Ex-Martin County judge pleads guilty to failing to pay income tax

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One-time Martin Circuit judge and county prosecutor Robert J. Howell pleaded guilty Friday to charges that he failed to pay more than $66,000 in taxes on receipts from his law firm in Loogootee.

Josh Minkler, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, announced the plea was entered in the Evansville division, where Howell had been charged with failing to pay income taxes on his firm’s roughly $450,000 in receipts for 2012.

“According to testimony in court, over $265,000 was withdrawn from his personal and business accounts at casinos in Evansville and French Lick,” Minkler’s office said in a statement.

According to Assistant United States Attorney James M. Warden, who prosecuted the case for the government, Howell faces up to one year in prison, a fine up to $100,000, and must pay full restitution to the IRS. Sentencing is scheduled for May 11, 2015.

Howell was admitted to practice in 1988 and was listed as active in good standing Friday on the Indiana Roll of Attorneys.

 

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