The former owner of a Grandview, Mo., business that provided residential treatment for children while in state custody pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to failing to pay both the payroll taxes he collected from his employees and his personal income taxes, resulting in a total tax loss of more than $750,000.

Jason Rudolph, 47, of Kingsville, Mo., waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Beth Phillips to failure to pay over withholding taxes and willfully failing to file federal income tax returns.

Rudolph owned and operated Jay’s Residential, which provided residential psychiatric care for children at several locations in Grandview.

By pleading guilty, Rudolph admitted that he did not deposit the employees’ Federal Insurance Contributions Act and Medicare (“FICA”) taxes and income taxes that he withheld from his employees’ wages and did not pay the employer portion of FICA. Instead, Rudolph used the money to gamble, pay personal bills, and purchase vehicles. In addition to failing to pay over his employment taxes, Rudolph admitted he did not file personal income tax returns for the tax years 2008 through 2011.

The total tax harm from Rudolph’s criminal conduct is $755,643. Rudolph admitted that he failed to pay over $149,944 in employee payroll taxes and $344,902 in personal income taxes, for a tax loss of $494,845. The tax loss increases to $570,491 after including the employer portion of FICA, and to $755,643 including earlier employment tax periods and the employment tax owed to the state of Missouri.

While having substantial employment taxes due, according to today’s plea agreement, Rudolph frequently went to casinos and paid personal expenses with Jay’s Residential’s funds. An analysis of bank records and records obtained from Ameristar Casino reveal that Rudolph withdrew more than $1.1 million from Jay’s Residential’s bank account at the casino from 2008 to 2011.

Although Rudolph failed to file his personal federal individual income tax return for the tax years 2008 through 2011, the plea agreement says, his wife filed her personal federal individual income tax return using the filing status of married and filing separately.

Under federal statutes, Rudolph is subject to a sentence of up to six years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $500,000. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

A Kansas City, Mo., man pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to operating an illegal gambling business that generated nearly $4 million in bets placed during its final year of operation.

Hoang Pham, 49, of Kansas City, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Fernando J. Gaitan to conducting an illegal gambling business and participating in a money laundering conspiracy.

By pleading guilty, Pham admitted that he operated an illegal gambling business from at least 2008 to February 2012. Pham used Costa Rican Web sites to run his bookmaking operation. The gross revenue of Pham’s illegal gambling business exceeded $2,000 per day on multiple days during the operation of the business. Evidence obtained during the course of the investigation indicated that, in approximately a one-year period from Jan. 1, 2011, to Feb. 9, 2012, bets totaling $3,788,635 were placed in Hoang Pham’s operation.

Pham settled up with his bettors on a weekly basis and, typically, the transfer of funds would be in cash. Pham and his partners conspired to use a number of bank accounts and businesses to conduct financial transactions designed to conceal the nature, location, source, ownership and control of the proceeds of the illegal gambling operation and to engage in financial transactions that involved the proceeds of the illegal gambling business. These accounts included their personal bank accounts and their business accounts.

In a separate civil proceeding, Pham has forfeited to the government $56,437, which represents the proceeds of his illegal conduct and was seized by law enforcement officers during the execution of a search warrant.

Under federal statutes, Pham is subject to a sentence of up to 25 years in federal prison without parole, plus a fine up to $750,000. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of a presentence investigation by the United States Probation Office.

(Missourinet) – The Missouri Supreme Court has lifted is execution order for Kimber Edwards, who was sentenced to die by lethal injection in May.

Edwards, 50, is a former St. Louis City jailer who in 2000 hired one or two people to kill his ex-wife to whom he owed a year’s worth of child support. The court two weeks ago set his execution to happen between 6 p.m. May 12 and 5:59 May 13 at the prison in Bonne Terre, but on Wednesday issued an order lifting that execution warrant.

The Court does not offer an explanation for its action, however Edwards’ attorneys responded on the day his execution was scheduled asking for a stay on the grounds that both have other clients with pending court proceedings that would conflict with their being able to work on his case leading up to May 12.

Missouri is scheduled to next week carry out the execution of 52-year-old Andre Cole for the murder of a friend of his ex-wife in a dispute over child support. His execution is scheduled to happen within a 24-hour period beginning at 6 p.m. April 14.

A Kansas City, Mo., man and six Columbia, Mo., residents have been sentenced in federal court for their roles in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine in Boone County, Mo., and elsewhere.

Yun Yi Chang, 37, and Ricardo Lawrence Harrell, 36, both of Columbia, were sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes. Chang was sentenced to 13 years in federal prison without parole. Harrell was sentenced to four years in federal prison without parole.

Samuel Raphael Johnson, 37, of Kansas City, was sentenced on Tuesday, April 7, 2015, to 15 years in federal prison without parole.

Johnson, Chang and Harrell have all pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine in Boone County and elsewhere from July 2008 until 2012. Johnson admitted that he sold multiple kilograms of cocaine to co-defendant Levi McLean Franklin Coolley, 36, of Columbia, for $20,000 per kilogram. Coolley, who has pleaded guilty and awaits sentencing, used other conspirators (including Chang) to pick up the cocaine from Johnson in Kansas City and deliver it to Columbia, where it was distributed.

Chang admitted that he and Coolley were responsible for bringing more than 20 kilograms of cocaine to Columbia. Chang also admitted that, for approximately six months preceding his March 2012 arrest, he purchased an average of two ounces of cocaine every two weeks from Harrell for $1,100 per ounce.

At approximately 2:40 a.m. on Nov. 8, 2011, officers of the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department were dispatched on an alarm call to Johnson’s residence, where they discovered evidence of a break-in. When they searched Johnson’s residence, they found 72.42 grams of cocaine, 75.47 grams of crack cocaine and 18.66 kilograms of marijuana.

