2 ex-Richland deputies plead guilty to state income tax-dodging scheme

Two former Richland County sheriff’s deputies pleaded guilty on Thursday to willfully filing false state income tax returns that gave them inflated tax refunds.

The two ex-deputies, Valarie Gibson and Cedric Jacobs, were part of an illegal tax operation orchestrated by Maribel Crespo that involved five former deputies in all.

State Judge Markley Dennis Jr. gave Gibson and Jacobs the same sentence: a suspended three-year prison sentence and 18 months of probation.

Additionally, Gibson, who worked 17 years with the sheriff’s department, will have to pay the S.C. Department of Revenue some $3,200 that she falsely claimed. Jacobs, an eight-year deputy and former school resource officer, will have to pay back $1,010.

According to evidence and statements, Crespo and the ex-deputies cheated the government by claiming that the former deputies had children they really didn’t have, then getting refunds for the phony child deductions.

Crespo pleaded guilty earlier this month to one count of preparing false income tax returns. She originally was charged with 11 counts of preparing a false tax return and faced a maximum of 55 years in prison.

In return for a future light sentence and the dropping of most charges against her, Crespo had agreed to testify against Jacobs and Gibson as well as three other ex-deputies who have been charged. Those three are Vivian Belton, Bobby Cohens and Eddie Lee West.

After legal proceedings against Belton, Cohens and West wrap up, Crespo will be sentenced for one count of preparing a false tax return. For that, she faces a maximum sentence of five years.

In Gibson’s hearing Wednesday, she apologized to the judge. “I do take responsibility for my actions,” she said, her lawyer Chuck Brooks at her side.

Justin Kata, Jacobs’ attorney, said after his client’s hearing that he is remorseful and made a terrible mistake. “This situation is not an example of his true character. He has done a lot of good things in his life and will do in the future.”

At a hearing earlier this month, special assistant attorney general Allen Myrick, who is prosecuting the case, told Judge Clifton Newman that the deputies intend to fight the charges and claim that Crespo inserted the false deductions without their knowledge.

Myrick added that prosecutors have additional evidence, and it won’t just be Crespo’s word against that of the deputies.

This story was originally published February 25, 2016 at 5:45 PM.