Lauryn Hill Sentenced to Three Months in Prison - East Idaho News
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Lauryn Hill Sentenced to Three Months in Prison

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168187618?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1367894341330Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images(NEW YORK) — Lauryn Hill has been sentenced to three months of prison and three months of home confinement with electronic monitoring, as part of one year of probation, for tax evasion.  She must surrender by July 8.

Her attorney Nathan Hochman tells ABC News Radio, “Basically, the court at the end of the day, rejected the government’s request for 36 months of prison, and sentenced Ms. Hill to three months in prison.  And then sentenced her to one year of probation, three months of which would be served in house arrest.”

The sentencing Monday comes just after Hill paid her overdue taxes.  Hochman tells ABC News Radio that the Grammy winner has paid more than $970,000 in total to cover not just her criminal restitution, but enough to take care of her “federal and state personal taxes for the entire period under examination through 2009.”

Hochman says that in deciding Lauryn’s case, the court considered her voluntary payment, along with her “incredible accomplishments during her career, her charitable works, her responsibility to her six children, [and] her full acceptance of responsibility for her actions…”  Still, he says, “the court felt that it needed to impose a small amount of imprisonment in order to send a deterrent message.”

Asked whether she thought the sentencing was fair, Hochman says, “Ms. Hill looks forward to putting this matter behind her.”  He had no comment on what will happen with Lauryn’s children.  As for her music, Hochman says that she will continue to work on putting out new material.

Along with paying the cash, Lauryn has issued a new song called “Neurotic Society (Compulsory Mix),” which she says via Tumblr, “I was ‘required’ to release immediately, by virtue of the impending legal deadline.”

Lauryn pleaded guilty to not paying three years’ worth of federal taxes on $1.8 million earned from 2005 to 2007.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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