During the time of the conspiracy, and due to his direct involvement in the agreement to distribute cocaine and his knowing participation and knowledge of the extent of the distribution network, Johnson acknowledge that he was responsible for the distribution of more than five kilograms of cocaine.

Co-defendants Jessica Lynn Jobe, 32, George Dale Wolchko, 33, and Patrick Jeremy O’Blennis, 35, all of Columbia, were also sentenced yesterday after pleading guilty to their roles in the cocaine-trafficking conspiracy. Jobe was sentenced to three years and three months in federal prison without parole. Wolchko was sentenced to three years in federal prison without parole. O’Blennis was sentenced to 13 months in federal prison. Co-defendant Justin Ashley Blackburn, 33, of Columbia, was also sentenced yesterday to eight months in prison after pleading guilty to his role in a separate conspiracy to distribute marijuana.

Co-defendants Russell Preston Browns, 33, Sara Jean Patrick Browns, 28, Travis Keith Rudloff, 38, Art Waylon Gill, 36, Michael Wayne Crossno, 40, Russell Scott Kuda, 41, Nicholas Robert Berberich, 34, and Lance Michael Walbrecht, 36, all of Columbia, already have been sentenced.

Three co-defendants have pleaded guilty and await sentencing: Coolley, Eric Paxton Pyle, 36, and Jonathan Richard Gray, 36, all of Columbia.

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An endangered silver advisory has been issued in Missouri for 82-year-old Stanley Sipple.

According to the St. Louis County Police Department Sipple was last seen Tuesday at 8:20 p.m. at  Collinsville Rd, St Clair County, IL

Sipple is described as a white male, age 82, hgt 6’1″, 150 lbs, white hair, wearing a blue fleece jacket and gray sweatpants.

He could be driving a light blue 2005 Jaguar 4 door bearing NE, SEV362 last seen at Collinsville Rd, St Clair County, IL

Police said Sipple has no known medical conditions but appeared confused during a phone conversation with family on Tuesday during which he stated he was lost. His credit card may have been used in the St Charles area at approximately 7:00 this morning. Sipple may be attempting to return to Nebraska.

Anyone seeing the missing person, suspect, associate, or vehicle, or anyone having any information related to the endangered missing person should immediately dial 911 to contact the nearest law enforcement agency or call the St Louis County Police Department at 314-615-5360.

(Missourinet) – The proposed budget for the Missouri Department of Social Services was rejected early this morning, before the Senate reversed itself.

Senators who opposed adding some 200,000 Missourians to a managed care system, in which a private company manages health benefits for consumers, held up a vote on the Social Services

Department’s budget for six hours. When a vote finally came the bill failed, but on a second vote it got the 18 needed to pass.

Senator Rob Schaaf (R-St. Joseph) led the effort against the managed care expansion, calling it a significant shift in policy that should not be made in the state’s budget.

“We’re talking about putting 200,000 Missourians on managed care without even so much as a hearing. Not even a hearing, where we could vet this. Where we could talk about it,” said Schaaf. “We’re not even allowed to have the public come and comment.”

Budget Committee Chairman Kurt Schaefer says the idea has had plenty of debate.

“The Senator from St. Francois [County] chaired a committee that met over the summer. They had multiple hearings all over the state. They heard from a lot of witnesses. It was their number one recommendation. The House has had hearings on this,” said Schaefer. “To say that there’s been no hearings on this is ridiculous.”

The two sides disagree on whether managed care is cost-effective and better for patients.

That bill and the other 12 bills that make up the proposed state budget now faces another round of debate in a House-Senate conference committee.

Schaefer says he intends to defend the proposal in that conference.

“I’m adamant in the fact that we’re going to rein in welfare growth,” Schaefer said. He said the proposed budget passed by the Senate this morning would provide the Department of Social Services more than it spent last year, “but we’re going to rein in that growth. I’m adamant on that and pushed forward with it and I’m glad that I had the support from the members that I did.”

(Missourinet) – The Missouri Supreme Court will hear a challenge Wednesday to the state law against municipal courts raising too much revenue through traffic tickets, within hours of the legislature considering an update to that law.

The Missouri law that limits how much revenue cities can make from traffic tickets and fines was created in 1991 when the little town of Mack’s Creek was known as a notorious speed trap and existed on the money from ticketed drivers.

The original law said any traffic violation revenue beyond 45-percent of a municipality’s total revenue had to go to the state to be disbursed to schools. That was lowered to 35 percent in 2009, then to 30 percent in 2013 with the added rule that municipal courts exceeding that amount lost the authority to hear traffic cases if revenue beyond the cap wasn’t reported.

The Missouri Municipal League is challenging that last provision, saying it violates the separation of powers between the legislature and the courts.

The state argues cities could still pursue municipal violations in associate courts, and would avoid problems by filing revenue reports with the state on time.

Later in the day tomorrow the state House will hold a hearing on a bill that has passed the Senate that would lower that revenue cap further – the Senate put it at 10 percent – and make other changes such as eliminating failure-to-appear charges for minor traffic offenses and holding municipal judges to the same standards as state judges.

The Supreme Court, meanwhile, could rule on the League’s challenge at any time.

(Missourinet) – A U.S. Appeals Court has ruled that publisher Larry Flynt can intervene in a case regarding Missouri’s execution protocol. Flynt wants court records regarding executions unsealed.

Flynt was shot and paralyzed in 1978 by Joseph Franklin, who was executed by Missouri in November, 2013. Flynt sought to stop that execution because he wanted Franklin to spend the rest of his life in prison.

That same month the ACLU filed a motion on Flynt’s behalf seeking information about the state’s execution protocol. A district court blocked the motion saying Flynt did not have standing to intervene. The federal court ruling today finds that he does and sends the case back to the lower court.