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YESTERDAY'S LOTTO WINNER, TODAY'S LEGAL LOSER

August 11, 2008

You'd think Rhoda Toth would have put her financial troubles behind her when she won $13 million the Florida Lottery in the 1980s. But now the money's gone, and so is her freedom. She has been sentenced to two years in prison for tax evasion. From TampaBay.com:

Toth, 51, stood in federal court Friday hunched over a walker, braces on her wrists and left knee. She told a judge her multiple sclerosis left her with only a year or two to live. Despite admitting to filing a false tax return, she begged to be spared jail.

But along with money, she has run out of luck:

On Wednesday, an agent had videotaped her walking outside her Spring Hill home. Special Agent Frank DeRosa pointed out that the braces on her wrists and left knee seen in court Friday were conspicuously absent.

Her public defender said Toth didn't need to use her walker all the time. Kovachevich appeared unconvinced.

"It is what it is," the judge said, watching.

Then she sent Toth to prison.

The moral? If you are going to plead for leniency based on being crippled, make sure you looked crippled at least for the full week before the sentencing hearing.

Russ Fox has more.

Tags: Russ Fox.tax crime.

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