I’m no defense attorney but even I know that making threats to the prosecutor is never a good idea.
Jack Chang, a tax preparer and president of Unitax Planners in New York, is facing charges of stealing tax payments from his clients for personal use. He has pleaded not guilty.
But that seems to be the least of his worries. He’s now been arrested on new charges of threatening to kill the prosecutor on his case. The charges include coercion, placing a false bomb or hazardous substance, stalking, and aggravated harassment.
Chang is accused of sending at least two threatening letters to Gilda Mariani, a prosecutor in the tax crimes unit. Chang and Mariani had met before in 1995, when Mariani prosecuted Chang on a grand larceny indictment. In that case, also tax-related, Chang pleaded guilty to stealing nearly a million dollars from 30 of his tax clients. Chang was sentenced to jail time as a result of those charges but served less than half of his sentence and was released in 1996.
According to prosecutors, Chang continued to steal from his tax clients. Following the new charges, Chang sent Mariani two letters which contained foul language and referred to her as “evil.” Chang also specifically threatened Mariani, saying in one letter:
I finally got my 9 mil gun and I am insane, you are responsible for my insanity and I will make sure that you get at least one for each and every year I spent incarcerated. I could hire someone to do the job for me or have someone from the cartel come in from the outside to do the job and leave, but I want to have the pleasure of doing it myself and if I am caught to make headlines.
The letter also contained white powder, which was later determined to be corn starch.
Another threat warned that Mariani’s body would be dissolved in hydrochloric acid and a video of the event sent to her loved ones, according to prosecutors.
The fact that he’s clearly crazy aside, it boggles the mind that people would continue to use a tax preparer who had been jailed for stealing from his clients. He plead guilty to that offense – it wasn’t even a question. Kind of screams out in favor of regulating tax preparers, does it not?
Who writes a threat down! This guy needs to check out GoodFellas or Godfather…never talk on the phone and never write things down.
“Leave the gun, take the cannolis”