A reader’s comment alerts me to another legal headache for former Republican Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson, who is awaiting sentencing on federal cases of public servant bribery and tax fraud.

Dec. 17, the state Department of Finance and Administration sued Hutchinson saying he owed $9,818 in state income tax for the period ending Dec. 31, 2019. He has not responded to the filing. His court record reflects nultiple state tax claims over the years. He resigned from office in 2018 and surrendered his law license in July 2019.

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Among his cases awaiting sentencing is one for overspending campaign money on himself and filing false federal income tax returns from 2011 to 2014 to conceal his misconduct. He also took bribes from an orthodontist sentenced yesterday in Fayetteville and has pleaded guilty in a sprawling federal grand jury indictment in the Western District of Missouri for his role in a multi-million-dollar public corruption scheme that involved embezzlement, bribes and illegal campaign contributions for elected public officials.

The governor’s nephew has been out of the public eye since his various guilty pleas, resignation from office and loss of his law license. He remarried in 2017. Some of his work — or lack of required work — remains the subject of civil litigation.

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