BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore’s mayor has announced the city’s police commissioner has resigned after being charged with failing to pay his taxes.
Mayor Catherine Pugh said Tuesday she’s accepted the resignation of Darryl De Sousa.
The U.S. attorney’s office has alleged that De Sousa “willfully failed to file a federal return for tax years 2013, 2014 and 2015.” He was a salaried employee of the Baltimore Police Department in each of those years.
He faces up to one year in prison and a $25,000 fine for each of the three misdemeanor counts.
De Sousa’s attorney, Steven Silverman, has said federal prosecutors didn’t give his client a chance to offer an explanation or to file late tax returns before they brought criminal charges against him.
Oh, those IRS meanies.
In Baltimore, Brazen Officers Took Every Chance to Rob and Cheat
The police are the victims here - right?
“De Sousa’s attorney, Steven Silverman, has said federal prosecutors didn’t give his client a chance to offer an explanation or to file late tax returns before they brought criminal charges against him.”
Irony is not dead in Baltimore.
This is just bizarre. He’s a salaried employee, so he’s getting tax withheld already (unless he also pulled an exemption scam, which would explain a less-than-charitable attitude). And even if it was entirely innocent and just a pathological aversion to paperwork, that would also disqualify him from running a police department.
Let’s face it, although different, this is not surprising. Baltimore continues to elect third rate politicians as mayor, and each promises improved law and order by replacing the Police Commissioner.
Between the Mayor’s Office, the Police Department, and the Board of Education, Baltimore seems to pride itself on a trifecta of incompetence.
Vary sad.
He’s a liar! De Sousa has had three years to offer an explanation or file late tax returns. He chose not to. What did he expect the federal prosecutors to do, waterboard him into complying?