3 Colorado tax cheats skip sentencing to play golf

Published May 03, 2016

Three convicts in a $100 billion Colorado tax fraud scheme skipped sentencing to play a round of golf Wednesday.

Three Colorado Springs defendants were arrested Thursday after they failed to appear in court for their sentencing. George Brokaw, John Pawelski and Mimi Vigil were escorted into court in handcuffs wearing street clothes, the Denver Post reports.

"We did go golfing," Pawelski admitted to Judge Christine M. Arguello in U.S. District Court. "I shot a 49, which is pretty good for me."

Pawelski and Brokaw were granted a request to have the trio's sentences postponed, while threatening to gag Vigil if she did not behave herself.

Arguello reset the convicts' sentencing for Feb. 10.

Pawelski and Brokaw explained to the judge that they did not attend the hearings because an unnamed legal adviser told them the convictions would be "abrogated."

A jury convicted the trio on 18 tax fraud counts in November. The three defendants rarely attended the trial.

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URL

https://www.foxnews.com/us/3-colorado-tax-cheats-skip-sentencing-to-play-golf