Keith Russell

Greetings:

Filing for bankruptcy in no way protects one from having to pay past or currently due child support, taxes, or student loans.

Anyone who files bankruptcy in an attempt to avoid the IRS is in for a rude awakening.

Keith.

Pugilist Atheist

Being a Tax Protester, Hovind is probably familiar with ways to jam up the legal system with bogus motions and such; that's probably his reason for representing himself - a real lawyer (or a competent one, at least) isn't going to do that. He's probably hoping for a jury trial in hopes that the DA will drop the charges; jury trials are expensive and since Hovind isn't a crackhead breaking into homes to support his habit, it might be tough to convince a jury that his intent was burglary.

On the other hand, juries are notoriously tough on burglars, especially in the South. Texas carries a 5 to 99 year sentence for residential burglary, so most burglary cases aren't tried before juries. A few well-educated people on the jury will most likely see through Hovind's crap and want to stick it to him.

IMO, the victim should probably further pursue the matter in civil court, as well. Hovind's defense of thinking he had some sort of right to barge into the house would be torn apart by any lawyer.

Babylon Sister

The operative word here is "uninterrupted". In court you don't get to go on and on. He will be interrupted by the judge and the prosecutor. And he will have to answer the questions. (Whether he lies or not is up to him.) Preaching, and obfuscating probably won't get him very far.

tgamble

yeah, but he's persuasive to a bunch of idiots who are only to eager to hear that their faith in the bible is supported. It might be a bit harder to convince a jury. Especially if there are members there who are intelligent....

I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty sure that in jury trials, both sides are able to pick the members of the jury with dismissal or sustaining of arguments to accept/reject a member. That should help as will the fact that he won't be able to go on and on and on uninterupted.

[ September 09, 2002: Message edited by: tgamble ]</p>

MOJO-JOJO

Correct, and that was a dormitory on his "campus" that he busted in to. He heard loud music and saw an open beer can, so he went to expel the "students".

Camaban

It'll be interesting to see how he goes when he isn't controlling the microphone.

Blinn

I'm no lawyer, but I believe in almost all cases of criminal charges, it ends up going something like this: defendant enters "not guilty" plea, case is scheduled for a jury trial, then then the real business happens - plea bargaining.

So Hovind is probably looking for reduced charges. However, a possible sticking point for Hovind (and I don't know if this is dictated by law or by a particular prosecutor's policy)- plea bargaining, at least in some situations, is only done between the prosecuter and the defendant's attorney - a prosecutor won't plea bargain with someone who is representing themselves. Does anyone know if that's the case in Pensacola?

[ September 09, 2002: Message edited by: Zetek ]</p>

theyeti

Yeah, but you actually have to pay the fine! Hovind doesn't exactly have a sterling record when it comes to paying money that he owes to the government. Afterall, failure to do so is why he's been in trouble with them on two previous occasions. Maybe he'll avoid paying the fines and then receive jail time.

theyeti

Albion

And I wonder if he'll be able to spin it so it looks as if he was jailed for his Godly beliefs and his crusade against the forces of evil. There's one person on Christian Forums stating very confidently that this whole situation has been made up by atheists.

theyeti

My thoughts exactly. Placing the property under the "Kent hovind church" or whatever and declaring himself trustee seems to be a way to make the property tax-free and/or remove assets from his personal holdings that could be used against him in his ongoing tax cases. However, he has other property on that very same street that is listed under his name or that of his wife, so apparently he's not doing this universally. If he's trying to use church status to avoid paying property taxes, then he's clearly breaking the law if he's renting it out for profit.

They didn't pay rent? He had other prospective tenents that offered him more money? Landlords have all sorts of reasons for wanting their tenents to leave, but they are very restricted legally from what they can do about it. Forcing you way into the house and beating up the tenets is not allowed in most states.

Those claims would quickly be declared irrelevant by any competent judge. The jury would be instructed to ignore those claims, and Hovind would be ordered to stick to relevant material. I would pay good money to watch that trial. Someone call Court TV!

theyeti