Author and teacher Kent Hovind. Image from YouTube.

UPDATE 7/8/2015

Kent Hovind is FREE! From son Eric Hovind:

On my way to pick up my Dad. Can’t wait to see him. You are invited to the party on Saturday if you can make it. (Source.)

UPDATE 5/16/2015

Prosecution moves to dismiss all charges against Kent Hovind:

Filed May 16, 2015
IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
PENSACOLA DIVISION
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
v. CASE NO. 3:14cr91/MCR
KENT E. HOVIND and
PAUL JOHN HANSEN
GOVERNMENT’S MOTION TO DISMISS COUNTS ONE, TWO AND FOUR OF THE SUPERSEDING INDICTMENT WITHOUT PREJUDICE
COMES NOW the United States of America, by and through the undersigned Assistant United States Attorney, and files this Motion to Dismiss Counts One, Two, and Four of the Superseding Indictment Without Prejudice pursuant to Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, Rule 48(a).
1.
On May 11 and May 12, 2015, the government received the defendants’ motions to dismiss. (Docs. 180 and 184).
2.
The defendants’ motions to dismiss were filed beyond the deadlines previously set by the Court for the filing of such motions.
3.
The defendants’ motions raise issues regarding the technical sufficiency of the Superseding Indictment, including the adequacy of notice. (Docs. 180 and 184).
4.
Due to the issues raised by the defendants, and the timing of their motions, the government respectfully moves to dismiss Counts One, Two, and Four of the Superseding Indictment without prejudice, pursuant to Rule 48(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.

The government submits that the relief sought is in the interest of justice.

As the government’s motion is made prior to trial, the defendants’ consent is not required. Rule 48(a) provides, The government, may with leave of court, dismiss an indictment, information, or complaint.

The government may not dismiss the prosecution during trial without the defendant’s consent.

The “leave of court” requirement has been interpreted to support the government providing the Court with the reason for its request. United States v. Dyal, 868 F. 2d 424 (11th Cir. 1989); United States v. Salinas, 693 F.2d 348 (5th Cir. 1982); United States v. Cowan, 524 F.2d 504 (5th Cir. 1975).

In Cowan, the Fifth Circuit noted that, The Executive remains the absolute judge of whether a prosecution should be initiated and the first and presumptively the best judge of whether a pending prosecution should be terminated.

The exercise of its discretion with respect to the termination of pending prosecutions should not be judicially disturbed unless clearly contrary to manifest public interest. Cowan, 524 F.2d at 513.

There is a presumption that the government acts in good faith. United States v. Collins, 300 Fed. Appx. 663, 666 (11th Cir. 2008), citing Salinas, 693 F.2d at 352. 5. Therefore, the government moves to Dismiss Counts One, Two, and Four of the Superseding Indictment without prejudice, in the interest of justice, and in order to ensure that the defendants are adequately apprised, with reasonable certainty, of the nature of the accusation.

WHEREFORE, the undersigned Assistant United States Attorney files this Motion to Dismiss Counts One, Two, and Four of the Superseding Indictment Without Prejudice.
Respectfully submitted,
PAMELA C. MARSH
United States Attorney
/s/ Tiffany H. Eggers
TIFFANY H. EGGERS
Assistant United States Attorney
—————————————————–

Filed May 16, 2015
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
PENSACOLA DIVISION
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
v. CASE NO: 3:14cr91/MCR
KENT E. HOVIND, and
PAUL JOHN HANSEN,
Defendants.
ORDER
Pending before the Court is the Government’s Motion to Dismiss Counts One, Two and Four of the Superseding Indictment Without Prejudice (doc. 194).
The Defendants will be permitted to respond at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, May 18, 2015, at the scheduled attorney conference.

In light of this motion, the jury selection scheduled to begin thereafter and the trial are hereby cancelled.
DONE and ORDERED
this 16th day of May, 2015.
M. Casey Rodgers
M. CASEY RODGERS
CHIEF UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

UPDATE 5/15/2015

Kent Hovind is facing a new trial on May 18, 2015.

Joyce Riley’s Prison Interview With Persecuted Creation Evangelist Kent Hovind 0n 5/11/2015

UPDATE 3/12/2015

FROM ERIC HOVIND:

This morning at 10:30 the Jury concluded their deliberation. Around 11:15 the verdict was read before the court. 4 counts were brought against Kent Hovind. Three counts of Mail Fraud and one count of Criminal Contempt of Court.

