Nobody actually wants to pay taxes. Even as an individual who believes in the government providing plenty of essential services for everyone, every time tax season rolls around I'm like "screeeeeew thiiiiiiiis." Granted, it should be huge corporations and million/billionaires pitching in more, but I'll leave that debate to the five people who debate that in every TLO comment section.
Instead, we bring the curious case of an Oklahoma County judge who hasn't paid taxes in years and is trying to get off the hook for it.
From KOCO:
An Oklahoma County judge accused of not filing her last four income tax returns said she wants a felony charge against her thrown out.Prosecutors said Kendra Coleman didn't file the tax returns and failed to report final campaign contributions. Coleman was charged, but she and and her attorneys said the felony should be dismissed because the state cannot prove she failed to file her 2017 taxes intentionally.
Court documents also state that Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater should be taken off the case, claiming he is not impartial and must be disqualified. The documents describe a tense exchange between Prater, his assistant and Coleman, saying the judge accused Prater's assistant of talking over her in court and being disrespectful.
Prater has also accused Coleman of refusing to provide names of some of her campaign donors, claiming the defendant in one of her cases was represented by a donor.
Coleman said she has filed the tax returns she is accused of not filing and is paying back money owed.
The first thing it makes you wonder is how this judge would handle someone in her own courtroom who was being charged under the same circumstances. How do you even prove that someone didn't file their taxes "intentionally?" Is there a legal precedent of "whoopsie daisy I forgot?"
A quick Google search turns up a lot of other issues with Judge Coleman, who has only been in her position for a year. In June, she was accused of assaulting a woman behind a barn in Spencer. The Black Chronicle reported how Coleman was ordered to pay $3,000 in fines for violating campaign financing laws. Speaking of campaign financing, there's more conflict of interest between Coleman and DA Prater, as the District Attorney local defense Attorney Ed Blau, as Blau donated to Coleman's campaign, which has made it difficult for her to work on his high profile cases. Hell, there's even a weird online petition with more than 50 votes asking to remove Coleman from her position because of a bias against mental illness.
It's pretty wild to have a job for only one year and already be in this much drama and scandal, even more so when that person was elected to literally help decide who is right and who is wrong in society. I dunno if it's right to throw someone in jail over a few thousand bucks worth of unpaid taxes, but if it ever happens to me, I hope the Honorable Judge Coleman is presiding over my case and is willing to cut me the kind of slack she's asking for.
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Editor's Note: We fixed the screw up about Prater donating to Coleman's campaign. If anyone would like to donate money so we can hire a copy editor and avoid future editing mistakes, send a Paypal donation to paypal.me/thelostogle.
