Survivor Fever - News Article - Survivor Borneo (Palau Tiga)

'Survivor' Con Hatches a Bizarre Tax Appeal

By Laurel J. Sweet

As fallen "Survivor" Richard Hatch languishes in prison earning pennies a day teaching inmates how to write resumes, his lawyers are fighting feverishly in Boston for the convicted tax cheat’s freedom.

The wily gay gamesman "wants out" of his West Virginia cell, Michael Minns, Hatch's attorney, said yesterday after pleading his bizarre case before the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

Hatch, 45, a Newport, R.I., native, is claiming he tried to blow the whistle at his trial last year on Mark Burnett, saying the "Survivor" producer - fearful Hatch would quit the show in 2000 over alleged behind-the-scenes shenanigans - bribed him to stay by offering to pay the taxes on his $1 million grand prize. Rhode Island federal Judge Ernest C. Torres wouldn't allow the testimony, Hatch argues.

Rhode Island Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Lockhart told reporters it's "too late" for the celebrity train wreck to rewrite history.

    Lockhart insisted it was Minns who failed to set off Hatch’s supposed powerkeg by not questioning him or Burnett on the stand about Hatch’s assertion that some contestants on the Malaysian island of Pulau Tiga were being smuggled food to manipulate the “reality” show’s outcome.

    "Our position is, ‘Well, doesn’t that look a little bit suspicious,’ " Lockhart said. "The court never, ever prevented Richard Hatch from discussing any alleged deal with Mark Burnett."

    CBS has denied Hatch’s accusations.

    Minns also tried to paint Hatch as the victim of a "completely incompetent" accountant. But with only an alleged gentlemen’s agreement between Hatch and Burnett to base a case on - and with no other witnesses to proffer - Minns said he was wary of turning jurors against his client.

    "You don’t ask a question you don't know what the answer to is going to be or you’re going to get slammed," Minns said. "If that’s an error in judgment, it’s my error."

    Minns alleged when a "disgusted" Hatch was approached by Burnett on Pulau Tiga, "he didn’t have a notebook, he didn’t have a TV camera in his face. But when he left the meeting, he had the understanding (CBS) was going to pay his taxes."

     Hatch, who morphed overnight from overweight corporate trainer to household name, is serving four years in a minimum-security penitentiary. His partner and sister were in court yesterday, but declined to comment.