Stephen Baldwin Avoids Prison Time, Agrees to Pay Back Taxes - East Idaho News
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Stephen Baldwin Avoids Prison Time, Agrees to Pay Back Taxes

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GETTY E 122310 StephenBaldwin?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1363079248767Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic(NEW YORK) — Actor Stephen Baldwin has agreed to plead guilty to a felony tax charge and pay New York state approximately $350,000 in unpaid taxes, his lawyer tells the New York Daily News.

Attorney Russell Yankwit says Baldwin is “happy that he’s not going to jail,” and has five years to pay back the money.  Yankwit says if Baldwin pays back the debt within one year, the case will be discharged.

Yankwit says Baldwin hopes to pay back the money as quickly as possible, but sought a five-year payback plan because his religious beliefs as an evangelical Christian prohibit him from taking certain acting roles.

The attorney tells the News, “Steve is a faith-based actor.  It’s harder to get jobs these days.  He can’t do his movies anymore.  They have too much violence and drugs in them.”

Baldwin is best known for his role in the 1995 film The Usual Suspects.

Stephen, the youngest of the four acting Baldwin brothers, had faced up to four years in prison.  Baldwin is scheduled to formally plead guilty in the case on March 29.

Baldwin can currently be seen on NBC’s All-Star Celebrity Apprentice.

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