RETIRED CAPT. AZCONA IS ACCUSED OF EVASION Submitted by Julie Campbell Hernandez Source: Times-Picayune, New Orleans, LA ************************************************* Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ************************************************ Retired police Capt. Mateo Azcona was indicted Thursday by the federal grand jury for attempted evasion of $6781.90 in income taxes and two patrolmen were indicted for making false statements to a federal agent. The patrolmen are Hugh Hearty and John Bernius, who allegedly lied when they were questioned by Naurbon L. Perry, special agent of the internal revenue service's intelligence division, about receiving money from operators of illegal businesses. Police Supt. Provosty A. Dayries ordered Ptn. Hearty assigned to the record room at headquarters, and Ptn. Bernius assigned to the Second District, suspended effective immediately Thursday afternoon. BONDS SET AT $1000 The indictments are the latest in the federal jury's current probe of the income tax affairs of many top-ranking police officers. Azcona is already under state charges of public bribery. Azcona is accused of filing false and fraudulent income tax returns for himself and his wife for the years 1951 through 1954. Each of the four counts in the indictment covers a joint return filed by Azcona for each of the four years. The indictments were returned to Judge J. Skelly Wright who ordered summons issued for each of the defendants and at the request of United States attorney M. Hepburn Many he set their bonds at $1000 each. EVASION CLAIMED In the first count of the Azcona indictment he is charged with filing a return for 1951 stating his income at $3562.70 and paying a tax of $280 when his actual income is alleged to have been $9119.56 and the tax owed, $1355.30, an alleged evasion of $1066.30. The second count, covering 1952, charges that he filed a return on an income of $3911.16 and paid tax of $518, when he actually had an income of $11775.60 and the tax owed was $2328.92, an evasion of $1810.92. For 1953 he allegedly filed a return stating his income at $4396.08 and paid a tax of $606, whereas his actual income was $15514.28 and the tax owed was $3478.86, an evasion of $2879.96, the indictment alleges. The last count, covering 1954, claims that he paid a tax of $780.82 on an income of $5678.71 when his actual income was $10,410.19 and he owed tax of $1734.64, an evasion of $953.82. FALSE STATEMENTS CHARGED Ptn. Hearty is charged with stating to Perry that he had never received any money from any operators of illegal businesses, such as lotteries or handbooks, and that he knew this statement to be false and that he had received money from operators of illegal businesses. The charge against Ptn. Bernius is that when he was questioned by Perry, he stated he had never collected any graft money from any operator of an illegal business, that he had never colleced any money from an operator of a card game and had never collected any money from an operator of a handbook, knowing this to be false in that he had made such collections. Ptn. Hearty is assigned to the police record room at headquarters and Bernius to the Second District. Both joined the department in 1947. Additional Comments: This article is complete with pictures of all three men - Mateo J. Azcona, Hugh Hearty and John Bernius.