everyone who might be able to help shed some light on the injustice being done to this Christian minister.
We are asking that you educate yourself and take whatever action God leads on behalf of our brother in the Lord, Kent Hovind.
Live jailhouse interview with Kent Hovind on the Manning Reporthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?
Hello John Doe,
Can you please review Kent's situation and use your influence to shed additional light on Kent's case?THE URGENCY IS THAT THEY ARE NOW ATTEMPTING TO KEEP KENT HOVIND IN PRISON FOR THE REMAINDER OF HIS LIFE ON TOP OF AN 8 YEAR SENTENCE THAT HE HAS ALREADY SERVED.
Al Sharpton owes 4.5 million in back taxes and visits the whitehouse over 80 times and Kent Hovind gets sent to prison as an innocent man. We need you to expose this injustice.
Kent Hovind has a new scheduled court date on February 9th of 2015. We need a strong influence by that date.My name is Rudy Davis. I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ and a friend of Kent Hovind. We recently visited this innocent man in Santa Rosa County Jail.
Kent Hovind was talking about the New World Order decades ago. Four federal agents surrounded his wife in a night raid and took her to prison.
Live jailhouse interview with Kent Hovind on the Manning Report https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
I am writing to you today, with concerns for the injustices that I perceive have been perpetrated upon one Mr. Kent Hovind. If you are not currently aware of who this man is, you can do a quick search for him on the internet, as he is a well known Baptist minister who made great strides in promoting Creationism before he was incarcerated for charges of tax fraud, structuring, and threatening an IRS agent. Sir, I will attempt the best I can to show you why I believe these charges are false, and why this man should not be where he has been for the past 8 years of his life. Please note that they are now trying to throw additional mail fraud charges at the man for another 100 years in prison.
On the issue of tax fraud. First , I would like to make clear that I believe Kent's witness, yet that in itself would not justify any thing. Yet I humbly ask you sir, to research these things, and view the trial transcript, or at least do what you can to bring this to your congregations attention. These are Kent's own words below, and the "she" is Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Heldmyer.
"Attached to my third affidavit (Exhibit #2) were letters from three tax professionals whom I had paid to review my ministry to insure I was obeying all tax laws that applied. IRS booklet #517 says I am to ask these three professionals if I have tax questions. Each professional- an IRS enrolled agent, a CPA and an attorney stated clearly that I was violating no law and owed no tax. She withheld these letters from both the Grand Jury and the Petit Jury to deceive them deliberately. I had also attached several letters that I had written to the lead IRS agent who testified against me, Scott Schneider. I sent him the letters from the tax professionals and asked him to please show me if I was violating any law. He had never answered a single letter and admitted so at trial. Attorney Heldmyer had all of this exculpatory evidence a full year before the trial yet she misled the juries and the court by maliciously withholding it. She violated her duty to insure I received procedural justice by not demanding his testimony be stricken from the record and the case be dismissed."
Please note that this man, Kent Hovind, is and never was a tax protester, only a man exercising his religious freedom in running a ministry dedicated to promoting the Biblical account of creation, and preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As such, he was told by the very people that the IRS told him to contact with assistance in regards to his status concerning taxes that he owed none. They assured him, and this man has the letters to prove such, and that he was violating no tax law. Yet this man is, and has been in prison for the last eight years. This sir, is an outrage and I am doing my best to make this public, because there are three people, and possibly more, that have to be held to account, which you can make happen. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Heldmyer, IRS Agent Scott Schneider, and Judge Margaret Casey Rodgers. I beg of you to consider , just the possibility of Mr. Hovind's allegations being true, in just the section above. That only scratches the surface of the injustices that I have perceived of this case.
Secondly, on the issue of structuring. Sir, do you realize how utterly stupid this law is? It states that if a person makes withdrawals of less than 10000 dollars in order to avoid the bank reporting the transaction to the government (CTR), then that person faces a hefty fine and up to 5 years in prison, without regarding whether that person was actually laundering money, or if the funds were obtained illegally, but only for the fact that the person didn't want the transaction of funds to be reported. I refer you to the 1994 case Ratzlaf v. U.S., in which the defendant was not guilty for the reason that the U.S. Supreme Court sensibly interpreted the word "willfully" in the Bank Secrecy Act to mean that in order to convict someone of structuring, the government had to show that the defendant knew that structuring was illegal. It wasn't enough to show only that the defendant knew about the reporting requirement. Yet why is Mr. Hovind in prison? He was told by his Pastor to not do it, in order to avoid the reporting, yet does this mean Mr. Hovind was laundering money, or that he was stealing from somebody, or that he was drug dealing? Some people, like myself, would rather not be reported to the government for withdrawing my own funds (yet this man was withdrawing ministry funds!), and had no idea that it was illegal to withdraw 9999 instead of 10000 to avoid this (despite the funds being totally legitimate without me having anything to hide). How many Americans do not know this sir, and are being criminalized by this stupid law? You know that they took the word "willingly" out of the Bank Secrecy Act, so that now people can be prosecuted even if they don't know that this action is illegal despite the legitimacy of their funds? This is outrageous, and it is outrageous that Mr. Hovind has given 8 years of his life for this.
Thirdly, we should consider on what grounds they convicted this man of threatening an IRS agent while performing his duties on Mr. Hovind according to his account, can only surmise that since he prayed for that man on his radio show, it was interpreted as a threat against him. Should it matter what we pray to our God or gods for regarding people? Is that not our religious right? Even if I was praying death upon someone (Psalm 109), how is that perceived as a threat to do someone harm, or illegal? Is this the land of the free?
Sir, this man Kent Hovind has many enemies, and few friends, and there are many lies concerning him spread across the internet. My greatest concern is that he is facing another one hundred years in prison for new charges being brought against him at the end of his sentence. Why? Why would they want to keep this man locked up after serving eight years in TWENTY different jails and prisons? It boggles the mind sir, and I am just asking that you review this for yourself, and hear both sides with an objective mind. I don't know whether you are a creationist, or an evolutionist, I simply ask you as a representative of the American People, to exercise whatever power you have, to see that these questions are answered justly and thoroughly.
Thank you Sir,
Rudy Davis
ruddavis@yahoo.com
Below is a picture of Kent Hovind and his family.
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