According to an Reuters report, a federal judge on Thursday sentenced former major league pitcher Jerry Koosman to six months in prison for not paying his taxes.
Prosecutors say Koosman, a former All-Star who helped the New York Mets win the 1969 World Series, didn’t pay federal income taxes for 2002, 2003 and 2004. He pleaded guilty in May to willfully failing to file taxes for 2002, a misdemeanor, in a deal with prosecutors.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb found that Koosman cost the government as much as $80,000. She could have sentenced him to a full year in prison but chose to cut that in half and add a year of supervised release, during which probation agents will closely monitor his finances.
Tough break for Koosman who is 66 years old and living in Wisconsin. If it’s one thing you should never mess around with, it’s the IRS.
Apparently, as if the six month sentence wasn’t enough, the judge scolded Koosman for taking advantage of all the opportunities the United States offered him, including the chance to play major league baseball and win a World Series.
His attorney, Robert Bernhoft, argued that Koosman deserved probation, pointing to letters to the judge that described him as an honest, reliable, naive farm boy. Koosman put his professional baseball career on hold to serve in the military, has performed too many charitable acts to list and never looked down on people of “lower station” even though professional athletes often act aloof and arrogant, Bernhoft added.
The judge told Koosman to report to prison on November 3rd which is kind of sad that he’ll be spending the holiday season in jail.
