WV man sues feds over ‘unjust conviction’

And the WV State is being nasty too. They hate seeing someone exonerated

Bob Graham spent 13 months behind the bars of a federal prison on a conviction that he cashed in $31,129 in sick leave payments without getting approval of the buyout from the Wyoming County Council on Aging while serving as the agency’s director. Now that a three-judge panel has declared him innocent and set him free, Graham is suing the U.S. government for “wrongful conviction.” Under law, the maximum damages he can claim is $50,000 in the federal lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Claims.

Graham sees his suit as “pretty much cut and dried,” but emphasized he wouldn’t characterize it as “a slam dunk.” “What this complaint is about is unjust conviction and imprisonment, including, but not limited to, deprivation of liberty, loss of earnings, and all that,” he said in an interview this week.

Graham initially faced 31 charges involving his tenure at the Council on Aging, but was sent to prison on the single count involving his sick leave buyout. After 13 months and four days, a three-judge panel reversed the conviction.

In another legal issue, Graham is still battling to get his Individual Retirement Account fund, worth about $250,000, in a struggle with the state of West Virginia. “The state has a civil case pending,” he said. “At the same time they had the civil case pending, they attempted to tax my IRA. They had an injunction stopping me from being able to spend. They did a two-pronged effort. I call it harassment.”

In a recent order, an administrative law judge tossed out the West Virginia personal income tax assessment on the IRA for the only year left in question, 2003, finding that only the Internal Revenue Service is authorized to determine the adjusted gross income on Graham’s returns. “The important part of the decision, other than the excessive contributions were ruled void, was it goes on to say it is premature and void because it is not based on a final determination by the Internal Revenue Service by the IRS or by another competent federal authority to the effect that excess contributions to a certain retirement plan had been made,” Graham said. “They can’t tax the IRA or what they consider excess contributions, unless the federal government would take the lead and say it was excessive. The state has no jurisdiction.”

Graham says his IRA has been held in limbo while the state contends that he should return the money to the Council on Aging. “What I say is, the only people who have jurisdiction over that IRA is the federal government,” he said. “It’s still in question in the state’s civil case. But this takes care of the tax issue and very clearly says the statute known as the Employment Retired Income Security Act is one which is within the exclusive jurisdiction of the IRS and other competent federal tax authorities and the U.S. Department of Labor.”

Graham says a hearing is planned Wednesday to see where he and the state stand after being ordered to mediate the dispute. “The whole question of the civil case becomes one of, ‘Do you want to see the state set a precedent in my case that could affect people’s 401(k)s?’ Or their IRAs in the future?’”

Original report here




(And don't forget your ration of Wicked Thoughts for today)