Count 1 Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud – Unable to come to a verdict
Count 2 Mail Fraud – Unable to come to a verdict
Count 3 Criminal Contempt of Court – Guilty
Count 4 Mail Fraud – Unable to come to a verdict

The Criminal Contempt of Court count contained two different charges. One charge was from a 2012 order and the other from a 2007 ruling from Judge Rodgers. Kent was not found guilty on the 2012 charge but was found guilty on the 2007 charge. This count was from the original 2007 case when Judge Rodgers forfeited Kent Hovind’s interest in the property. The order did not restrict Kent from presenting filings to question this decision; therefore, Kent’s attorney asked the Judge to rule that there were not enough facts presented to the jury to find Kent guilty of that verdict. The Judge said that she would take that under advisement.

Thomas Keith, Kent’s attorney said that in a Federal Case it is rare to see anything other than a guilty verdict. While he would still like the Judge to find that there was not enough evidence presented on the Contempt of Court charge and overturn the verdict, this is considered a huge success.

On the one guilty charge, if Judge Rodgers does not overturn it, there is no limit to the penalty that she can impose. Please pray that she would show leniency during the sentencing.

UPDATE 3/1/2015

FreeKentHovind.com is reporting that Mr. Hovind was moved to an isolation cell yesterday (7 by 9 cell shared by 2 people) in Santa Rosa County Jail. He has to sleep on the floor and he no longer has phone access (he granted several interviews to the alternative media by phone last week). Supporters are asking people to call the jail (850)983-1100 and ask why he is in isolation and if he can be moved out of isolation into a dorm with phone access.

Health Impact News Editor Comments

Kent Hovind is a Creation Science teacher and Baptist minister who became well known for debating university professors and refuting Darwinian evolutionary theory. He has served eight years of a ten-year prison sentence, and he is now fighting a new charge that would put him behind bars for the rest of his life.

Kent Hovind’s teachings, much like many of the topics we cover here at Health Impact News, go against mainstream media and education regarding such topics as the medical system, vaccines, GMOs, and of course Darwinian biology. Mr. Hovind was a biology science teacher for 15 years before he began a full-time creation ministry.

In a high profile tax case involving the IRS eight years ago, he was convicted and sent to prison in what many believed to be a “tax evasion” conviction. However, Mr. Hovind and his wife, who also served time in prison, were never actually convicted of tax evasion. The primary charge they were convicted on was an IRS law called “structuring.”

This law prohibiting “structuring” was allegedly designed to catch people involved in drug trafficking, and who were withdrawing more than $10,000.00 in cash from their bank account. The law requires that the bank file a report with the government on anyone withdrawing more than $10,000.00 in cash from their own bank account.

Kent Hovind never actually made any withdrawals over that amount, but allegedly did make some withdrawals just under $10,000.00, 12 days apart, to pay for his ministry expenses, which included purchasing land to build a theme park and creation museum. This was during a period of his ministry when they apparently held firm convictions about not using credit cards.

For this “crime” of “structuring,” a fully armed SWAT team arrived at their home one morning, and arrested both him and his wife. His wife has already been released, and Mr. Hovind, who has now served over 8 years of his sentence, was scheduled to be released this year (2015).

However, new charges of “mail fraud” have now been made, and a trial is set for Monday March 2, 2015. Mr. Hovind is facing new charges that will put him behind bars for the rest of his life, if convicted.

Mr. Hovind spoke on the Joyce Riley “Power Hour” talk radio show this past week from county jail.

Kent Hovind’s Interview from Prison with Joyce Riley

During the Joyce Riley interview, Kent Hovind mentioned how some of his teachings went against mainstream thinking on certain issues, such as the current medical system:

I taught biology for 15 years. I became very concerned that our whole medical system in America is drug therapy: have a pain, take a pill, have a pain, take a pill – which is just exactly backwards as to what you need to do. If you brought your car to the mechanic and said “wow, this engine is making a funny noise, can you fix it?” and he says, “well yeah, I’ve got some great ear muffs so that you will never hear that noise again.” That’s fixing the symptom, not the cause. If you have a headache, you take an aspirin. Ok, so what’s the cause of the headache? Are you suffering from aspirin deficiency disease?

Hovind commented that any time they have a court hearing, the IRS agents attend and watch in court. Hovind says he has a suspicion that the reason is to intimidate everyone, including the judge and U.S. Attorney, letting them know that the IRS could target them next.

Hovind calls on Congress to repeal the structuring law. It is none of government’s business how much money we take out of our bank accounts. He states that even if you want to take out a million dollars from the bank, as long as it is your money, it is none of their business.

