Ex-Oakland exorcist convicted in tax dodge
OAKLAND ? A self-described "voodoo chief" and "shaman psychologist" who used to perform exorcisms in the Oakland hills was sentenced Wednesday to 21/2 years in federal prison for dodging taxes and hiding assets during her bankruptcy case.
Sharon Lee Caulder, 62, who had moved from Oakland to New Orleans but lost most of her belongings in Hurricane Katrina, was convicted in November of two counts of bankruptcy fraud and five counts of failing to file tax returns following a one-week trial and less than four hours of jury deliberations.
U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of Oakland on Wednesday ordered that $56,173 Caulder owes her creditors be paid out of $185,830 the government had seized for forfeiture, and that the rest of the money targeted for forfeiture be used to start paying down her tax debt. Her total tax debt won't be known until she files her 1998 through 2002 tax returns, but it could be between $300,000 and $400,000.
"I feel really terrible to be in the center and the cause of so much hurt and so much controversy," Caulder told Wilken. She remains free on bail pending appeal.
The jury found Caulder intentionally concealed two bank accounts containing more than $68,000 on her bankruptcy petition filed in California in 1998, and that she had willfully failed to file income tax returns from 1998 through 2002, a period in which she had more than $1.7million in gross income.
Prosecutors at trial had said Caulder's income came from providing alternative healing services, and in royalties from her 2002 book "Mark of Voodoo: Awakening to My African Spiritual Heritage."
Caulder's Web site touts services such as exorcism ? "removal of an alien, unwanted energy or spirit from a person's body" ? and "soul retrieval ... performed to bring the person's soul safely back to a clean body temple."
The site says Caulder, a former physical therapist, now performs "psychotronic healing," which is "use of one's mind to effect healing ... through healer/subject resonance and the application of heightened conscious intention."
Source: http://www.orovillemr.com/news/bayarea/ci_3887193
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