Arrest warrants issued for accused tax cheats
Law enforcement officials are once again looking for Bryan and Amy Hoel, who failed to show up for a scheduled court hearing on June 6, and are now the subject of arrest warrants signed Monday by Dane County Circuit Court Judge Stuart Schwartz.
The Hoels each face charges of fraudulent filing of state income tax returns as well as failing to file tax returns. They were scheduled for a court appearance on those charges on June 6, but did not appear in court.
Instead, the notice of the court date mailed to them was returned stamped "refusal for cause, without dishonor, and without recourse to me."
The language is typical of anti-tax, anti-government types who do not generally recognize the legitimacy of state and federal governments.
Bryan Hoel, 38, responded to the initial investigation into the tax matters by filing a phony lien against the property of the tax agent who was investigating the matter, claiming she owed him $600,000 for improperly using his name.
He was charged with criminal slander to
title, and went on the lam in that case, which began in 2004,
finally being arrested in April 2007 at a farm near Dodgeville that
Amy Hoel, 43, had rented under an assumed name.
Bryan Hoel represented himself at trial in that case and a jury convicted him after about one hour of deliberation. He was put on probation for five years and given a one-year jail term. With credit for time served from his arrest until sentencing in February, he only served about two months in jail and has been out since April.
The tax cases against the Hoels were filed in January as Bryan was waiting trial on the criminal slander charge.
Authorities thought Bryan Hoel was hiding on a farm owned by Lester and Lilac Sundsmo near Wyocena, but a massive raid on that farm on March 14, 2007 did not turn up Hoel. Law enforcement officers from several jurisdictions swarmed the farm of the Sundsmos after receiving reports of a large weapons cache there, but found few guns and were able to order the Sundsmos off the land for failure to pay taxes.
The Sundsmos were also charged with criminal slander to title and each received one year in jail beginning last December and three years of probation.
The arrest warrants for the Hoels charged each of them with felony bail jumping for fleeing while their tax cases are pending. If they are found, Judge Schwartz has authorized bail to be set at $7,500 per count in the tax case, which totals $60,000 for Amy Hoel and $45,000 for Bryan Hoel.
Bryan Hoel
