OWINGS MILLS TAX PROTESTER CHARGED WITH FORGERY
60-year-old Woman Contends Slave Descendants Not Subject to Taxation

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. and Comptroller William Donald Schaefer jointly announced today the filing of felony forgery charges in Baltimore County Circuit Court against Dolores E. Scott, 60, an Owings Mills nurse who owes over $20,000 in back taxes.

Scott, of Rebecca Court in Owings Mills, was charged with forging court and agency documents in an effort to lift garnishment orders that had been assessed against her wages in order to pay the back taxes she owed. Scott, who has litigated and lost her claims of immunity from taxes, is accused of creating two different forged documents, which she served on her employer to get them to stop garnishing her wages. The Comptroller’s Office found out about the alleged forgeries, re-instituted the garnishments, and referred the matter to the Attorney General for prosecution.

Underlying her dispute with the Comptroller’s Office is Scott’s belief that as an African American descendant of slaves brought to America against their will, she was not a citizen subject to income taxation. She has lost that argument in every court that has heard it, the most recent being the Maryland Court of Special Appeals in a reported opinion, Scott v. Comptroller of the Treasury, 105 Md. App. 215 (1995).

The maximum sentence for forgery is 10 years incarceration and a $1,000 fine. The charge is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

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