'Dr. Dino' facing new legal woes

Pensacola News-Journal/November 8, 2014

By Kevin Robinson

A Pensacola evangelist known as Doctor Dino has long maintained that all of his ministry's finances and property belong not to him, but to God, and that the Almighty's belongings are not subject to humanity's tax laws.

Naturally, the federal government disagrees with the good doctor, and in 2006 Kent Hovind was sentenced to a decade in prison for failing to report some $430,000 in taxable income and employee wages.

Hovind, 61, is approaching the end of that sentence, but he is now facing a new suite of charges on allegations that he tried to stymie the government's efforts to collect on his outstanding debt.

According to an Oct. 21 federal indictment filed against Hovind and Paul John Hansen — a Nebraska man known for his vigorous opposition of government tax and property laws — the duo has been charged with mail fraud and criminal contempt for interfering with the sale of Pensacola properties Hovind was forced to forfeit as a result of the 2006 case.

The indictment says that in 2011, Hansen filed liens on nine of Hovind's forfeited properties on North Palafox Street, Cummings Road and Oleander Drive.

In 2012 the government was granted an injunction ordering that neither Hovind nor any agent acting on his behalf file or attempt to file any "liens, notices, financing titles and claims of whatever nature ... to cloud the title of the properties."

The following year, both Hovind and Hansen reportedly mailed additional documents disputing the ownership of the property.

Both men were charged with mail fraud, attempt and conspiracy to commit mail fraud and criminal contempt. Mail fraud can be punishable by up to 20 years in prison and as much as $500,000 in fines when involving an organization.

Hovind is scheduled to stand trial in Pensacola on Dec. 1, according to court records. He is currently being held in Santa Rosa County Jail.

Hovind has gained a degree of national notoriety for his views on creation. His ministry, Creation Science Evangelism Enterprises, supports a literal interpretation of the Bible and espouses that God created the Earth about 6,000 years ago in six 24-hour days.

One of the ministry's contentions is that humans and dinosaurs existed at the same time. Prior to his arrest, Hovind operated a Pensacola theme park and museum called Dinosaur Adventure Land, billed as "the place where dinosaurs and the Bible meet."

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