Richard Hatch thrown back into jail after interviews on "The Today Show."

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Richard Hatch ain't smiling now.


Convicted tax cheat Richard Hatch was thrown back into jail after a series of interviews this week on "The Today Show. Hatch was convicted of income tax evasion charges in 2006, and was sentenced to 51 months in prison plus 3 years of supervised release. Hatch was released under house arrest in May of this year, and requested for a 7 week leave to appear on the 10th anniversary episode of Survivor 20. The request was denied by the Rhode Island Federal District Court. After giving a series of interviews this week, Hatch stated he was singled out for prosecution because he was gay. Hatch was taken back into custody on August 18th for failure to get clearances for *all* of the interviews on Tuesday ( which is a violation of his house arrest agreement), and is now held in solitary confinement 23 hours a day. A hearing will take place tommorrow to determine his ultimate fate.

Is this a freedom of speech issue for Hatch? Could he make a case he's being harshly treated for speaking out against the federal prosecutor during the interviews? Of course, Hatch could have avoided all of this by simply doing the right thing, and paid his taxes.

Source here.