Charles Bolton seeks acquittal, new trial

Attorneys for Charles Bolton filed a motion Wednesday for a judgment of acquittal and conditional grant for a new trial.

Bolton, former chief deputy for Forrest County Sheriff's Department, and his wife, Linda Bolton, were found guilty Sept. 15 on some of the 20 charges in their federal tax evasion trial and not guilty on others.

Charles Bolton was found guilty of four counts of tax evasion for the years 2010-13; not guilty on one count of tax evasion for 2009; and guilty on five counts of filing a false tax report for 2009-13.

His attorneys, Joe Sam Owen and Ben Galloway, filed the motion in the Mississippi Southern District of U.S. District Court seeking a judgment of acquittal and a conditional ruling for a new trial or a motion for a new trial.

The attorneys argue some of the evidence introduced in the trial was insufficient to sustain a conviction.

"Setting aside a guilty verdict in the interest of justice may be appropriate under circumstances where the evidence brought forth at trial may tangentially support a guilty verdict but in actuality, preponderates sufficiently heavily against the verdict such that a miscarriage of justice may have occurred," Owen and Galloway wrote in the motion.

In addition, the verdicts are inconsistent between charges on counts 1 and 6, they wrote. Charles Bolton was found not guilty of tax evasion for the 2009 tax year, but guilty of filing a false tax return for the same year.

"The Defendant, Charles Bolton, submits that under the facts of this case it is a legal impossibility for Charles Bolton to be acquitted/found not guilty under Count 1, yet be convicted under Count 6 for the same 2009 year when the evidence is exactly the same ..." the motion says.

Owen and Galloway also say the inconsistency between Charles Bolton's guilty verdicts on Counts 2-5 and the non-verdicts on the same counts for Linda Bolton demand the granting of a new trial.

Linda Bolton was found guilty on five counts of filing a false tax report for 2009-13 and not guilty on one count of tax evasion for 2009. The jury was deadlocked on the four other counts of tax evasion for the years 2010-13. Mississippi Southern District of U.S. District Court Judge Keith Starrett declared a mistrial on those four charges.

In addition, the attorneys say the government did not meet its burden of proof when it attempted to show checks written to the Boltons' businesses by attorney John Lee were actual income.

Attorneys for Linda Bolton, the government and  Starrett have not yet responded to the motion.

The couple is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 23 at William M. Colmer Federal Courthouse. The Boltons will remain free on $25,000 unsecured bonds until sentencing.