DISBARRED ATTORNEY SENTENCED TO FOUR MONTHS OF HOUSE ARREST

Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. announces today that Joe Carl Ashworth, a disbarred attorney from St. Mary’s County, was sentenced to two years to the Department of Corrections, with all but four months suspended, to be served on house arrest. The 54 year old Ashworth was sentenced by judge Joseph P. Manck in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court after pleading guilty last month to three counts of Failure to File Income Tax Returns. In a statement of facts read into the record at the time of the guilty plea, Judge Manck learned that Ashworth had a solo legal practice in St. Mary’s County from 1996 to 2004. Based on generating gross income from his legal practice of between $50,000 and $168,000 for each of the tax years of 2001, 2002, and 2003, Ashworth was required to file state income tax returns. In court, Ashworth admitted that he willfully failed to file state income tax returns each of the past three years.

Prior to handing out the sentence, Judge Manck remarked that a “message has to go out” to others who would consider not filing income tax returns. After he is released from house arrest, Ashworth will be on 18 months of supervised probation. As a condition of his probation, Ashworth was also ordered to comply with the Office of the Comptroller in paying all past due taxes.

The case was investigated and prosecuted by the Criminal Investigations Division of the Office of the Attorney General.

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