PORTLAND, Maine — A former town selectwoman’s inability to read and write will be part of her defense when fighting tax fraud and worker’s compensation charges in Maine.
Carole Swan, of Chelsea, testified this week during a suppression hearing in U.S. District Court in Bangor that she’s functionally illiterate.
Attorney Leonard Sharon says his client’s inability to read will be a “fact of significance in her defense.” He says, for instance, that Swan couldn’t have known her husband’s tax returns understated his income because she couldn’t read the form and have a full understanding of his taxes.
Swan is facing federal extortion charges for allegedly accepting kickbacks from a town road contractor, in addition to charges of tax fraud and making false statements to obtain worker’s compensation payments.
Alright I am gonna say it – liar liar pants on fire….
She is wacky. I bet she can read the markings on different money.
Don’t knbow what she’s been smoking, but she must have inhaled. :)
inhaled?… hell she smoked the whole dam bag.
She was hired as a town’s selectwoman, but can’t read or write? Crazy? Yes. Illiterate? Doubtful.
Not really, I’m not sure my selectman can read beyond the first grade level.
Meanwhile millions of educated Americans are out of work
If we are letting illiterate people be selectmen(women), I think we should set our standards a bit higher for public office.
Well, we let Obama be president, so don’t you think this whole business is hopeless?
I’m no cheerleader for Obama, but I fail to see how Romney would have done anything different aside from rubber stamping offensive social conservative goals… His spending goals would baloon our deficit just as much as Obama.
She certainly isn’t Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobic.
IN my opinion she is lying. 15 years in prison is where the inmates will teach her to read and write very quickly.
If she can convince people of this silly story, she’s one smart lady. But it doesn’t pass my straight face test. Perhaps she should have had her lawyer review her tax forms and then she would not have had to hire him now.
Even if someone bought that she was functionally illiterate (which is doubtful) and gives her a pass on the tax fraud…how does that explain the kickbacks? Sounds like a first class criminal.
Yeah, slick. Sounds like a very cheesy person. And it even appears she’s willing to hang her husband out to dry. One also wonders how much money they have hidden. America is the only country I know of where a person can go to prison and still come out a millionaire.
Anyway, if her and her lawyer pull this sham off his legal fees will be double for the next clients. He’ll make the cover of ‘who’s who’ in lawyers with unique defenses magazine.
Don’t have to be able to ‘read’ to sort an envelope full of fifties and hundreds…
The term is selectman, not selectwoman
“selectperson” ?
Selector” Select Individual?
Why should we make up words just to sound politically correct. We have a fine word already — why change it? A car has a manifold. We don’t call it a womanifold when a female drives it.
history ….. herstory
???…..?????
It’s no wonder they are talking about the end times.
Thank you. Before all this liberal hoo-ha started newspapers referred to people as “chairmen,” not “chairpersons” or “chairwomen,” “men working” signs were ok because men really were working. It was suddenly mandated…oh-oh, there’s that “man” thing again, MANdated. And dated, too? Where are all the femmies about that word “mandate”?
What? No party affiliation? “Illiterate” and a tax dodger? I could venture a guess.
It begins with a D.
Ignorance of ….. is no excuse.
Gotta admit it’s a new defense, but being a town official, getting kick-backs and unemployment fraud pretty well takes the steam out of it. Couldn’t read or write all that time, eh? Just put a big ‘X’ where told? Get outta here with that! LOL
Don’t reveal too much, Newburgh may want to use it too…
And if a frog had wings it wouldnt bump its arse when it hoped !
If she can beat this, the next step is to sue the schools she attended. It’s obvious she was not included in the “No Child Left Behind” policy.