Closing out its case against Grammy Award-winning performer Phil Driscoll and his wife, Lynne, an IRS agent said the Driscolls evaded $128,627 in taxes owed for 1996-1999.
Agt. Thad Colvard said the items included payments for a lake home, for a home improvement loan and personal expenses.
He said the payments were made through the Driscoll ministry, but should have been counted as income for the Cleveland, Tn., couple.
The government at noon rested its case in the trial that began April 24. Attorneys are hoping to finish by Thursday.
The defense called Dean Blankenship, brother of Mrs. Driscoll, who gave testimony about Rick Blankenship, their older brother and star government witness. They are children of Chris Blankenship, who was charged in the case but died just before the trial.
Dean Blankenship said his brother had told him, “If I have to turn state’s evidence, I will do whatever it takes to keep Mom out of court.”
He said Rick Blankenship, who was the former U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas, suggested that Chris Blankenship should go there.
Dean Blankenship said his brother became very angry when he learned that the mother gave her power of attorney to Lynne Driscoll.
He said the entire family gathered at the mother’s deathbed, “but you look around the room and there was one person missing – Rick Blankenship.”
Dean Blankenship also said the older brother was unhappy with the funeral plans. He said those had been dictated by Chris Blankenship in a “very simple two-page letter.”
Cross-examined by prosecutors, Dean Blankenship said he had reported all the income he received while working in the Bahamas for Beaver Street Industries. He was asked about “being paid over $100,000 per year in cash.”
Doug Trant, Knoxville criminal defense attorney who represented Chris Blankenship, said Rick Blankenship called him and “said she will not go to trial. He said he would fly her to the Bahamas on his private plane. He said the government would not extradite her because he had been the ambassador to the Bahamas.”
Under cross-examination, the attorney said he was paid for his representation of Mrs. Blankenship by Phil Driscoll “with a personal check from a charitable organization.”
He said he understood “a number of person were involved in collecting the money.”
Theo Blackburn, a Price, Waterhouse CPA from Charlotte, N.C., said he did tax work for the Driscolls in 1992 and 1993.
He said he and Phil Driscoll had a conversation about an issue, then Rick Blankenship called him. The witness said, “He was very angry. He said Phil and I had talked and he was not part of it. I had never been cussed out before by a client. I was thoroughly cussed out. He said we were fired. That was it”
Mr. Blackburn said the Driscoll ministry complained about the size of the Price, Waterhouse bills, and they were never paid.
He said Phil Driscoll called him a year or two later and asked him to resume doing the taxes, saying Rick Blankenship was no longer involved. But he said he declined.
Barbara Tennyson of Cleveland told how she wound up getting a $3,000 check from the ministry. She said she and her fellow minister Ardetta Root had known Ruth Driscoll, mother of Phil Driscoll. She said Phil Driscoll asked that they come down at the time of Mrs. Driscoll’s funeral in 1999.
She said she gave a eulogy at the funeral. She said her plane trip was paid. She said the $3,000 was given after she told the Driscolls about their low income.
She said she and Ms. Root moved to Cleveland to where Ruth Driscoll had lived at the invitation of Phil Driscoll. She said the mission paid their utilities.
Hemilo Jasso, a Lee University professor, started to testify about how Phil Driscoll had helped him out with a mission program to aid the poor in the Ukraine. But the government said it was not relevant.
Judge Curtis Collier agreed, saying, “We will be here until Christmas” if witnesses were allowed telling positives about the mission.
The former head of the tax department at Chitwood and Chitwood said Michael Chitwood never told him of any concerns about the Driscoll taxes.
Anna Nicholson, a vocalist who has been a part of several Phil Driscoll album productions, said he gave her and her husband money in 1998 to fix up their house so they could sell it and move to Cleveland.
She told about his recording studio in a house on Stevenson Lane in Cleveland. That is one of the items listed by the IRS as part of the tax evasion. She said it is modestly decorated but able to capture sound comparable to many other studios.
She said Phil Driscoll “is able to create amazing, wonderful Christian music.”
Source: www.chattanoogan.com
