SCOTTSBURG, Ind. (WAVE) – Former Scott County Sheriff Kenneth Hughbanks will not serve prison time after pleading guilty to tax evasion, but he will spend the next 908 days on probation and repay the unpaid taxes at the center of his crime.
Hughbanks was part of the first audit that launched the Jamey Noel investigation, receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from Clark County’s jail fund. But that wasn’t the crime that now labels him a felon.
Tax fraud discovered during Noel investigation
“It came about through the Jamey Noel investigation that this was uncovered, but this has nothing to do with the Jamey Noel investigation,” said Special Prosecutor Ric Hertel.
Hertel said Hughbanks cooperated with state police as part of the Jamey Noel investigation. But it was their search through his records that revealed the tax fraud on its own.
“It was your intent to defraud the state of Indiana and or evade the payment of tax or any part thereof as part of Indiana code 63, yes,” the prosecutor said during the hearing.
Hughbanks pleaded guilty to failing to report income he made from selling property and money he paid himself from a relative’s bank account. Hundreds of thousands of dollars in all, with $13,000 due on unpaid tax.
“You will pay $13,273 and 2 cents to the Indiana Department of Revenue, and I believe that will be paid today,” said Judge Jason Mount.
“That is correct,” answered defense lawyer Pat Renn.
Hughbanks said only “yes, sir” and “no, sir” in court. He did not make a statement about the crime.
Lesson for public officials
Hertel said this should be a lesson to other public officials.
“We’ve prosecuted six people, five of them have been convicted, two of them former sheriffs in southern Indiana. The idea is crime probably doesn’t pay,” Hertel said.
There is still one more case to go. Former Clark County Councilman John Miller has been battling in the courts to try and toss out his charge for breaking Indiana’s conflict of interest law. His trial is currently scheduled to start in the spring.
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