Hovind believes Congress needs to act and put a stop to abuses in the IRS. He believes they intimidate judges all the way up to the federal level, and that there is little hope of justice in the courts. So he calls on people to call their Congressional representatives to repeal the “structuring law,” and release everyone who is in prison because of it even if it was money to buy illegal drugs. How many criminal settlements have we seen with pharmaceutical companies, with criminal charges and settlements in the billions of dollars, yet no one goes to prison? Of course, Mr. Hovind and his wife have never used illegal drugs nor ever been charged as such.

He calls on people to contact Eric Holder, the head of the Department of Justice, and complain that the federal government has spent over a half million dollars of tax money to convict a man in prison for mailing a letter. The letter was a lis pendens filing on the real estate that the government had seized from Kent Hovind’s ministry. For this letter, the government is seeking to tack on two more 20 year sentences to his already existing sentence which was set to expire this year. At 62, this would put Mr. Hovind behind bars for the rest of his life.

So what is a  lis pendens that the government is so upset about that it wants to keep Mr. Hovind behind bars for the rest of his life?

According to a legal dictionary:

(lease pen-dense) n. Latin for “a suit pending,” a written notice that a lawsuit has been filed which concerns the title to real property or some interest in that real property. The lis pendens (or notice of pending action) is filed with the clerk of the court, certified that it has been filed, and then recorded with the County Recorder. This gives notice to the defendant who owns real estate that there is a claim on the property, and the recording informs the general public (and particularly anyone interested in buying or financing the property) that there is this potential claim against it. The lis pendens must include a legal description of the real property, and the lawsuit must involve the property. (Source.)

According to Hovind, it is a letter warning any potential buyer of his property that the government has seized, that there is still litigation pending. He claims that if he had hand delivered the lis pendens letter, or had someone else file it, no charges would have been filed against him. But because he used the U.S. Postal system from prison, he is being charged with mail fraud, and could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.

Does the Judge Over his Case Have a Conflict of Interest and Bias?

The original judge sitting on the bench in Kent Hovind’s first trial, Judge Margaret Casey Rodgers, allegedly stated in court that the “crimes” Mr. Hovind committed were “worse than rape,” and then allegedly had that statement erased from court transcripts. She will be the same judge hearing the new case against Mr. Hovind.

Here is a 12 minute video documenting 20 shocking facts about the Kent Hovind case, which reveals possible corruption and political motivations against Mr. Hovind:

FreeKentHovind.com also lists 10 reasons why they believe prosecutors want to censor Kent Hovind:

IMPORTANT: Pamela C. Marsh and Tiffany Eggers silence jury and evidence. New Prosecutor J. Ryan Love protected violent felon who was employed by the ATF now persecuting USA vs Kent Hovind case. Here is a timeline of events
1 – PROOF: Letters from professionals absolve Kent Hovind from all wrong-doing
2 – PROOF: Judge Margaret Casey Rodgers was caught altering court transcript
3 – PROOF: Judge Margaret Casey Rodgers is anti-christian and bias
4 – PROOF: Judge Margaret Casey Rodgers pre-judged Kent calling him the ‘HEAD OF A CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION’.
5 – PROOF: Sexual deviant, immoral and mentally-ill people imprisoned Kent Hovind
6 – IRS arrest and seize over $19k from widowed senior citizen
7 – IRS caught stealing a quarter of a billion from American people
8 – IRS apologizes for abusing their laws
9 – Congress is furious with the IRS for targeting Christian Americans
10 – New AG Loretta Lynch caught protecting drug money launderers and terrorists

Ministry Continues from Prison

Kent Hovind has written 37 books while residing in prison for the past 8+ years. He mentioned one book in particular in his interview with Joyce Riley, which he says is an expose on the prison system, called “The Kennel.” He said it contains practical things to change the prison system. America has the largest prison system in the world, and it is basically “prison for profit” states Hovind. The U.S. has only 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s population incarcerated in prison reside in the U.S., and judges own stock in the private prison system, Hovind reveals.

What Can We do to Help?

The FreeKentHovind.com website is encouraging people to come to the courthouse in Pensacola Florida on Monday morning May 18th:

United States Courthouse
One North Palafox St.
Pensacola, Florida 32502 (click here for directions)

For a list of people to contact, see FreeKentHovind.com.

Whether or not you agree with Kent Hovind and his views on various issues, one must ask if this is the kind of man that should face such criminal charges and spend the rest of his life in prison? What is the real threat to society if he is allowed to go free?