By SANDRA K. REABUCK
sreabuck@tribdem.com
EBENSBURG —
Judge Norman Krumenacker on Thursday threw out a single criminal charge alleging that Johns-town lawyer Richard “Joe” Russell had intentionally failed to pay his 2006 state personal income tax totaling $8,241.
Krumenacker agreed with defense attorney Caram J. Abood, who is one of Russell’s law partners, that the state’s evidence did not show Russell willfully intended to evade paying the taxes.
The state attorney general’s office filed the charge in Dauphin County, but it later was moved to Cambria.
Joseph Balistrieri, a criminal tax investigator for the state Department of Revenue, testified that Russell had a history of not paying the state taxes starting in 1995, although he had filed returns showing that taxes were due.
Balistrieri said Russell told him in an interview in October 2006 that he had a dispute with the federal Internal Revenue Service about his federal taxes and “until that was settled, he wasn’t paying any other taxes.”
Russell also told him that he didn’t have the money to pay the taxes and couldn’t borrow the money because of the dispute with the IRS, the investigator testified.
Even though Russell indicated he was going to file for bankruptcy, Balistrieri said that he recommended the criminal charge because Russell – according to his state income tax returns – had an income of about $250,000 a year and owned his own home plus five rental properties.
But Balistrieri also said that Russell’s expressed intent was to pay the state taxes “after the conflict with the IRS was settled.”
George Zaiser, a senior deputy attorney general, argued unsuccessfully that Russell’s statements about not paying until the IRS conflict was resolved did show a willful intent.
It was brought out in the testimony that Russell’s state income taxes for the years 2004 through 2006 have been paid in full, with interest, and that the other taxes are scheduled to be paid through a bankruptcy payment plan.
Abood said after the hearing, “It is clear that he (Russell) had no intent to evade paying the taxes.”
