Nickolas Indicted!

This will come as no surprise to regular readers of The Rural Democrat and ConservaChick:

Mark Nickolas, editor of Bluegrass Report, was indicted today by a Franklin County grand jury on three counts of "willfully failing to file tax returns" for years 2004, 2005, and 2006. According to the story ("BluegrassReport.org founder indicted" by Tom Loftus at the Louisville Courier-Journal), willfully failing to file an income tax return is a class D felony. The possible penalty is one to five years in prison for each count.

... "[Commonwealth's Attorney] Cleveland said he told the Revenue officials — as he said he does in all such cases — to give Nickolas a chance to file returns and pay anything that was due.

'In the past few months, this is the fourth or fifth case they’ve brought to me like this,' Cleveland said. 'We don’t take a case to the grand jury if the person makes a good faith effort to clear things up.'

But Cleveland said Revenue officials later told him they had twice set up meetings with Nickolas, one which Nickolas asked to reschedule and the other for which he failed to show up." ...

Apparently, Mr. Nickolas did not take his tax liabilities in this state very seriously. Even given the chance to correct the situation, he declined. Who among us would be so brazen? When tax liabilities are being questioned, it is up to the citizen in question to provide the requested information in a speedy manner to avoid the very thing that has happened to Nickolas. No one in this state should ever feel he is above the law.

Given the claim to a federal 501(c)4 status for his foundation and blog (which a number of Kentuckians have investigated and discovered false), this latest turn of events is certainly no surprise. Democrat or Republican, the law applies to us all. It's nice to know that our Democrat Commonwealth's Attorney, Larry Cleveland, doesn't give out free passes based on political party affiliation. Nice work by the Kentucky Revenue Cabinet and Mr. Cleveland!

My favorite comment on the story (posted online at the Courier-Journal) is this one:

Thomas Hunt Morgan Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2007 11:51 am

And to think the administration had the audacity, the audacity to block state workers from visiting this site. Amazing. Mark's reaction reminds me a little bit of Capt. Louis Renault in Casablanca: "I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!"

"I'm shocked, shocked to find out that I haven't paid my taxes!"

I believe there are on-going updates to this story at Pol Watchers and The Rural Democrat. Please check in on these sites for the latest info. As a part-time blogger I simply cannot keep on top of this stuff the way the full-time dedicated folks can! Nickolas himself is at the keyboard this evening giving his side of the story. I wonder if his "mea culpa" can be used in court as a confession of sorts...

I've already seen comments (posted at various sites covering this story) in which people are pointing the finger of blame at Republicans for uncovering Nickolas's failure to file tax returns; however, you have it directly from me that, to the best of my knowledge, this investigation was NOT prompted by a Republican.

Regardless of who initiated the investigation, isn't it silly to "blame" anyone? After all, if a person breaks the law and we have knowledge of it, are we not held accountable for that knowledge? Are we not obligated to ensure that it is known to the authorities? Citizens like their fellow citizens to obey the laws to which we are all subject, whether Democrat or Republican. These "blame the Fletcher administration" comments do nothing more than imply that there are different rules for different people in this country. That's foolish. Break the law; get indicted. It's that simple. The man to blame is the man that broke the law.