Reality-TV star Richard Hatch emerged from an interview on NBC’s Today Show with Matt Lauer only to find himself locked-up yet again just hours later.
Hatch, who won “Survivor” in 2000, was taken to the Barnstable County Sheriff’s Office in Bourne, Mass., where the Federal Bureau of Prisons holds federal inmates.
Hatch was nabbed at his sister’s home in Newport, R.I., where he has been living under house arrest after serving nearly four years in prison for tax evasion, msnbc.com reports.
During his appearance on the “Today” show, Hatch, who is homosexual, insisted he is innocent of the tax-evasion charges and asserted anti-gay bias drove his prosecution.
“I know without question that there are personal issues involved for the prosecutor. I don’t know why. The prosecutorial misconduct has been egregious,” Hatch told Lauer.
He told the court I didn’t pay my taxes in 2000, and he told the court I haven’t been cooperative. The IRS specifically contradicts that. I don’t have a bill for 2000. I haven’t even been assessed for 2000. And I’ve been fully cooperative.”
Hatch contends CBS, which produced the first “Survivor” series in 2000, promised to pay taxes on the $1 million prize.
Former U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente, whose office oversaw Hatch’s tax-evasion case, told WPRO-AM that Hatch is “delusional.”
Authorities were vague about the reason for Hatch’s new detainment.
“We just don’t have the same kind of details on the federal inmates we book as we do with the regular city and county inmates,” Sheriff’s Office spokesman Roy Lyons told msnbc.com. “It’s got to be that he violated some kind of condition. There’s no other reason this would have happened.”
Traci Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, said her agency was unable to provide details about Hatch. She added that there are numerous reasons why an inmate might be transferred from house arrest to jail.
Hatch had been scheduled to be released from house arrest on Oct. 7. He told Lauer that being imprisoned and paying his lawyers has left him “financially devestated.”
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