Federal indictment charges tax fraud

By PATRICIA MEADE

VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — A Boardman man whose rape trial has been pending three years is now under federal indictment, charged with filing false tax returns for clients.

The indictment handed up Wednesday in Cleveland federal court against Darryl L. Adams, 44, alleges that he claimed inflated tax refunds between 2002 and 2004 for at least 29 clients.

He reported fake deductions for medical expenses, charitable contributions and tuition; claimed fictitious dependents and false filing status; and fabricated educational, child care and earned income credits, the government said.

The indictment lists 10 clients by their initials. The false refunds claimed range from $2,060 to $8,904.

Adams, in some cases, arranged for the IRS to direct-deposit the refunds into accounts he controlled and then either kept the entire refund or a portion of it for himself, the government said.

Also, to conceal what he’d done, he allegedly gave clients a copy of a tax return that was not the return he submitted to the IRS on their behalf, the government said.

Adams is scheduled to be arraigned by Magistrate Judge George J. Limbert in Youngstown federal court Feb. 29. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. in Cleveland and is being prosecuted by Justin J. Roberts, an assistant U.S. attorney.

In April 2005, a Mahoning County grand jury indicted Adams, charging him with three counts of rape. If convicted, he faces three to 10 years in prison on each count.

The indictment alleges Adams threatened a young boy to submit three times between June 1, 2002, and June 30, 2004. The first sexual assault took place when the boy was 14, according to the indictment.

Adams used his status as a youth pastor in the boy’s church to molest the teenager, according to Vindicator files.

Adams has been free on $50,000 bond since April 2005. The case, assigned to Judge James C. Evans, has been continued over the years in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for a variety of reasons and is now set for trial April 21.

Judge Evans said Thursday that the prosecutor will file a motion to revoke Adams’ bond in the rape case, based on the federal charges.

In May 2007, Adams, his attorney and the assistant prosecutor assigned to the case reached an agreement in which charges would be dropped if he passed a polygraph test, according to Vindicator files. If Adams failed the test, the agreement called for him to plead guilty to a single rape count and the prosecution would recommend a four-year prison term.

Adams, though, didn’t take the test as had been arranged.