Former City Council Member Pleads Guilty to Tax Charges, No Jail Time

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — Former Columbia City Council member Brian DeQuincey Newman plead guilty on tax charges when he appeared in court Tuesday afternoon. Authorities say that Newman was arrested and charged with failing to report over $200,000 worth of income. He was also charged with two counts of willful failure to file a tax return for the 2012 and 2013 tax years. “Brian admitted that he made a mistake, we all do that,” said Attorney Bakari Sellers. “Now you might say we all pay our taxes, but we all make mistakes.”

Newman told the judge he thought he filed. The charges emerged during a separate investigation by the Department of Revenue into the county’s Penny Tax Program and it was then discovered Newman never filed his tax returns.   “They were looking into the political arena around the Penny Sales Tax, he was on city council, they did a search of his name and it popped up that he hadn’t filed for 2 years,” explained Attorney Pete Strom.   Strom said although the charges arose from the investigation into the Penny Tax Program, they are completely unrelated.   “I think the bottom line is he is not involved in the Penny Sales Tax investigation,” said Strom. “He plead straight up to failure to file taxes and what is telling is there is no plea agreement. If he was involved in some conspiracy that they were still investigating there would’ve been a plea agreement provided for him to cooperate.”   Newman was sentenced to 2 years probation and if he pays his taxes the probation can possibly be terminated after 6 months. — Jennifer Ready (@JenniferWOLOTV) January 5, 2016

Richland County Council member Kelvin Washington was also arrested Tuesday on tax charges. Both men turned themselves in to investigators Tuesday morning at the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.

Attorney Pete Strom tells judge this is not a political thing, this is a personal thing — Jennifer Ready (@JenniferWOLOTV) January 5, 2016

Here is the full statement from Richland County Council Chairman Torrey Rush released on Tuesday afternoon:

“Richland County Council will not uphold or perpetuate any serious violation of the law or betrayal of the public trust. We are determined and will work to remove any instances of wrongdoing. Richland County will continue to cooperate fully with South Carolina Department of Revenue (DOR) and law enforcement with their investigations and provide any assistance they may need. It is in the best interest of the public that all parties involved act expeditiously to get to the bottom of this, so again, as we have asked before, we reiterate our call for DOR and law enforcement to provide us with any information needed to protect the taxpayers of Richland County. As to Mr. Washington, that matter is being dealt with by the proper authorities; state law provides a road map for the governor to act in circumstances like this. If there is any required action by Richland County Council, we are prepared to call a meeting and act accordingly.”