The State - News from May 24, 1988

A former Michigan judge who used an alias while he was a radio talk-show host in California has been sentenced to six months in federal prison on tax charges. Leon E. Kowalski, 47, formerly of Baldwin, Mich., pleaded guilty to filing a fraudulent 1982 federal income tax return, Assistant U.S. Atty. John Lyons said in San Francisco. U.S. District Judge Charles Legge also ordered Kowalski to serve five years’ probation after his release and to perform 2,000 hours of community service. Kowalski is to report to prison June 20. Kowalski, who was a Michigan probate judge and lawyer, was indicted in December, 1986, on charges of not paying nearly $75,000 in taxes. He had fled in October, 1984, and settled into a radio job in Mendocino County, where Internal Revenue Service agents traced him.