Richard Hatch Moved To A Halfway House

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — "Survivor" winner Richard Hatch has been moved to a halfway house from the federal prison where he was serving time for failing to pay taxes on his reality TV prize.

Hatch was convicted in Rhode Island in January 2006 of failing to pay taxes on the $1 million prize he won on the debut season of the hit CBS show. He was sentenced to four years and three months.

Officials say Hatch left the federal prison in West Virginia on Monday and is now being held in a halfway house in Pennsylvania.

Carla Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Northeast Regional office of the Bureau of Prisons, says Hatch is expected to be released from the halfway house Oct. 7.

Hatch has maintained his innocence.

Comments

[blimie]

Why don't they go after corporations like that.

[HeavyHitter]

Because corporations avoid taxes "legally," with a wink from Congress.

[valley boy]

Oh dam, I was hoping to marry him before he got out of jail. Don't you just love celebs?

[PwnedByJesus]

An accountant might have helped here. Imagine trying to fill out your own tax form on such an odd source of income. Even if some taxes were witheld, seems weird that he would take chances that something this complicated.

[westreal]

Did they the IRS let him keep the money or did they take it all? How much does he have left?

[DandyWarhol]

Four years for Hatch but Cheney drunkenly shoots a man in the face and doesn't get so much as a ticket?

[jalowe1957]

Richard Hatch: A manufactured celebutante unfit for public consumption.

And let's not confuse consumption with TB...

[NorthernMan]

How does he maintain his innocence?
Judge: Did you win one million dollars?
Hatch: Yes.
Judge: Did you pay the IRS?
Hatch: No.
Judge:Are you going to pay the IRS?
Hatch: No.
Judge: Great. Enjoy Jail.
Hatch: I am innocent.
Judge: I refer you to my previous statement.

[sean6886]

If he did the crime, he should do the time...but­...serious­ly, when we have world leaders (also known as the Bushies) who have broken many international laws, committed war crimes, caused the deaths of thousands of American soldiers, not to mention the millions of Iraqi people, let the banks run wild with greed, etc., and don't even have to testify, WTF? What is wrong with our core values?

[houstonbch]

I agree with your point, but the fact that it was placed at the bottom of an article about a reality tv show contestant (former reality tv show contestant) answers, in part, your question. We (Americans, media, consumers, etc.) spend way too much time on gossip and celebrity life and whatever new scare is threatening our lives (this week it seems skittles may contain salmonella) to focus on the important news - like what Bush was doing throught the world and in our own country. We are a society of naive, comfortable, unaffected people being led astray by those who tell us what news is. I am one of these people. I like entertainment news and gossip too, but I learned from the past Bush years that I have to make myself more informed on what is really happening in the world. I try to get news from multiple and varied sources. Online, cable, network, papers. Liberal, conservative, mainline. As much as I dislike Fox "news", I try to gather information from all views then form my own ideas. Like I said, I'm new at this, so I still am learning how to seperated BS and bias from the actual stories. But I can speak my mind now knowing it is my own opinion and not recycled catch phrases.

[smchp]

New hatch reality tv show and book deal coming in 3..2..1

[brooklyncitizen]

So all the Obama nominees that didn't pay taxes don't have to go to prison but this guy does?

[WRPrintz]

They should go right after we free up enough space to put all the thieves enabled by the Bushies, and the Torturers who continue to clutter up our airwaves.

[Chi-townfool]

How can he claim he's innocent? He either paid or he didn't and isn't a half way house for broke people trying to find a job fresh out of prison? What he has no money? Now some violent criminal fresh out of prison has no place to stay because this jerk took his place in the halfway house and will resort to violent crime! The system works!

[jayded]

no, halfways houses are a low security intermediary between prison and freedom....people typically stay in them to serve out the last few months of sentences. Michael Vick is currently in one...he has homes and money.

[nowarpleez]

I think it's stupid to send someone to jail for not paying taxes. Make them pay the taxes and a hefty fine; that's it. Not only is it not a violent crime, but corporations get away with it on a much larger scale than individual citizens. This makes me want to join the teabaggers (not).

[WRPrintz]

I would join with you and say all non-violent offenders should be treated differently than we have treated them in the past.

With 2 million people in Prison or jail in the United States, we have way too many people who could be better served by Home Confinement, or other alternative forms of punishment rather than prison.

[klandish]

That was killer!!

[mipuppetmaster]

I've never understood why he went to prison, let alone for so long a sentence. Many, many people don't pay taxes, and when they get caught, the IRS works to let them pay up. The IRS doesn't usually want to have you in prison, they want their money. Why did he claim "innocent"-he either paid or he didn't, and apparently the IRS would know if he'd paid up. This story has never made any sense to me.

[BrianTheTaxGuy]

It is illegal not to report income. If he would have reported the income and not paid it, he would not be in jail. The amount of the unreported income was large and flagrant, which is why he was prosecuted.

[Peter007]

It always seemed odd that someone who was intelligent, could receive 1 million dollars and not pay taxes on it, then state that they are innocent. There is more to the story then what we have been told.
I know he was acquitted of 7 other charges and he stated that the producers of the show had agreed to pay the federal taxes as part of a deal. Something was wrong.

[voltage356]

Yeah, i guess they lied to him

[voltage356]

How does Richard Hatch goes to jail and Tom Daschle walks free?

[WRPrintz]

If you truly want to know, study the law. Richard Hatch failed to report his income to a huge extent. That means you go to prison. Tom Daschle served his country well, and under reported on a limo service, that he corrected and made good on.

Not perfect, but big difference between the two. Now, what I think is

A) Neither of them should go to prison, because we have too many people in prison
B) You don't really care, you are just trying to score points for the Retuglicans. Didn't work.