by Peter Cassels

EDGE National News Editor - 11.15.06

Richard Hatch, the openly gay winner of the first "Survivor" TV show, is speaking out in detail for the first time about his conviction on income tax charges and confinement in federal prison. Maintaining his innocence, Hatch also says he hopes his appeal will be heard soon and that he’s optimistic his conviction will be overturned . In an exclusive, EDGE interviewed the world-famous reality TV celebrity in an exchange of letters.

A jury found Hatch guilty on two counts of tax evasion and one count of filing an incorrect tax return following a trial in U.S. District Court in Rhode Island last January. The jurors acquitted him on seven counts of fraud, finding the prosecution had not established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. In May, the Middletown, R.I., resident was sentenced to four years and three months in prison.

His fate now is in the hands of the 1st Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, based in Boston. The court is expected to decide in 2007 whether it will hear the case. Michael Minns, a nationally known tax attorney who represented Hatch at trial and has a good record in appellate cases, is handling the appeal.

Minns told EDGE in an e-mail message Nov. 14 he’ll file a brief with the court Dec. 7 after a three-month delay. The government will respond with its brief on or about Jan. 6 and Minns’ reply brief will be due around Jan 21. "After that, one or two months later the oral argument, if granted, should take place," Minns said. Then there will be a wait of several months until the court hands down its decision, he added.

Arguably the world’s first reality TV celebrity for his million-dollar "Survivor" win in 2000 is serving his sentence in a minimum-security federal prison camp in Morgantown, W.Va.

In snail-mail correspondence with EDGE, Hatch wrote that he has decided to speak out about his prison ordeal and the circumstances that led up to it. The exchange of letters with this reporter resulted in only his second published interview since before the trial. He spoke on the phone with the Morgantown Dominion Post Aug. 9. Hatch explained to EDGE that he’s limited to 300 minutes of phone time each month and has to reserve most of that for conversations with his attorney and others about the appeal. Under prison rules, he is not permitted computer access, so cannot exchange e-mail.

"I have always been determined to expose the truth of how badly my family and I have been abused in this horrible debacle," he wrote. "For three years prior to my trial, I have heeded advisors’ recommendations and not spoken out. Doing so may have been a costly mistake. Given the price I am already paying as an innocent man, I am no longer able to remain quiet about what had led to my unlawful conviction and incarceration."

Hatch described the Morgantown Federal Correctional Institution as being "in beautiful surroundings." He wrote that the compound is in wooded mountains and protected wildlife, such as Canada geese, ducks, groundhogs, squirrels, deer and wild turkey, roam freely.

"I wouldn’t care if this were the Taj Mahal," he emphasized. "I am devastated to be so wrongfully separated from Emi," Hatch added, referring to his spouse, Emiliano Cabral. They were married in Canada long before the trial.

"For three years prior to my trial, I have heeded advisors’ recommendations and not spoken out. Doing so may have been a costly mistake."After the jury found Hatch guilty of the tax charges Jan. 25, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Ernest Torres revoked his bail. He immediately incarcerated Hatch, whom correction officials sent to a state lockup in Massachusetts that accepts federal prisoners until sentencing in May. Hatch wound up staying there until he was sent to the West Virginia prison July 25 after spending a few days at a federal transfer facility in Oklahoma City.

"Being innocent and imprisoned has been horrific," Hatch told EDGE in the first of two letters. "The six months I spent in the Plymouth County Correctional Facility was torture. I was confined to one room the entire time with 51 other inmates who were being ’protected’ from the general population. They were child molesters, rapists and murderers who, according to prison ’code,’ would be beaten to a pulp if they were not segregated."

The first "Survivor" millionaire alleged in the second letter that U.S. attorneys were not truthful during the hearing immediately following the jury verdict to determine whether he should remain free on bond or be confined until sentencing.

"In efforts to have me retained as a ’flight risk,’ prosecutors lied to the court," Hatch wrote. "Specifically, prosecutors told Judge Torres my spouse, who was sitting in the courtroom, owns a hotel outside the U.S. He does not and never has owned anything of substantive value in or outside the U.S."

Prosecutors also told Torres that Hatch did not disclose ownership of more than 30 residential properties in Canada. "I do not now nor have I ever owned residential property in Canada," Hatch wrote EDGE in his second letter. He reported that two or three years earlier he paid $10,000 for about 20 pieces of vacant land he bought at a Canadian tax sale and made similar purchases at one in Michigan.

"Prosecutors claimed these properties were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars," Hatch continued, adding that he "was always absolutely honest and fully forthcoming" in pre-sentencing interviews with probation officer Charleen Tryhubczak. "I told her about these tax sale properties (which I’d had for sale for less than $1,000 each since I’d bought them) and that I was uncertain which ones still belonged to me. I’d offered them back to the townships because they were worth less than what I’d already paid or owed in taxes. Ms. Tryhubczak said, ’Well, do you own them or not?’ ’I’m not sure,’ I said, ’either way, they are not assets but liabilities.’ Ms. Tryhubczak moved on to the next question."

At the sentencing hearing , U.S. attorneys argued that Hatch lied to hide assets. That was a reason Torres gave him 51 months to serve, well above federal sentencing guidelines.

Federal prison officials are making good use of Hatch’s college background and experience as a management consultant. As his work assignment, he tutors other inmates to help them obtain their GEDs and teaches a job-search class to prepare inmates for release from prison. "We produce a resume and practice interviewing skills," he told EDGE.

Hatch spends much of his free time corresponding with his spouse, who returned to his native Argentina after the trial and now has an apartment in Buenos Aires. Cabral has a valid, 10-year visa, but that allows only for stays in the U.S. of up to six months at a time, Hatch reported. "We do the best we can and write each other several times weekly," he explained. "I write daily (like a journal), but mail it out to him every 2-3 days." He said life is difficult for Cabral because the couple is physically separated by such distance. "We are as close as any two humans I have ever met and it feels wasteful and wrong for us to be apart," Hatch told EDGE.