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| Mwanahip-hop, Lauryn Hill |
By David Jones
NEWARK, New Jersey
(Reuters) - A U.S. magistrate judge sentenced Grammy-winning hip hop
artist Lauryn Hill to three months in prison, three months in home
confinement and a $60,000 fine on Monday for federal tax evasion.
Hill pleaded guilty
last year to three counts of failing to file tax returns on more than
$1.8 million of income between 2005 and 2007 and faced up to three years
in prison.
Hill has attributed
her failure to pay taxes to years of pressure she experienced as a
recording star while raising six children, forcing her to go underground
and stay out of the public eye.
On the eve of her
scheduled sentencing, Hill paid $504,000 in back taxes to the Internal
Revenue Service and another $420,000 to the state of New Jersey, her
attorney told the court. She still owes another $285,000 in interest and
penalties.
"When the government
is asking for 36 months and the judge gives three months, I think the
judge gave a fair and reasonable sentence," Hill's attorney Nathan
Hochman told reporters.
Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 30 months to the maximum of 36 months.
U.S. Magistrate
Judge Madeline Cox Arleo cited Hill's lack of a criminal record, her six
children and her repayment of the back taxes as mitigating factors in
the sentence.
Hill must report on
or before July 8. Her attorney asked the court to assign the native of
South Orange, New Jersey, to a facility close to home. The three months
of home confinement following the prison stay is part of one year of
supervised probation.
Hill told the court
she pulled away from society because her life was in crisis, received
veiled threats and was blacklisted because she did not conform to the
norms of the music industry.
"I was being perceived as a cash cow, not a person," Hill said.A new single by Hill, her first in several years, called "Neurotic Society," was posted on iTunes on Friday.
"Here is a link to a piece that I was 'required' to release immediately, by virtue of the impending legal deadline," her Tumblr social media page said on Saturday.
Her lawyers confirmed that she signed a new contract with Sony Worldwide Entertainment and was working on her first album of new material in more than a decade.
Hill's seminal 1998 solo album "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" won the singer, a former member of the Fugees rap trio, five Grammy awards.
Source:Reuters
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